ccurzio
03-17-2014, 09:59 AM
Saturday was a busy day for me. It seemed that everyone I know wanted to schedule everything for March 15th, so I had a LOT of things to do that day and it was going to include a lot of running around. Or, well, a lot of driving around.
The first item on the agenda, however, was getting the DeLorean back on the road. The brakes needed some basic repair work, and thanks to some much-appreciated help ( :) ) we were able to get it going with no problems. It made me very happy to have my car drivable again and I haven't driven it in months, so I figured I would use it to drive myself where I needed to go all day.
First was to a farm-warming party at my cousin's place, which went without incident. Plenty of admirers on the way to the party and then of course AT the party (one guy wanted me to take him for a ride), and that was happy and fun. Then I had another party to go to later in the evening, and after trying to find a spot on the road I decided to just park my car in the driveway. This would begin a series of unfortunate (but not catastrophic) events.
See, I always always always use my e-brake when parking. Always. I never trust parking using the transmission alone in any car whether the car is a manual or an automatic, I always use the brake regardless. Unfortunately on this night, I'd neglected to put the car in 1st gear. (Anyone who has ever been to my house in Gainesville knows I'm used to having a super-steep driveway, so I tend to not worry too much on regularly-sloped driveways such as this.)
Bad mistake.
While enjoying the party, another guest arrived and asked who owned the DeLorean. It was simply assumed that she wanted to check it out, but she made it clear that there was a problem. And yeah, there was.
The car had rolled backward and seemed to AIM for my friend's mailbox. I have no idea how fast the car was moving when it rolled backward, but it smacked the mailbox post enough to break it and came inches from impacting another friend's car. Needless to say, I felt completely awful - I was less concerned about my DeLorean and more concerned with the fact that I've just destroyed my friend's mailbox and possibly damaged another friend's car. Thankfully, everyone laughingly blew it off as "shit happens" and there was no real damage at all beyond what happened to the mailbox, but I still felt super shitty about the whole thing. I re-parked the car (and plopped the busted mailbox post under the rear wheels just in case) and tried to enjoy the rest of the party. After some hot tub soaking and a model friend of mine asking me to take another picture of her in the car (http://i.imgur.com/Df4j7QC.jpg) for her, I went home at around 3 in the morning on Sunday with a promise to my friends that I would immediately make things right with their mailbox.
So early Sunday morning, after going to Home Depot to buy a mailbox post and some Quickrete, I replaced their mailbox post and bought them some brand new brushed nickel address numbers (to replace the plastic ones broken by the impact) and installed all of the above in the pouring rain before they even woke up. (I wanted to be sure to have it done on Sunday so they'd be able to actually receive mail when it starts back up on Monday.)
The moral of this story: ALWAYS put your car in gear AND use the e-brake when parking, even on level ground.
The first item on the agenda, however, was getting the DeLorean back on the road. The brakes needed some basic repair work, and thanks to some much-appreciated help ( :) ) we were able to get it going with no problems. It made me very happy to have my car drivable again and I haven't driven it in months, so I figured I would use it to drive myself where I needed to go all day.
First was to a farm-warming party at my cousin's place, which went without incident. Plenty of admirers on the way to the party and then of course AT the party (one guy wanted me to take him for a ride), and that was happy and fun. Then I had another party to go to later in the evening, and after trying to find a spot on the road I decided to just park my car in the driveway. This would begin a series of unfortunate (but not catastrophic) events.
See, I always always always use my e-brake when parking. Always. I never trust parking using the transmission alone in any car whether the car is a manual or an automatic, I always use the brake regardless. Unfortunately on this night, I'd neglected to put the car in 1st gear. (Anyone who has ever been to my house in Gainesville knows I'm used to having a super-steep driveway, so I tend to not worry too much on regularly-sloped driveways such as this.)
Bad mistake.
While enjoying the party, another guest arrived and asked who owned the DeLorean. It was simply assumed that she wanted to check it out, but she made it clear that there was a problem. And yeah, there was.
The car had rolled backward and seemed to AIM for my friend's mailbox. I have no idea how fast the car was moving when it rolled backward, but it smacked the mailbox post enough to break it and came inches from impacting another friend's car. Needless to say, I felt completely awful - I was less concerned about my DeLorean and more concerned with the fact that I've just destroyed my friend's mailbox and possibly damaged another friend's car. Thankfully, everyone laughingly blew it off as "shit happens" and there was no real damage at all beyond what happened to the mailbox, but I still felt super shitty about the whole thing. I re-parked the car (and plopped the busted mailbox post under the rear wheels just in case) and tried to enjoy the rest of the party. After some hot tub soaking and a model friend of mine asking me to take another picture of her in the car (http://i.imgur.com/Df4j7QC.jpg) for her, I went home at around 3 in the morning on Sunday with a promise to my friends that I would immediately make things right with their mailbox.
So early Sunday morning, after going to Home Depot to buy a mailbox post and some Quickrete, I replaced their mailbox post and bought them some brand new brushed nickel address numbers (to replace the plastic ones broken by the impact) and installed all of the above in the pouring rain before they even woke up. (I wanted to be sure to have it done on Sunday so they'd be able to actually receive mail when it starts back up on Monday.)
The moral of this story: ALWAYS put your car in gear AND use the e-brake when parking, even on level ground.