- 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
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