July 3, 2011
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Hello Dolly!!!!
This is Dolly. I love her. She is flippin’ adorable. Can’t you hear Louis Armstrong belting out “HELLO DOLLY” when you see her! I am so excited I almost do one of those happy chick squeak noises!!! She is by Citroen and has a whopping two squirrels in the engine (aka not built for speed). According to Wikipedia she was ”designed to move the French peasantry on from horses and carts”. It was designed for low cost, simplicity of use, versatility, reliability, and off-road driving. For this it had a light, easily serviceable engine, extremely soft long travel suspension (with adjustable ride height), high ground clearance, and for oversized loads a car-wide canvas sunroof.” I’m crazy about her!
Sadly, she does not feel the same about me.
In fact she would probably call me a krass, ignorant American. Seriously. Yesterday morning she showed me how she feels about me!
I have only driven her one time and waited all week to take her out this weekend. The first time I drove her, I had trouble getting her into first gear. Other gears, no problem but it is a little harder to feel where the gears are and I don’t want to try to force her into gear so I decided that until I have a little more experience, I would take her out around 7 – 830am on the weekends when fewer people are on the road.
So at 7am I moved my other car, opened the gate and pulled Dolly out of my garage (yes my garage is inside the gate and my regular car sits outside the gate). I made it up the “big hill” on my street and got to my first intersection and my first stall. I cranked her up again and got rolling. My goal was to make it about four miles on back roads to meet my parents for breakfast. I was rolling along nicely with the ac (the little red panel below the front window opens and allows mother nature to cool you!) blowing through my hair and then came the big issue. I was at a four way stop, on a hill and she stalled. I cranked her and she wouldn’t start. This happened again and again. Finally, I called my father. He was about .75 miles away and drove over. The initial goal was to pull her to the side. I thought the battery was dead but she would turn over. Finally I did it one more time and sure enough she cranked up and I was able to make it to breakfast.
That is where I got a stern “talking to”. My father, who taught me many years ago how to drive a stick shift, explained in “tender” words about flooding an engine. Oops. Then we had the discussion of “if she stalls, keep her in gear, roll a bit the take my foot off the clutch and give her gas”. This was like telling me an alien just appeared. My very sophisticated reaction was of course “huh”?
I had a stick shift for years. I purchased it in the late ’80s. I have always owned new or newer Toyota or Volvo products. I have only one time been stuck and am a zealous “take my car in for service” person so I never do get stuck. This means I have zero experience at handling a car that requires an experienced DRIVER not gear shifter. I have an M on my license and thought that gave me more insight into listening to the car, using the choke, etc but in reality, I totally sucked with Dolly.
Needless to say, on the way home, more cars were on the road and I talked to her even more than I did on the way to breakfast. We stalled out four times and I had a car on my bumper for a considerable amount of the drive. I took my dad’s advise and only had to crank her one more time. Finally she stalled up my driveway so I gave her a rest before driving her around a cul de sac and using that momentum to get up my driveway. Dear Dolly is resting safely in my garage again. Safe from me! I think next drive I need to take an experience “driver” out with me to offer a little more guidance. My relationship with Dolly is rocky right now. I adore her and need to learn to treat her well.
