Date:         Fri, 8 Jun 2001 05:48:16 -0700
Reply-To:     Zoltan <zol@FOXINTERNET.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Zoltan <zol@FOXINTERNET.NET>
Subject:      Bad  dream
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

I clicked on the Mail button and there was no Vanagon mail.  After I deleted all the solicitors I went about my chores still wondering why was there no mail.  A couple of hours later I clicked again and unbelievably there was no mail still from the List.  I started to miss my friends.  What if there will never be mail again.  What am I gonna do?  Sure I have no questions about fixing since the vans I have all are in perfect order and don't seem to want to break soon.  Then I thought, what if all the other guys have no car troubles and they have no need to ask for help.  Man like to help, like to be needed.  I really started thinking that there must be something seriously wrong when I did not get any mail in the afternoon either.  
What if their cars don't break down anymore?  What if we never have to fix cars again?  What are we going to do?  There are hundreds of guys who will suffer by doing nothing, wondering what is wrong with their cars, why they don't break down.  I could see one who actually swung a large hammer and smash the engine on the top, just to make it ready to fix.  
Then the letters were coming in, one by one complaining about how mysteriously their cars don't seem to give them any trouble, that it must be a sign of something big will happen.  Like the quiet before the storm.
Some started to build underground shelters and buy up food and water for three months.  There were complains about the cars having too high MPG consumption.  Some got up to 80mpg.  Than I thought, yes, I did not fill that up for the last three weeks and it seems to keep on going without refueling.  I looked at the trip meter and there was over 800 on it, and the gauge was showing more than half still.  Maybe I just did not zero it a few times.  That's pretty normal.  I was wondering if I should complain to the List too.  Complain?  Is not that supposed to be a good thing?  Well, probably not if it is abnormal.  It has to be fixed.  But I will wait one more tankfull.
The guys were all up in arms about how the leaks and shudders and cut outs stopped happening again.  They were happily worried and concerned because it keeps on running too long without anything going wrong with it.  Even worse, they don't have anyone complaining of break down and they want to help but there is no one who is willing to ask for help.  It was very frustrating.  And it further aggravated their uneasiness when the administrator asked the List to post strictly Vanagon related stuff and stop the thread on the complains about the cars perfect operation.  
After that the List slowed down to a halt.  There was no more message again.  And I felt, I was out of work.  Suddenly I did not know what to do with all the time I had on my hands.  I was sad though.  I missed my friends.  I missed all those guys.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  How am I going to find them again?  I was walking in a daze for days.  I was not needed anymore.  The food did not taste good, I did not feel like playing with my kids, my wife loved me less, the dog was looking at me strange, I did not waive to my neighbor hello, I did not go for my breakfast run around the block, I did not even watch TV.
Suddenly I woke up.  I was still making plans, what to do with myself in the future, now that all the system has failed to work as it used to.  
Then a child called me; dada! can you come here? I need you to fix my car! - that call made me feel like a man again.  Finally I was back in business, doing what I like to do, small as it may be, a car is a car, only batteries to change but still, it is a fix.  It made for a great start of the day.  After breakfast I went out and looked at all my Vanagons in the backyard and could not help noticing that I found all kind of faults on them.  Wow!  I felt like I found a pot of gold.  I made a list of all the things that had to be done and it was long.  I went to the computer checked the List and there it was.  Full of great messages of all the broken engines, plumbing, electricals you name it.  My life was back to normal.  My friends were there again to discuss highly important matters that affects our department of transportation.  

I was a reborn Vanagonite.  I got a new lease on life.  I have a life...
Zoltan

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