It works.

11:30pm Thursday February 9th, 2006

The aching twist of a compressing spring cut through the quiet lull within the garage of disco as the Acclaim to Fame was lowered from her raised perch. After pushing tools aside and checking and rechecking connections, I rushed inside and gave JonAbad a tentative thumbs up.

mike d: we’re ready.
jonabad: we’re ready?
mike d: we’re ready.

JonAbad zipped up his mechanics suit and I grabbed the fire extinguishers. Jon threw on some safety goggles as we entered the garage. There she was. Not unlike some sort of mechanical aphrodite. I opened the garage door.

mike d: worst case scenario, the fuel line in the back comes undone and starts spraying gasoline everywhere… but I think we’ll be okay
jonabad: why’d you open the garage?
mike d: if the car errupts in flame, I’m going to try and coast her into the driveway so that we don’t burn down the garage.
jonabad: right.

I climbed into the drivers seat. I asked if JonAbad was ready. He stood, like a stormtrooper, fire extinguisher aimed and ready.

She started on the first try.

JonAbad started running around the car checking for leaks. I let her run for about 30 seconds then shut her off.

The process was repeated a second time. I wanted to drive her into the driveway, but a new problem became evident. The Parking Brake does not disengage.

I don’t think the parking brake problem will be a tough one to crack. But it made victory a little less sweet. Still, the acclaim runs. And will dominate the roadways once again.