How Very Interesting

What an interesting morning. All was normal enough; the orchard was irrigated slowly, and then I went to Chico to buy some more material for the Senior Center remodeling project. After loading that in the truck, I stopped by the Plant Barn to check with my daughter. Got to see the two new cats that will be inhibiting the mouse population in the Barn. Daughter Alicia and granddaughter Karlee showed and we made plans to meet and celebrate Kyle’s birthday later today. Then it was time to stop by the Chico library and load my truck with the donated books for the Friends of the Orland Library. 11 AM and I was headed home. Then I saw the signal change ahead of me and I tapped on the brakes. Oops! No brakes! I quickly put both feet on the pedal and pushed…hard. The truck slowed and finally stopped. I then navigated off of the highway and into the nearby Les Schwab dealership. That was when I noticed the BRIGHT RED brake warning light on the dash. When did that turn on and why wasn’t it accompanied by a loud and insistent noise of some kind? Did they really expect me to keep an eye on my dash at all times? Grrr!

Now I’m home and waiting for someone to call and tell me how much this will cost. And thankful that I wasn’t coming down a freeway off-ramp when the failure occurred. That did happen once a long time ago and I wouldn’t want to do it again. I think it was 1965 and we were living in Tarzana. I was driving home from work in my trusty 1958 Chevy 4-door sedan, tooling along at about 70 mph on the Ventura Freeway. Suddenly, there was a hood from a 49 through 51 Ford sitting in my lane. Sorry, I couldn’t tell you the exact year and model, but I was preoccupied with making sure I straddled it as best I could, since there was no room for me swerve left or right. There was a terrible noise from under the car but as far as I could tell, I, and the car, had survived intact. And I guessed correctly that the noise I heard was the chrome bull nose trim that had been on the hood and was now trapped under my car. No problem; it would fall off soon. Just to make sure, I decided to get off at the next off-ramp and pull it loose. Down the off-ramp I went. I put on the brakes to slow near the bottom and the pedal went to the floor. Jeekers! I grabbed the parking brake and swerved to the right, missing the stopped cars by inches as I flew around the corner. It seems that the bull nose trim had severed the brake line. No; I don’t want to repeat that! Yes, I got home safely; just later than expected.