To Boldly Go Where No Geek Has Gone Before

One thing about crossing the 50 mark,  is that there are things in life that you think you will never have to do. After all, you have avoided them for 50 years. What is the likelihood that you will be forced into a situation where you will have to do those very things.

I've always been kind of a geek. When I was in high school the word "geek" was not used frequently. I think it was most commonly used in context of "circus freak". It had not gained the status that has today. So, I was a “peg” that didn't fit exactly into any hole in the pegboard. I got good grades, but was not one of the smart kids. I was not a "jock". I was never interested in drugs, so I didn't fit in with the stoners. And I wouldn't say I was a popular kid either. But I did get along with people from all these groups. When you are "funny", you can manage to get along with just about anybody. The one group that I did avoid was the "tough kids". Any interaction with one of the "tough kids" could lead to bleeding. Thus, where the “tough kids” were I avoided. The place that was “Mecca” for the tough kids was auto shop. In the 70s, a favorite thing for them to do was to restore muscle cars from the 60s. “Tough Kids” spent a lot of time fixing up cars while those of us that would have liked to learn auto mechanics avoided auto shop in order to live a safer existence. So, I graduated from high school with no knowledge of auto mechanics. Did it ever bother me that I knew nothing about cars? Not at all.

30 years later, I find myself in a predicament, which is making me think about auto shop. This article was initially written to share my pain. Well, not exactly to share my pain but to let other people know that they are not the only ones out there facing desperate times. They are not the only ones who are probably doing things they thought they would never have to do. Over the last day or so, I've started to reevaluate my situation and am now looking at it more as the victory then as yet another thing I was forced to do during a desperate time.

We are a family of five and had two cars. A 2004 Honda element, and a 2004 Honda Odyssey van. I have three children: 14, 18, 21. None of which have driver’s licenses. We live in a suburb of Boston and do not have easy access to public transportation. The mommy and daddy chauffer company is one business that is booming. Both cars got a lot of use. We've had two cars for the last 25 years. Frankly, after 15 years of college I have always felt entitled to have my own car. I have only had a couple of new cars in my life, but having reliable transportation has always been important to me.

The Honda Odyssey was actually a lease. The lease ended in May 2009. I was laid off in February 2009. As it turns out, the leasing company is hesitant to create new leases for people that can't prove they can pay the lease. Thus, we were forced to return our beloved van to the dealership.

The one positive thing to being unemployed is that you can control your much of your own time. Here in Massachusetts, we only have three months of good weather (June, July and August). Back in May, I anticipated a summer of low-cost outdoor fun. I got my three kayaks mounted on the trailer and ready to go at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, it rained the entire month of June. Still, I was looking forward to two months of good weather. The only problem is now that we all share one car; I can't go away on a low-cost adventure. In fact, even going away for a few hours results in complaints.

Looking at advertisements for used cars, I learned that used-car prices are up some 20% this year. Since people can't afford to buy new cars, they are keeping their old cars. The demand for used cars is outstripping the supply. There are no inexpensive used cars and as you probably have found out, those of us in the "layoff zone" cannot get used car loans anyway.

As the days went on, the battle for driving time grew tiring. I then had a thought that at any other time in my life would never have occurred to me. Before buying my 2004 Honda Element, I drove a 1992 Honda Civic. It was a great car but had some 200,000 miles on it. I had been working at Fidelity, my office was right next to the train station in Boston. I would take the train into work every day and my old Civic was fine for local driving. Then one day we were notified that we were being moved to Merrimack New Hampshire. I decided to buy a new car for my long commute and that is why I bought the Honda element. On the day I got the Element, I parked my trusty Civic at the very back of my driveway (with the intention of having it for one of my children when they got their drivers license). As it happened, my oldest never did get a driver’s license. The Civic spent the last five years at the back of my driveway. Since then, it has functioned perfectly as an auxiliary shed. It was also the home to a family of Squirrels for one summer. I had been thinking about giving it away but had just never gotten around to it. I stopped thinking of it as a car and really more as a static object.

A few days ago, while taking a shovel out of my “portable shed”, the word "re-animation" appeared in my head. Re-animation is a term used in old horror movies for "bringing back the dead". Was it possible to bring my Civic back to life? With no knowledge of auto mechanics whatsoever, I began to consider this a possibility. And so began my journey. I will boldly go where no geek has gone before. I will give my Civic life!

This decision did not come easy to me. Auto mechanics was something that I thought I would be able to avoid for the rest of my life. But, like fence building (a skill I was forced to learn last month) "it ain't rocket science". I spent a few days doing research online, trying to determine what could happen to a car that hasn't been moved in five years. I then put together a plan for the process I would follow to resuscitate my car. I will leave out the details of all the procedures I have completed as I doubt you are reading this article to learn about auto mechanics. However, if enough people write me I will outline the procedure. To make a long story short, yesterday I actually managed to start the engine. There was fire (which pretty much cleared out the onlookers). After the fire went out, there was a lot of smoke. But after that, there was just the sound of the engine running! It didn't sound healthy but it ran. Today I drove it around the block. "It purrs like a kitten". Well, a kitten with emphysema, asthma, pneumonia and is other respiratory diseases, but it still made it around the block! My KID even said he was proud of me!

I think that there are many, many things wrong with my Civic. Fortunately, “ignorance is bliss” and I don't know enough about auto mechanics to know how many obstacles lie ahead. I just know that I will take on each problem one at a time. It's kind of like an analogy for being unemployed. You could view it as a massive pile of problems or just deal with it one problem at a time. I prefer the later approach. So, should you find yourself in a situation where you're forced to do something you never in your lifetime thought you would do, you should not feel alone. There are many, many other people doing the same thing. That's really all we can do, take it just one problem at a time. Now, go start that engine!