Adventures of Big Red: Part 2 - The Case of the Missing Brakes
Adventure 2:
Scenario: Fall 1998, Football Practice at 8:00am. If you are late.. Prepare to run lots of laps!!
Major Problem: Big Red falling a part!
I get into Big Red one cold morning. I mention the weather because it took Big Red several miles or minutes to warm up. So I was always so freezing cold in the mornings during the fall and winter. I backed out of the drive way. No problems. Yeah!!! I am on a roll. No pun intended yet. I put the car in drive and take it three houses down to the first "Stop Sign" and I stop. I turn right and drive down the road about half a mile to the first light. Just then all of the sudden I put my foot on the brake..... and I got no response. Except the rush of fear through my body. You see the scenario was this. My light was red and I was in the right lane. I began to attempt to slow up to stop but "Big Red" had other plans. Just then I looked over to signal to the car that was about to turn right out in front of me that I can't stop. Guess what this car turned out to be, a motorcycle Police Officer. He stops his progression in time for me not to hit him. I coasted through the intersection with all eyes on me. I swear I could here a pen drop if one did. I am thinking the whole time. I almost killed an Officer, I am going to jail for attempted manslaughter!! As luck would have it the car stopped about 50 feet past the intersection. At this point the Officer pulled up and said, "You need to get that car back home before you kill someone." Then he drove off.
Of course, he stated the obvious but I knew something that he didn't. I was gonna be late for football practice if I took the car home and there was no way I was gonna run laps because of "Big Red." Now that I look back, I see that I was childish in that thought process, but who can blame me then. These coaches put so much fear of punishment in you that I thought it would be the end of the world if I was late. So I continued on toward practice with one pit stop on the way. I had to pick up my friend Josh. So not only would I be responsible for being late but I would be responsible for Josh being late. I couldn't do that to my friend. Besides he is an expert mechanic compared to what I know. I just know that I pushed the "left pedal" and no stoppy occurred. He was at that time needing a ride because he was rebuilding a 56 Chevy truck from the ground up so I figured he could help me when I got to his house. I made it to his house with a run of a stop sign and a really slow pull up to an uphill light that was red when I started to brake about a quarter of mile back. By the time I got near any cars the light was green. So I am at Josh's and he comes out of the house. After I tell him my story he says well lets look under the hood to see if you have any brake fluid. I thought.... GENIUS.... I am surrounded by a Genius. Sure enough the brake fluid had a leak and it was extremely low. He said I have some in my garage. We poured quickly... then cruised on to football practice.
Moral of the story folks is..... Don't Be Late To Football Practice!
Big Red Adventure 2: "The Case of the Missing Brakes."
Scenario: Fall 1998, Football Practice at 8:00am. If you are late.. Prepare to run lots of laps!!
Major Problem: Big Red falling a part!
I get into Big Red one cold morning. I mention the weather because it took Big Red several miles or minutes to warm up. So I was always so freezing cold in the mornings during the fall and winter. I backed out of the drive way. No problems. Yeah!!! I am on a roll. No pun intended yet. I put the car in drive and take it three houses down to the first "Stop Sign" and I stop. I turn right and drive down the road about half a mile to the first light. Just then all of the sudden I put my foot on the brake..... and I got no response. Except the rush of fear through my body. You see the scenario was this. My light was red and I was in the right lane. I began to attempt to slow up to stop but "Big Red" had other plans. Just then I looked over to signal to the car that was about to turn right out in front of me that I can't stop. Guess what this car turned out to be, a motorcycle Police Officer. He stops his progression in time for me not to hit him. I coasted through the intersection with all eyes on me. I swear I could here a pen drop if one did. I am thinking the whole time. I almost killed an Officer, I am going to jail for attempted manslaughter!! As luck would have it the car stopped about 50 feet past the intersection. At this point the Officer pulled up and said, "You need to get that car back home before you kill someone." Then he drove off.
Of course, he stated the obvious but I knew something that he didn't. I was gonna be late for football practice if I took the car home and there was no way I was gonna run laps because of "Big Red." Now that I look back, I see that I was childish in that thought process, but who can blame me then. These coaches put so much fear of punishment in you that I thought it would be the end of the world if I was late. So I continued on toward practice with one pit stop on the way. I had to pick up my friend Josh. So not only would I be responsible for being late but I would be responsible for Josh being late. I couldn't do that to my friend. Besides he is an expert mechanic compared to what I know. I just know that I pushed the "left pedal" and no stoppy occurred. He was at that time needing a ride because he was rebuilding a 56 Chevy truck from the ground up so I figured he could help me when I got to his house. I made it to his house with a run of a stop sign and a really slow pull up to an uphill light that was red when I started to brake about a quarter of mile back. By the time I got near any cars the light was green. So I am at Josh's and he comes out of the house. After I tell him my story he says well lets look under the hood to see if you have any brake fluid. I thought.... GENIUS.... I am surrounded by a Genius. Sure enough the brake fluid had a leak and it was extremely low. He said I have some in my garage. We poured quickly... then cruised on to football practice.
Moral of the story folks is..... Don't Be Late To Football Practice!
Big Red Adventure 2: "The Case of the Missing Brakes."
posted by Mr. President at 4:01 AM
1 Comments:
I always have that fear that one day I'm going to hit the breaks and nothing happen. I guess I have experienced that once, kinda, and one other time when my drive shaft snapped. Yeah, I had breaks, but was not in control my friend. That was a wild ride. I'm surprised that you chose to press on to practice. I know what it is like to be under pressure to be somewhere on time, but I would have been scared that inertia would put me in the hospital. I would have turned around immediately. I will have to say you have made some good changes to your current decision making.
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