Journal Jar, Entry 2.

If I've got nothing on the blog brain, I'm going to just pull out a slip from the "journal jar" I got at the staff Christmas luncheon. I hope that doesn't become much of a habit (in other words, I hope my life is somehow interesting enough to get away from this crutch) but it's all I've got for now.

*reaches into journal jar and pulls out a slip of paper*

Tell about a frustrating experience that you have had with a car

This is almost too easy. Youth ministry always has allowed for a series of hand-me-down cars that I could give frustrating experiences with.

For example, there was the Buick Skyhawk--the first "new" car I ever owned. It was 7 years old at the time, and immediately upon our move to Dallas, developed a leak in the water pump. We couldn't afford a replacement part at that time and I kept four one-gallon jugs of water in the back seat as that's how many times I'd have to exit to fill the radiator on the way to seminary. I'd fill up the jugs at DTS and then repeat the process on the way home. Two months later we replaced the pump. That car eventually died throwing a rod on New Year's Day 1998 as I was coming home from a lock-in at church...you wouldn't believe how much smoke pours out from underneath an engine when that happens.

Then there was the Cutlass Cierra that Kendra gave me. One night I was driving home and for some reason, at the exact same time, both back tires went flat in the span of a half mile (the other went flat as I was pulling over). That's quite a dilemma. We gave it to one of those places that gives a tax write-off for old cars running or not and later the Dallas police called to tell us to move our car from some side street downtown or face a fine. Whoever purchased it from that organization never changed the title over...but apparently that happens a lot because when we told the cops what happened they just said, "Thanks. Sorry to bother you."

There was the van we borrowed from another church that had a flat tire on the way to the Gulf Coast from Texas and the jack that was provided didn't fit that particular van. It wasn't tall enough.

Tracy and I had an Astro van that on long trips to Alabama, we'd use 8 to 10 quarts of motor oil. I have no idea why it burned so much oil (yes, it was a decade old) but we'd actually go to Sam's and pack the 10-pack of oil last before we left. We repeated the process on the return trip.

There was the Chevy Beretta that had the passenger seat belt locking clip duct-taped to the strap, falling fabric on the roof, a rearview mirror that I kept in the glove compartment (no matter what glue was used it just wouldn't stay)--and would overheat if you idled the engine for more than 5 minutes (say, at a drive-thru).

And, finally, my first car when I was 16 was a Cutlass Supreme. I loved that car and even had a photo of it airbrushed on a t-shirt. I added what most 16 year-olds would add to a car--a pretty good stereo system (I replaced the 8-track player with a cassette deck that rocked) and new rims and expensive tires. Of course, a guy from our church who knew cars made sure the engine was high-performance. The only frustration was that while those things for a high school teenage guy might be socially accepted, when you're at college and your high-performance engine is idling going WUB WUB WUB WUBB WUBBB WUBB WUB and Def Leppard is blaring from said cassette deck and the rims aren't shiny any more...well, the frustration came from wondering how something went from "that's pretty cool" to "who does he think that's impressing?" in such a short period of time.