Short story. Sunday. Parked Stella ('93 Eurovan) in an outdoor lot at the edge of little Italy near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Enjoyed a funky evening of Average White Band/Ohio Players/War at Pier Six. Woke Stella up a little after 11:00 to head home. Backed up, no power steering, alternator light blaring. :-0 Checked the manual, looked under the hood. Couldn't see a damaged belt (it was late, it was dark, I was bleary), nothing on the ground since there's that pan under the engine anyway. Welp, headed home. Steered a little hard but no problem really. Into the shop next day. I watch from the big door as the mechanic lowers the pan and looks around. Calls his buddy over, a couple more. Small crowd looking and staring at the dangling pan. Reaches down with the vicegrips and comes up with a .... rat. Yep. The critter crawled up in there and got terminally creased by the belt and the compressor pulley but knocked the belt off in the process. That dirty rat cost me $116 and an afternoon. But, hey, Stella caught that rat. Good girl. --Drew ______________________________________________________________________ Drew B. Farenwald Chief, Survivability Modeling & Simulation Branch dbf@jade.arl.mil V- (410)671-2922 (DSN584-2922) ARL, Edgewood, MD F- (410)671-2375 (DSN584-2375) ______________________________________________________________________
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