yesterday, i met twiddle thumbs for dinner after work and then we drove home. on the way home, twiddle thumbs calls me as she's driving. something's wrong with her car and she's worried. she said it's hard to steer. i sort see some smoke coming from her hood. i think she's overheating. we're really close to home so i tell her to crank up the heater and just make it home. she's freaking out.

once we're home, i tell her to park it on the street. she said she could only do that anyway due to the steering. we popped the hood and i could see that the coolant had sprayed a bit but i didn't investigate to see exactly where from. faulty hose? who knows. everything else by the radiator seems fine.

this morning i get up super early to take her to work. as we start to leave, the street seems ominous. why are so many cars missing? oh shit, it's street cleaning day! i turn back and grab her keys to move the car into the garage. fuck! she wasn't kidding about it being hard to steer. i have never had such difficulty with trying to steer a car. i was breaking into a sweat and running out of breath. goddman, car overheats and you can't steer? i have no idea what that means. i'm not a mechanic.

her dad picks her up from work and looks at the car. he opens the hood and right away sees that the alternator band is missing. aha! he said he'd fix it for her tomorrow. what a relief the problem is something so cheap.