Jasmin

I had planned in this blog to write about more than just my current day. I hope to one day go back over the years and share fun and exciting event from years past. But my mind is very sluggish these days, so I guess that I should be happy that I can come up with something to write most days :) Tonight I am going to write about Jasmin. For those of you who don't know Jasmin is Josh's car. He bought her right after he got off his mission before we even met (He brought two cars to the marriage where as I brought none). Jasmin is a stick shift, and Josh had to teach me how to drive her (I had a couple different guys try to teach me in collage, but it didn't really work). I remember when were newly married and he would make me drive up Union Blvd. to practise starting on a hill. I HATED it. I was always afraid I would roll back into someone. Thankfully I never did. Now we have been through a lot with Jasmin. We have been on many trips and had lots of fun with this car. But I have started (OK maybe started is not the right word) to think that she might be on her last leg. Now I am not hoping for this, but I do worry. Last March we traded our mini van in for a newer NICER model. Before that it had been 6 years with out a single car payment. We are almost at a year mark on the new van, and we still have a long way to go before it is paid off. I hope/don't want to have two car payments. But there are MANY signs pointing to the fact that Jasmin's days might not be too much longer.

To start with Josh was in a car accident with her back in 2003. I still feel to this day that it was a miracle that he wasn't hurt and there wasn't more damage to Jasmin than there was. I would post picture of the accident, but that was back before I had a digital camera, and I don't have a scanner. But Josh went off the road and up on the driver side of the car. He slid this way for who knows how long and then the car just stopped and dropped back down flat... right on the edge of a little ravine...just big enough for the car to fit into. Again soooo thankful that it all turned out all right. I think we only spent around $350.00 dollars to get it up and running again (we did not fix the body though). And josh has been driving it ever since.

Well about two...maybe three years ago Jasmin lost third gear (again Jasmin is a stick shift). We looked into fixing it and was told that we SHOULD replace the whole transmission because once one gear goes they all will. They wanted 2000 dollars to replace it. The blue book value for the car at the time was $1000 for excellent condition (remember we did Not fix the body damage). So Josh decided that he could drive just fine without third gear...And he has for two or three years (I really think three). I have even gotten good enough at driving Jasmin with out third gear.

So this brings us to last October. It was a cold icy Saturday morning, and Josh was headed into work when he was hit (actually not too far from where he went off the road 6 years earlier). The kind driver, who it turned out did not own the car, left the scene of the accident. Luckily for us a nice Samaritan who saw the accident followed the guy and got the plate number. Again I am so grateful that Josh was not hurt. But the airbags did go off. And when they went off the shield that blocks the passenger airbag hit the windshield and shattered it...

But there was no damage to the engine. The power steering container broke, so there is no longer power steering, but every thing else was just fine. But it took almost a month, and many not so happy phone calls (I still feel bad for a couple of them... not too bad though), for the insurance company to decide to total the car. Since there wasn't any major damage to the engine we bought the totaled car back from the insurance company for 150 dollars. Not to bad of a deal, because they still gave us over 2000 for it. We spent 180 dollars to fix the window, and Josh cut out the airbags, and taped down his steering wheel. And he has been driving it since then... with out power steering (he plans on fixing that he just hasn't had the time).

So this brings us to last weekend. Josh called me Saturday night saying that his car had died. He was not even two minuets from home, and had lost ALL power. Josh's Dad ended up coming and towing him home. They talked about what it could be, and decided it was either the battery or the alternator. Last Monday Josh took the battery in and was told it was DEAD. So we bought a new one for the car. And it started right up. And he has driven to work twice and other places since then this week...

And that brings us to tonight. I took Brooklyn with me to go to a dinner for a missionary getting ready to leave on his mission. Josh stayed home with the other kids to get homework done. I noticed that the batter light was flashing as I drove, but Josh hadn't mentioned any problems with it since Monday. Brooklyn and I enjoyed dinner and headed home so that I could go to book club (I haven't actually finished the book yet, but almost). So as I am driving home I start to have some odd things happen. Like the radio keeps stopping for no reason. Then it just turned off for good. Then I noticed that I didn't really have dash lights either...Or head lights for that matter. At this point I am merging onto Powers (for those of you who don't live here Powers is a MAJOR street with HIGH traffic) and it is about 7:15 pm. It is dark and I have NO head lights. I don't know if I have rear lights, but I know I don't have a turn signal and that the odometer is not working. So I start praying that we can make it home. I get to about five minuets away going up a hill when the car starts to sloooowwww down. I have NO power. I look in the rear view mirror and a car is FLYING up behind me. Now I really start praying! I am afraid he can't/wont see me because he is going too fast. At this point I hear a weird noise and the car starts going again. I need to turn left at the next light, but know that there is no way I can get over three lanes with not much power and no lights. So I go to turn right. It is at this point that I lose all power again. But luckily I had enough momentum to cost around the corner and get out of the way of traffic. I am about three minuets from home... not to far from where Josh got stuck just a few days ago. I call Josh, and Josh called his dad. His wonderful dad came and towed Josh (who came over in our van) home once again. Josh was upset and felt horrible that I had to go through all that. I actually find it funny myself. I did not however make it to book club. And now we have to see if it is the alternator or if Jasmin might actually be ready to be retired.