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Distinctly I remember a few things my grandparents directly taught me. My grandma taught me about stocks and benefits of dividends. She also told me to learn Spanish and she taught me the Lord's Prayer in Finnish. She is fluent in Finn and Spanish. My grandpa taught me poker. The one other thing was a statement on dating from my grandpa. He said, "Scott, if she sleeps with you on the first date, dump her". My grandma is alive, grandpa is dead. I used to just really enjoy hanging around them. They were simple and easy and watching them work was inspiring.
Just figured out I can drop pictures on this thing.
A few years ago I purchased a Q45 on ebay. It was one of the best cars I've owned. The car started off in New Jersey as a one owner and I suspect it was a bargain because it was probably a headache. I don't really know as it was never a bad car for me. The Q was always good to me. My cousin, Tritia, now has it and I gave it to her in April of last year. She's angry at me over the car. I've also been told that my favorite uncle Mike is also angry over it, but this was said by my mom who often seems to be losing the cheese off her cracker. So, not sure about his anger as I would think he's sensible enough to know that I thought I was gifting my cousin with what I thought was a totally great vehicle although it was definitely used and a '91 car.
So here's the deal with this Infiniti. I flew out of Tulsa at 9am on a Saturdayand made it to Laguardia by 6pm EST. Long travel day. The planes were way cool. I love those that have around eleven seats across and you can't tell the beginning or end in the length from the inside. Cab drive to Bayonne was twelve miles and took almost an hour and cost a little less than a Ben Franklin. Just stepping into the cab at the airport started the tab at $50.
Dropped at the address of the Q45, I was tired from all day travel, but very excited.
The son of the owner took my cash after showing me the car and this thing was cool and looked as fast as I expected. I asked the guy if there was anything I should know about the vehicle since I intended on driving it about 1200 or so miles to Tulsa. He said it was all good and he then said that we needed to go out and make a receipt copy. I thought this a bit strange since I witnessed the all-in-one on his desktop outside the kitchen. Tell you what, this guy drove like a maniac in my car. He tore up all sorts of streets all over Bayonne and kept making excuses about different places he thought had copiers but ended up not. Finally after about one half hour and the clock nearing 9pm, he called it quits while jamming at 70 down a 25 street and decided he could go with a written copy and signature. I dropped him off at his house and proceeded to the Penn Turnpike/Thruway.When I made this "miraculous" purchase I decided it was from God. Goofy maybe, but that's how it is. So I started the journey first by praying over my great buy and screaming fast green battleship. I prayed for safe journey and that this car may last a lifetime if I so needed. The trip from Jersey to Tulsa is beautiful. You pass by all these amazing things like the RCA dome, St. Louis arch, the green of Pennsylvania, all sorts of things. The drive is also long especially when you don't speed excepting the number of occasions when you just sort of "test" the pickup. You know, just to make sure that the wind doesn't hold you back and stuff when you know you need that extra speed in a pinch. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if I got up to only about 120 mph a coupla times. It was for safety reasons that I averaged 95 most of the journey. Naturally.
I made it home within 24 (or less) hours. About every hour or so I made it to the garage to make sure the Q was still there. Opening and closing the garage door so I could see it in the light and check out how magnificent it looked against the outside and open background. Wow! A car finally bought outright with no payments and it had everything - right down to the amplified Bose which massaged your back when you turn it up and powered that bass. So cool. Amazing.
I made it to work the next Monday and the car started to cry. At lunch I took the car home to check out where the tears were coming from and then it really started to weep. Anti-freeze saturated the drive and the belt to waterpump was off. I put the thing back on and it just wouldn't stick. Paul came over and we were both perplexed - its just a belt, what the heck. We were able to drive the short 2 or 3 miles to Infiniti dealer and Paul struck a deal with the service guys he was familiar with.
It turned out that the water pump recently installed was an inch shorter than the pump which belongs on the vehicle. I have no idea how the belt ever stayed on as long as it did. I know I prayed over a safe journey and know my prayer was answered. I also figured out why that guy drove like a Nascar driver all over Bayonne, New Jersey. He was testing what he knew was wrong after learning of my loooong trip. Crazier things.
Got the pump fixed and everything was good as new. I continued to make sure and pray over my Q45. I (no kidding) probably prayed over it every time I drove and also thanked God for such a gift. I was influenced in prayer over such objects when I once heard Bob Yandian talk about how he believes in God for prime parking spots, longer wearing tires and better gas mileage.
About one week went by and I left office around dusk (This is November '05, by the way) and got in the beautiful car. Now, I have to tell you this - generally I'm not that stupid, sometimes goofy-stupid and calculated stupid, but not common sense stupid that often. So, yeah, I got in the car and the emergency brake light was on. I must have kicked it or something when I last got out of the seat. I pulled on a few levers and stuff and, after about seven pulls, finally turned off the blaring red light. My routine was to hop on the freeway and skate home the next few miles to 91st from 61st. I entered freeway and hit 70mph in flat time, got a lane over and....bam! Friggin' hood went straight up into the front shield. Geez, I couldn't believe it! I thought this only happened in comedy movies. I was close to laughing, but putting my head out the side window made my teeth chatter and I was in rush hour traffic and I had to act quickly. People slowed down, I pulled over and bent the hood down which put a couple little creases perpendicular to the hood and the latch did seem to still work and the aft edges of the thing were a little bent. Windshield was fine.
Umm...I decided to take sidestreets home and did around 25mph. All these things went through my head. Faulty latch? Any recalls? Bad hood? Driver error? I stuck on driver error. I went through all my actions and also thought about the pump which was just worked over. Between 81st and 91st and Mingo all of a sudden I remembered the levers I pulled in attempt to release E-brake. Ah, I suddenly hit 60 and made it home a minute later and looked for the latch release. Shoot, I must have pulled that thing about six times before I finally got what I was looking for. I figured I'm glad the Q is paid for and had a new adventure on my done list. I really don't advise anyone to intentionally do the hood flip adventure. Its kind of dangerous. But its all good.
When I gave away this car, it was a very sad trip to Vegas for me. Our farewell trip. I did it because I knew Tritia wanted something more dependable, the a/c was not all that great and I didn't want to deal with it and I was juggling three autos. Out of the three cars two had great a/c (in Arizona) and the J was another fabulous deal and the convertible is totally fun. I disclosed to Tritia all the work I had done and, to me, the car was basically new and all set up to run another 100,000 miles or more given the Infiniti reputation. The only thing I forgot to mention was my praying over the car and my constant petting of the vehicle and telling it how nice it is to me and how privileged I am to have been picked to be its owner. I attempted calls and emails to check up on my baby and friend and there was no response. From what I understand, Tritia had problem after problem from the start of her ownership. I feel badly about this but it was pretty much out of my hands. This made me a bit concerned also since my favorite, auntie Pam, said something to the effect that she would kill me if the car didn't work out. At least that's how I took her statement. And I wouldn't ever want to disappoint my auntie Pam.
Before the Q45's great send-off, I changed the oil, added its favorite oil additive (greased lightning), rotated the tires, checked all fluid levels, gave a thorough exterior washing and polish and painstakingly burned many of my favorite cd's for Tritia to listen to on her trip home from Vegas. I didn't drive it on the stay in LV and Elsie and I lost the car in the hotel garage. I looked for about twenty minutes and ended up at a blackjack table. Elsie kept looking and found the vehicle. She was pretty ticked to find me at the tables while she searched for almost two hours. I think she was more angry about my high-fiving the cute Thai lady next to me and I had to hear her say, "We go now". What can I say, I was winning and its Elsie's J-O-B to take care of me. We left and met up down the street with Tritia and her boyfriend and it was farewell. I just about cried watching Tritia's car drive off - without me.
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