My Car vs. the Temple

Pictures! I need pictures! For now words will have to do.

I had a very interesting day today, centered around the title of this entry. This morning started out pretty good. I managed to get up bright and early and made it to the early session at the temple. When I left the temple however, I was disappointed that my car would not start.

This is not a usual thing. I usually expect my vehicles to work, especially when they were working mere hours before. I had not left any lights on, or anything that would drain the battery. In fact the engine turned over quite merrily, but alas, it would not start.

Well being stranded at the temple I went inside the stake center to use the phone. Naturally I called my roommate Adam first. Well I got the answering machine. This I sort of expected. My instincts told me that he was still asleep in bed. I left a message to wake up and inquired on whether he could please come and get me.

In the meantime I considered my next course of action. I tried in vain to start my automobile (analogous to beating a deceased equine I suppose). I considered even going to the 1030 session at the temple, and I tried again to call my roommate. But by-the-by he arrived and extracted me from that location. I should also mention that we had pushed my car across the parking lot to a spot that would be less in the way of others, and easier to access pretty much everything.

So we came home and I changed into clothing more appropriate for dirty work. And thus prepared we journeyed to the institute to see whether there was anything left to clean. There wasn’t. There were people there however. Those who had cleaned were sitting in the central area chatting it up, and there was a troupe of local actors apparently rehearsing for a musical in the large multi-purpose room. We stayed and chatted about various topics ranging from the insipid to exceedingly nauseating. Health care professionals should not be allowed to talk about work at the diner table, among gentle company, or really at all. Only they could flow seamlessly from the topic of punctuation to an anecdote involving, well, I don’t want to burden you with a mental image.

At any rate, we eventually moved from that spot back to the apartment, where I proceeded to research what could be wrong with my car. Using my mum’s library card number, which I had to retrieve from my old computer, I found the online auto repair database and started to diagnose.

I came to a hopeful conclusion that it was a matter of worn out ignition cables. For those with limited auto experience, these are a set of cables that carry a voltage from the ignition coil (that produced a high voltage) to the distributor (that times the sparking) and then to the spark plugs. These cables can wear out suddenly and make the car simply not start.

So Adam, being the fantastic roommate that he is, chauffeured me for the rest of the day in my efforts to fix my vehicle. I grabbed some tools that I figured I would need, and we went back to the temple. I pulled out the existing ignition cables, breaking one of them in the process. Now it didn’t matter, they had to be replaced anyway. So we went to Canadian tire, my favorate place for auto parts I’ll admit. I found the necessary cables and also picked up a set of spark plugs for good measure.

Back at the temple, I quickly installed the new cables and crossed my fingers. Alas, the endeavour was in vain. The car still refused to start. Also, I had brought the wrong size of plug socket, so I couldn’t try to replace the spark plugs. However, we did test the main ignition cable and there was sparking. This ruled out the ignition coil as the problem.

So we returned to the apartment once again. I retrieved the correct tool for the job and did a little more research. I concluded that it would not be good if the distributor was the problem. I hoped that replacing the plugs would provide the needed break. We returned to the temple.

I replaced the spark plugs, and we tested each plug for sparking. I learned a valuable lesson that when dealing with 40,000 volts, you do not have to be close enough for sparks to get a shock. Simply having one hand in a high electric field and another hand at ground is enough to induce a current. Not to fear, it is not enough current to do any damage, but was a learning experience nonetheless. Unfortunately, my newfound knowledge failed to start the car.

Good things did come of this however. As I was under the hood, a woman approached us and inquired as to weather we were mechanics. She was having problems with her car a few blocks away and was stranded. We told her that unfortunately we were quite amateurish at this car repair business but asked if there was anything else we could do. She said that her husband would be able to come fix the car later that night, but that she really just wanted to get back home. She asked if she could borrow $12 for a cab. Something I had decided long ago was that if I stranger asked me for a specific amount of money in excess of $5, I would help them. So I did. I gave her a twenty and she asked how she could return it. I told her to just pass it on and she said she would definitely do that. That felt good.

Unfortunately automotive blessings were not immediate. The car still refused to start. It still turned over merrily though. I’m sure we were wearing out the starter. Well, as we were about to call it a day and go do some more research, another young man on a bicycle, and blinged out I might at, stopped and asked if he could take a look. I’ve got nothing to lose so I said sure. He told us his name was John, and he said he was an apprentice mechanic. He began exactly where I did by checking all of the cables for disconnection. His final diagnosis was that it wasn’t getting enough fuel. From what I know about cars this seems plausible. If there is a little fuel, but not enough, then there will be no ignition. The same is true of too much fuel, but I digress. He checked a couple of things and showed me where the fuel pump was, and told me how I could check a fuel injector if I managed to find it. However, he too was unable to start the car.
He said that he had met the missionaries from the church before and found it interesting. He was intrigued at the odd name ‘Elder’ too. We explained a few things. As an afterthought, we really should have taken the missionary opportunity better. But we didn’t. I need to do better at that I think.

Anyway, John was also unable to get the car started, and so we decided to call it a day. The rest of the day was spent in wonderful company. Jill and Alyssa invited us for food and games, and company. While there I saw an interesting cookbook entitles ‘The way to a Man’s heart”. I have always said that it is through his stomach. I stand by that. It doesn’t even have to be a gourmet or time-consuming dish, it just has to be food. Any time a man gets food from another person, that person improves in standing and importance to that man. Alyssa and Jill are both more beautiful to me now than they were before yesterday. And they are already quite high in my books.

We played a game of Settlers of Catan, which I lost. I don’t know if I’ve ever won at that game. Then again I try very hard not to be overly competitive. I used to be a real jerk in games. I hope I’m not as much of one now. After this we went to a birthday party. Happy Birthday Dana. I am not sure I was specifically invited, and I hate crashing parties, but I felt welcome anyway. Also, there were cupcakes. Tara is also now more beautiful as well.

I played a game called ‘Mao’ for the first time. It’s fun, the idea of the game is that it is a card game with certain rules, but only people that have played before know those rules. You would think that would give big advantage, but its fairly easy to catch on. And then more rules are added by people that win rounds. I think many of people were sick of it by the time we finished the first round.

So we left that party in good spirits and went back to Jill and Alyssa‘s for a movie and crochet circle. Adam and Tyler learned how to crochet. The movie was partially lost on me, but it seemed like it was okay. Well that was a long day, and a long blog entry. Not bad for a first real entry.

Oh, and as an epilogue. A short time ago, I stated that I couldn’t name my car until it broke down. I think I was jinxing myself. My car’s name is Frank.

Peace out.