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Broke the Clutch

By December 12, 2010herb's eye view

Not that I’m superstitious (it’s bad luck to be superstitious), but I may have jinxed myself with that last entry updating the status of the band-mobile.

Yesterday, I broke the clutch.

Some time ago, my dear friend asked me to keep saturday, december 11 open. She’d been working hard for years to finish up school, and this was going to be the date of her graduation party.

Lemme explain a little bit about what I meant by “working hard for years”:

Over the course of the 6+ years I’ve retained a friendship with her, she’s juggled no less than a full-time course load at school along with a full-time job to pay for it. At many points, she somehow managed a full course load, with a full-time job and a part-time job. At one point, she burned herself out with a full course load and TWO full-time jobs. Crazy.

I’m outta town a lot of the times and lining up our schedules to hang out for a bit was always a bit tricky. More often than not we’d bailed on plans we had made together making the few moments we were able to see each other much more precious.

With her impending graduation and the ensuing party, she wanted me to be there to help her celebrate a truly monumental point in her life. I wanted to be there for her as well.

I asked ol’ Hanson if he’d anything lined up for us that day knowing full well that winter months have historically been slow with gigs for us. Graciously, he mentioned that there was a show penciled in, but not confirmed and he let me take that day off to spend with my friend. Thanks boss!

I had been looking forward to this day for weeks.

Come the day of the party, I clean up and put on my sharp, blue sweater and I stop by the store and pick up a bottle of Tempranillo. As I am turning onto her street, my left foot reaches for my clutch pedal to drop the transmission into 2nd gear to climb the steep hill up to the house where the party is. But my foot finds no such pedal. It was stuck to the floor. My clutch was disengaged. And my car would climb no further.

I spent the next 3.5 hours talking to my insurance company and waiting for the tow truck by my car at the bottom of the hill looking up at the house where my dear friend was celebrating her accomplishments with her loved ones.

The tow truck came and I assisted Wade, the driver, load my car up onto the flat-bed and we rolled away.

herb

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