...When It Went BANG

Land Rover people amaze me. I mean the old-school owners who are so steeped in (mechanical) lore and (vehicular) intuition that they put Himalayan medicine men to shame. They can practically smell a downed Rover. And they're so helpful. Witness:

I was at Starbucks with my sister after an unfruitful Chapters run, and we were discussing impulse buying over the rumble of the Rover when it went BANG. I stopped, got out and looked under the vehicle, because the sound was one those suspiciously dangerous sounding sounds. You know. Those ones. Of course, I saw nothing. I thought maybe my E-brake was stuck on. So I pushed it up and down a few times to make darn sure it was off.

Thirty seconds later, BANG. We hadn't even made it out of the parking lot yet. I pulled into an empty spot and looked again. No sooner was I on my hands and knees than Presto! two guys in a blue pickup pulled up. Elapsed time since first bang = < 60 seconds. 

"Having problems? I've got one of those at home. Maybe I can help?" said the passenger in a British accent. The driver grunted something unintelligible, but it sounded friendly. I nodded my head yes. The passenger hopped out and pulled on some gloves. It was better than BCAA. We didn't actually figure out the problem until I got home (broken U-bolt again, which means the axle could possibly have separated from the vehicle, resulting in many owies) but still - amazing! You just don't see that kind of helpfulness amongst, say, Lexus owners. 

Rewind back to before the mechanical difficulties. Impulse buying is actually an interesting subject. Sis and I were talking about how hard it is to buy books from new authors. It's so risky! I hardly ever do it. You could easily end up with a dud. But when it comes to fast food, I'm ridiculously impulsive. It's kind of pressure-related. The person on duty at the till looks over and says "HihowcanIhelpyou?" all in a breath and my mind immediately stops processing words. 

Generally, the people at the till are pretty quick on the draw, because they can see the sixty-odd florid fuming faces of the regulars who have just lined up impatiently behind me after battling through traffic and construction and hot, sticky weather besides. And they know what they want. So I have time to read about two or three words, and they ALWAYS jam up my brain. And the item just gets bigger and bigger until I can't think about anything else. After a few seconds, I just order it. Today, it was a white chocolate mocha, which I don't even like. Silly. Can anyone relate? Maybe I'm just eccentric...

...though that would be kind of cool. Good writers are often eccentric, right?