I have arrived safely in Seattle after a stress free trip back. I’d been upgraded to first class so had a surprisingly tasty meal on board the plane. More importantly, there was an electrical outlet at my seat so I could work for the whole trip.
But why, you might wonder, am I in Seattle when I live in Portland.
Well… it’s like this. Since I was in Seattle to teach at the Hugo House on Sunday, we’d decided that I would fly straight to NYC to make that part of the trip a little easier. So I was going to fly back and drive home tonight. But…
On Monday at 4:30am, when I got ready to go to the airport I discovered the beginning of Seattle’s snowpocalypse. I was really not expecting snow when I went out. It was starting to stick, but the road still looked fine. I brushed off the car, hopped in and tried to start the car.
No dice. I was on an incline and the car kept rolling back before I could get it started, so I finally just let it roll back across the street so that I was on level ground. Again, I tried to start it without success. Remembering that my folks often had trouble starting their diesel in the cold, I called Dad to ask him for advice.
I tried putting the glowplug through several cycles to get it nice and warm before starting. No.
So, I pushed the car around until I got it pointed downhill — Mercedes from 1984 are very heavy — then tried a rolling start. Without success. Since Leslie lives at the top of the hill I tried several rolling starts and just could not get the engine to turn over. At the bottom of the hill, I prevailed upon a nice jogger and a motorist to help me push the car out of the way.
Leslie, who deserves a medal, came to get me and drove me out to the airport. I arrived about half an hour before my flight was scheduled to depart and breezed through security without problems and boarded my flight to NYC.
Tonight, Leslie picked me up and we again tried to get the car to start, figuring that it was warmer this time. Sadly, the car still won’t turn over. It sounds like it wants to but just won’t quite catch. Tomorrow we will try again.
So today, I am thankful that I have a friend who was willing to rescue me at god-awful early in the morning. And who also added an extra place at her dinner table for me tonight.
