The Second Car

Here in Safita my brother left the other car parked awaiting his (or my) return to use it. The car is a 1993 Peugeot, a French make that is very rarely seen in the States. Those of you who know my brother (and he will be reading this now), know what this car has been through. To summarize my experience with it, here is the account of getting it to drive.
The car was parked in a long deserted space under my grandparents’ house. The only thing left, in addition to the car, is cement, sand, stones and bricks; a very dusty environment. The battery was disconnected for conservation purposes, I think, and to hook it again I had to enter the car to open the hood. I had to enter through the passenger door for some technical reasons I not going to fully detail. Once we reconnected the battery, I tried to start it. Nothing happened, then nothing happened, and nothing happened. The battery is almost dead. The only other way was to jump start it from another car. Of course this required pushing the car backward out of the “parking space” as it was front forward. There is no AAA here to call for rescue, everything has to be home made. Luckily enough I had few of my cousins at the car side just in case and they helped in the process.
After getting the car out (shoveling in the process half the sand it has to go over, or through) we attempted jump starting it. Nothing happened, then nothing happened, and nothing happened, but then… something happened. The connecting cables started to smoke, and smoke, and smoke with every time we tried to turn it on. I suggest switching cables but everyone looked at me as if I am an idiot. Anyway, it was an idiot suggestion but I was trying to help only.
The second best thing was to run it down the hill and try to turn it on. The car is manual so that is feasible. I was ran down the steep road next to my grandparents’ house. I think I prayed before that. First of all, it has been ages since I did something like that (driving an automatic, reliable car and all). And secondly, the road is a somewhat convoluting one that barely fits two cars in opposite lanes (but there is no dividing lane of course). The chance of running into another car, or not running at all was real and everyone seemed to be so cool about it. I was even trusted to do that without on site help. Thankfully I didn’t need any and the car started as soon as it went downhill.
Amazingly I have driven it very well that even I was impressed with myself. Looks like this is something like driving a bicycle or swimming, you never forget them no matter how long you don’t do them.
Next was the mechanic work and cleaning, which took around 2 hours to do, or even more. This may not seem like a long time for some basic work up on a car in the States but I was almost the only customer. Cleaning alone took around an hour and a half. It was shampooed about four times inside out and upside down. The poor guys worked so hard on it that it looked like new, almost. And all this is for 2-3 dollars. The cheapest, cheesiest decent cleaning in Cleveland was $5 and lasted 3 minutes at most; I had to finish wiping it afterwards.
The most annoying thing is that every time there is a bump in the road, the car audio console opens. What’s worse is that I don’t know where the car audio is. It is hidden somewhere as it is one of those you can eject, put in your pocket and walk away. I am sure I will be told in time. But for now, I have to pray it continues to run as smoothly as possible. If you go to church tomorrow light a candle for me.

P.S. if any of you like me to talk about a certain subject, I will be more than happy to do that. Just wish and your wishes are true.