On my way to work early Friday morning, I noticed the car making a funny noise. Of course I had no idea what it was, but the car makes weird noises all the time, at least according to Berck. “Do you hear that?” he’ll demand, “Do you hear THAT??” Hear what? “THAT! You can’t hear it?” Oh, that noise? “NO! It’s not making it NOW.”

So I congratulated myself on hearing the car making odd noises and made a mental note to inform Berck about it.

As I turned on the home-stretch to work, the noise got louder, so I turned the radio off to listen better. At the same time, the CHECK ENGINE light started blinking on. Uh oh. I checked the temperature gauge. Pegged at past-H. Oh dear. I was almost to work, and there aren’t any other turn offs on this road, so I slowed way down till I got to my parking lot. White vapor was streaming out from under the hood.

I had to get clocked in, so the next time I checked the car was at my first break. The oil was fine, but the coolant overflow bottle was empty and the radiator was bone dry. Well, there’s my problem. So I started filling the radiator with my little water bottle, walking back to the breakroom to fill it at the sink for several trips. That ate up my first break.

At lunch, one of my coworkers showed me where a big igloo thermos lived in the breakroom, so I only had to make one more trip out to the car. I started up the engine, which sputtered and complained before settling into a nice purr. I looked to see if any water was leaking out but none was.

I checked the coolant levels again before I left for work, but they were just as I had left them. Then I drove carefully home.

Berck got home late last night from picking up his dad’s Miata from California. He was able to find the leak today in a hose near the back of the engine. Supposedly, the auto parts store will have the part in the morning.

I’m glad to have my baby back to fix the cars.

I don’t want to know how long a 30 minute ride to work on country roads would take in Arthur.