wickedwords

Today is my son's first day of driving instruction. On our way home, we swing through the drive through of the local taco place, and we're talking about, oh, the fact that my car is 12 years old and we need to start looking for a new one, plus where we can go for him to get some experience behind the wheel. The person taking orders is slow, and it's hot, and we finally pull up to the window and she asks me if we want a drink tray, and I say "sure...". Something catches my eye as we are sitting there and...there's white smoke pouring out of the hood of my car.

I yell at Lar, interrupting his discussion of good empty parking lots: "There's smoke coming out of my car."

The drive through attendant asks if we want salsa.

"Uh, no!" I yell, gesturing at the hood, the nearby mall, and the smoke.

She hands us the drinks and a bag, and I head for the closest parking space.

"You forgot your salad!" she yells at us, as I slide into place. As lar jumps out --"pop the hood, pop the hood, pop the hood"--There is a long string of water, a bad noise, and I get the hood open. Steam gushes out, and we can see the radiator fluid leaking onto the pavement.

Ev jumps out of the back, drinks in hand. "I'll get the salad."

So. While he gets the salad, Lar looks it over, we talk, we trudge back to the fast food place and grab a booth to call AAA from. I look at the trail of water, plus the huge puddle under it and sigh. It's obvious that my car completely lost it when it realized we had a teen driver.