Car Trouble

My new Land Rover had problems. When I tried to start it, I would often get that awful dead battery sound. Sometimes I could start it in first...but something was wrong. I feared that I was going to have to go back out to Manosque to the dealership. I am still under warranty.

Yesterday, I had the idea of talking it to a local garage, Pierrre Puppo...what a name. In the morning, I went to my gym, to a big Carrefour shop which put me right into lunchtime when everything is closed. I went home to get something to eat...and then...the car stopped responding completely.
Not having a car is not an option here. I am miles away from anything.

I ended up calling my insurance agencies emergency number. They have a 24 hour emergency line like AAA. I waited and waited. It was about 6:30 and all of the garages were closed so I didn't know what I would do even if we got the car started.

Finally the big truck came. It was a huge flatbed truck with a big Mercedes on the back. He couldn't get down our dirt driveway so he parked amongst the olive trees. In the cab I could see a tiny white dog on a mans lap and bouncing around ....excited and very cute. The man hauled out his gear and asked if the little dog could come out and run around. ...of course.

The man was a big French speaking German man. You could hear his German accent through the French. As he worked on the car he told me about the dog. On Saturday, he was in Vence and saw the little dog tied to a tree. He had a sign on him saying "I need a new home." The big man took the little dog in and is now his sidekick. He named her Prada. She is some kind of Jack Russell mix. The man told me that she is a q.........., a French word, one of those slang words that meant, as he put it, "she is breaking my balls". He told me this in a very polite way as I kept asking him to repeat the word...but it was a complicated word so I can't remember it.

He tried to jump the car and that didn't work, so he got a big metal bar, like the one I saw the woman killing the snake with and banged around inside of the motor. Voila, he fixed it. I have to get me a big metal bar for multiple uses. It seems as though carbon builds up inside the starter due to heat and causes the starter to jam, banging it loosens the gunk and now it starts fine. WOW. I think I'm lucky that I happened to get this guy as another mechanic might have made it a much bigger deal.

I gave Prada a rawhide bone, which made her very happy. I asked the man if he was going to neuter her and he said no...why? I told him...to stop having other little dogs tied trees. I hope that made him reconsider. I thanked him for taking in the little dog. It was very kind...he told me, with his arms out..."I know nothing else."

He is a person with a good heart.