Ear Blind

Perhaps I am a little slow, just a tad, mind you, to do, well, I won't call it necessary repairs to my new old van, because it wasn't absolutely necessary. The old girl runs and had been running just fine. Still, I will admit that maybe, just maybe, I had become ear blind. It didn't sound particularly bad to me. Any way you slice it, I broke down yesterday and had the exhaust system repaired.

The first effect was that upon getting the van from the muffler shop, I ground on the starter after I had fired up the engine. You see, it was then so quiet that I honestly thought the engine hadn't started. So I tried starting it again. But since it had started yet was so quiet I thought it had not started, in turning the key again to the on position all that happened was that loud grinding of the spinning gear in the starter engaging an already spinning flywheel. Metal on metal is an annoying sound; a least three heads in the parking lot of the mechanic turned to stare angrily, hands tightly held upon their ears. Sorry about that, folks.

Twice on the way home red lights caught me. Twice I thought the engine had died. Only once though did I grind the gears. The second time I remembered what I had just had done. It was an odd sensation as well to accelerate away from traffic signals and not actually hear the motor roar as the van gained speed.

So now my new old van is quiet. Too quiet, it seems. I'm sure I'll get used to it. I just hope I don't burn out the starter in the meantime.