Good News, Bad News

So...yesterday was the good news.

And on its heels, we're on our way home from the Harp's yesterday evening, about two miles from home on the interstate, when the car engine makes this utterly horrible noise, and then just quits.

All the lights come on -- the oil light, the battery light, the check engine light.

I managed to get us to the shoulder without getting hit (a miracle itself the way people drive in the Fort), and we called AAA.  It was about 7:30, and the sun was on its way down.  We only have one phone, of course, so we couldn't call the kid and tell her where we were -- she worries, any time we're ten minutes late, that we have been killed on the highway.  We sat discussing what to do, whether I should walk home (very dangerous on the interstate) or just let her fret.

It takes 30 to 45 minutes for AAA to show up, as all y'all who use the service know.  Then you have to call a cab to get home from the auto repair shop.

BUT!

As we're waiting for the tow truck, a Fort Smith Police pulled up behind us.  I was kind of expecting this, since when you're stopped too long on an interstate shoulder, this tends to happen.

Kindly, though, when the police officer heard what was up, she offered to drive me home.  Though she did ask for my license, and (upon finding it had expired almost three weeks ago) gently reproved me and issued me a warning.  Still!

That was the good news.

The bad news, we're now carless, and I expect whatever is wrong with the car is very wrong.  And of course we are (as always) very broke.

It's not like having the washing machine break.  You can do without a washing machine.

You can't do without a car -- not in Fort Smith.

It's kind of grim.