We might have passed a significant milestone this evening. After years of problems with the heater core in the 1987 4Runner that my daughter and her father love so much (they'd get rid of me before they'd get rid of that truck), it is possible that the truck might finally have a functioning heater again. You would not believe how many tries it took to make this happen. Over the last month, Mr X purchased three different cores, all of which had to go back to the auto parts stores, because they were not manufactured to the correct specifications. After the last expletive-filled attempt, he learned that there was a different manufacturer, who made a core that lacked the joint that refused to fit properly and leaked coolant (the problem with the other three). Today he got the part, and this evening he installed it and drove around the block, waiting to see what would happen. So far no leaking, but we might have to wait until a day it isn't so freaking cold to know how quickly it can heat up the inside of the truck. Last I checked, the ambient temperature is 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and that's only going to drop from here, while the current winter storm is upon us.
I have a long, troubled history with this truck, but I'm trying to make peace with it, all things considered. My daughter says that thing will be her primary inheritance from us, and if anything happened to it, she would be devastated. Well, anything other than everything that has already happened to it. So many rebuilds (entire engines, I mean), so many quirks. It was even stolen once and recovered, but that's a long story that I don't want to write about tonight. I still shudder to remember the ski trip a few years ago, when father and daughter overrode all of my objections, and we took that truck to the mountains. The heater core problem? Yeah, it started all the way back then. Imagine five of us tightly squeezed into the thing, ski gear and other luggage in the back, with no functioning emergency brake (and thus no parking brake for a stick shift truck) and no functioning defrost for the front windshield. It was -7 going over the Loveland pass, and I was scraping the frost from the inside of the windshield with a Sears rewards card. By the time we cleared the pass, Mr X was absolutely certain he had a violent stomach flu. I too was miserable, and didn't care who I took down with me into misery. (Correction, I was determined to take all of them down to my level. I'm not proud of it, but I won't lie and say I didn't. It was probably cosmic justice that on the way up the mountain, it was the man pulling over the car to throw up, and on the way back down, it was me who had to decorate the pavement on the shoulder of the highway. I deserved that one.) But if after all of these years, that car can finally offer some comfort to a member of my family, then great. By all means, warm them up.
I suppose we shall know tomorrow how well the heater works. I won't be going anywhere in the morning--my sales meeting is canceled due to the snowstorm, and the foot of snow expected to fall overnight. But Mr X will probably still be going to work tomorrow, when it will be bone-chillingly cold. Unless, of course, enough snow falls to close his place of business as well. I'm not counting on that. He's got a heater in his truck. He'll be off to the rodeo...
No comments:
Post a Comment