5
 
 
 
8:58 PM, Saturday, January 20th, 2018:
 
Cue audible gasp.
 
 
What can be said. Only my discipline to "The Journey" has me even typing tonight. That and the fact that it's too dark to actually assess the damage so what else am I gonna do. I've also been through so many stages of grief that I feel like I should try and document what it felt like before this exact moment as well as I can. So here we go...
 
...well shit, it's all connected isn't it. Hmmm. I'm piecing together in my brain what caused this fire and I'm not 100% certain, so I'm not gonna say it right now although that really is the story. Let's just pretend I'm the driver going down the 134 when my gas pedal stops working...
 
So I'm going down the 134 when my gas pedal stops working. Then it stalls. This is every ride with this car so even though I had spent 3 straight 12-hour days thinking I fixed everything, this was the moment I realized I did not. I go to start the car again and look at my side mirror to make sure there's no traffic about to hit me as I'm slowing down when I see brown smoke. Brown smoke is not white smoke. Brown smoke is fire. People immediately honk. Fuck. I start to pull over and I see the flames in my mirror.
 
When I stop I open the trunk and grab the fire extinguisher (which I remembered in the middle of the night I hadn't put back in the car after 3 days of re-organizing everything and then did right before I left - crazy). I lift open the vents which singe my hands as everything is on fire and metal and I hit the extinguisher on every flame I can see. 30 seconds later the extinguisher is out, the fire is not.
 
Uhm. In the movies, these things don't do that. What, the, FUCK. I take off my long sleeve shirt hoping I can just smother it, but I just end up burning my hands on the vents again and it's not big enough to cover and I figure I'm just adding fucking KINDLING to the fire. I drop the hood just to limit the oxygen and I pick up my camera 'cause this is the end. That's the first shot in the video. The fuck am I gonna do? I eventually stop recording as I realize that I can probably at least take out the time circuits and the flux capacitor before it blows up. I throw the hoverboard out and as I'm going back a car pulls up. I tell him to call the fire department when he pulls out a box of two fire extinguishers (that he was fucking returning to Home Depot - I mean, are you kidding me?). I grab one and lift the vents (with my knee this time) and put out the fire. That's the second part of the video. Oh and where did THAT come from? A guy pulls up and just starts shooting what has to be the coolest footage of all time.
 
The reservoir for the fog machine that's in Mr. Fusion is what popped and cause the white smoke you see in the next part of the video. I also pulled off the back piece from the inside of the car and saw the fire had gotten into the car. No idea the damage there, scared to even look. That's where every fuse for everything is... whew.
 
So they leave and police come, the fire department comes, people yelling flux capacitor jokes out the goddamned window (really, people)... it's chaos. Police call AAA for me and are all very nice. Then? The 2nd dude that was filming everything omes back with his REPO TRUCK because he's a REPO guy and asks if I need a tow. Oh man, would I love to save a tow for this car considering I've used 3 of my 4 tows THIS FUCKING YEAR. Meanwhile the gig I'm going to asks (in the gentlest way possible) if I can still get the car to them (smoldering and all). Although I desperately want to roll up in a fetal position and then assess the damage, the truth is I need $500 now more than I've ever needed it so Raphael the Repo Man and I are off to the gig...
 
...where he stays the entire time as we get to know each other and then he tows me back home. Goodness am I not the luckiest unlucky fucker on the planet? Those 2 guardian angels could very well have changed this entire outcome. Presuming the engine itself is OK, a new wiring harness, fuel injectors and maybe some coil packs and we may be good to go. But again that's a total guess. I'm literally waiting for dawn so I can start ripping it apart. No idea how I sleep tonight.
 
So that's where we stand tonight at 9:28 PM. I am to the motherfuckinganger portion of grief, the anxious portion of wanting to know what's damaged and the whiskey portion of self-medication. However, don't worry too much about that, I'm having exactly 1.5 ounces because I cannot have a hangover or be anything but bright and alert as I wade through the biggest hurdle for my business ever.
 
I do believe we have an ending to the documentary now and I do believe it's a "To Be Continued" because the film is pretty much complete and we can't just keep adding on stories. I hate documentaries like that. This is a nice 95 minute FAST story and we have no idea how long this "addendum" could be.
 
For now however, I live the in that addendum. Whew.
 
Adam