Signs of Spring
Santa Rosa, Calif.
March 14, 2001
Now that weather permits, I've been driving the Buick out to work some days. I was on my way home the other night, doing about 60 on Highway 12 (who knows: the speedometer never rises above zero miles per hour) when I heard a loud pop, and coolant shot up through the cracks between the hood and the fender. In my rear view mirror, a cloud of smoke worthy of a Saturn V was leaving a solid screen behind me. Horns blared, and I made for the right lane, hoping I could get off at Brookwood before it burst into flames. I was about to pull into a Chevron station when I remembered that, if it really was about to explode, a gas station was the wrong place to park it. So I rolled on through the intersection, and up into the Fairgrounds parking lot. There, I grabbed my computer bag out of the back seat and put some distance between myself and the smoking mess.
Turns out it was just a radiator hose clamp that came undone.
