Skip to main content

My Apologies To My Car: Fillmore Street!



I have to take a minute to apologize to my car for the harrowing experience I put us through on Friday May 29, 2009. We arrived in San Francisco happy and excited, only to find ourselves at the top of one of the steepest hills in the city; the famed Fillmore Street. There was a Hummer on our ass, and the slope of the hill wasn't forgiving. We were stopped and with no experience on such a hill, we were doomed from the start.

In my two decades of driving a stick shift without incident, I was confident that I could manage the clutch, release, gas pedal, ratio perfectly. When I started doing this, my palms were sweaty and my heart was pounding and in the rear view mirror, he stared at me. "Don't even think about rolling back into me, stupid tourist!"
Of course, I slid backwards quicker than I could do the "release clutch-push gas pedal ratio", so I grabbed onto the hand break and lurched it up with a loud "EEERRRRTCHOOOOUCH!" , heart still pounding, I held it tightly. Then I pressed the gas pedal and released the clutch as we moved up the huge hill slowly.

My car let out a scream that I had never thought possible, followed by a long flat noise that I was sure was it releasing pain and agony. The light to switch gears into second came on, I released the break, switched gears and made it across the intersection without incident. My car was not happy. I wasn't sure if I had blown the clutch, the transmission, or the breaks, then we saw what was next.

You know when you are on a roller coaster and you climb and climb and climb to the top, only to feel like there is nothing on the other side? This is what we saw, nothing but the city and the Bay far from us, but no street to get us there. I pressed on, and crawled down the other side as my car continued to moan, and release tire burn smells for the next mile. :0(

So to this, I say to my dear car that I love. I am sorry that I went up Filmore Street. I am sorry that I didn't know how to avoid it (Van Ness!), I am sorry if I hurt you. Please forgive me and thank you for not breaking down. I promise to never do that to you again!

Comments

  1. Oh, no, not that terrible feeling again, pushing the gas pedal, shifting and releasing the brake, everything needing two more legs to operate. Your story took me there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahaha, I am still kissing the ass of my car..I felt so bad...to be fair, the rest of the trip, even up and down Filmore and other steep slops, was all fine. I just got nervous because it was the first stop and the car behind me...nerves will do that! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. The thing is, amazingly, Fillmore isn't even the steepest. 22nd (just above Church St.), as well as this street over on Russian Hill where a sign says "Hill" and someone always writes "no s**t" under it, are even steeper.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's Been Awhile---Catching Up With Me

 So much to say and how to say it... so I'll just start with. Wow, what a year it's been.  I mean, could anyone have predicted all the shite that has hit us in 2020?  NO way!  I'm grateful for so much though, and one of them is the freedom to be able to have blogs (yes I have many) and the freedom to say whatever I want ---this is important.  I'm grateful that I live where I do and even though I'm not rich, I am healthy and live a good life. I do what I can to help others, I also have a loving husband and a Westie who I adore.  As many of you know that aside from blogging sporadically on here I'm a writer and an artist AND I work one on one with both artists and writers to help them in their careers. I've been doing this since 2006 (artists) 2010 (writers). The past few years I've focused on coaching writers as I became the queen of writing conferences and people were always hitting me up for free advice. I even started a YouTube channel CHECK IT OUT Thi

Why I Need B School with Marie Forleo CHANGING MY LIFE

Hey everyone, so I made a video see above.. in all my glorious after yoga before Beachbody or gym or whatever I do later-which could be simply walking with Wrigley glory. Meaning in Hollywood terms, not a stitch of make up! So what is B School and what on earth am I thinking spending the money when I have $8 dollars---yes EIGHT dollars, I have 8 dollars in my bank right now and about 3 bucks in quarters for laundry. LOL.. I laugh, the life of an artiste!! I am living like Jack Dawson, from Titanic---it's sooo much fun.. but you know I would like to have some stability in my life.  I am not looking to get rich here, rich wouldn't be awful...but you know, I just want to take my life to the next level and I am planning on doing just that. Seriously, I need to stop saying the following things: 1) I can't afford to.....(whatever) I am sooo sick of hearing me say that I can't go to this conference or take this class or tak a weekend off because I don't have the m

Living Like Jack Dawson Making It Count

Last week was an awful week for me and I let worry, fear, and dread get to me and it was not pleasant. So this is a brand new week and in a new week I am going to do my best to change my attitude and start living life like Jack Dawson-hopefully with a better ending. If you wonder what I mean by that, I mean that I will still work hard and do everything in my power to change my life/financial/job situation, but I will adapt his atitude of enjoying every day and taking life as it comes and not freaking out every time things don't go as planned. In the last 6 years I have been in this situation where a job ends earlier than I thought, or something falls through and it always works out, yet every time it happens fear creeps his ugly head in and starts freaking me out. I am done being afraid. I can't take much more of this, so besides working hard and changing my strategy, I am going to change my attitude and enjoy things more. This summer I was in Seattle and one week in August I