Soooo Busted

I just read a hilarious post by Becca that reminded me of something that I apparently had buried deep in my grey matter in an attempt to protect my fragile male ego...but what the hell, I'll share it with y'all.

Years ago, I was driving from West Virginia where I had dropped off JM, her sisters and her mom for a visit, to Boston (where I lved at the time) in my 1974 VW Squareback.  I had just installed a new rebuilt engine and was pretty happy with how well my old girl was running.

Somewhere in Connecticut, in the early daylight hours of the morning, I developed an oil leak from the valve cover.  Unfortunately, with this type of engine, if there is an oil leak from the valve cover...it drips directly onto the exhaust pipe.

I looked in the rear view mirror and holy crap...so much smoke was coming from my car that I looked like an old coal train!!

Being the thoughtful person that I am, and not wanting to be responsible for a massive wreck on the interstate because no one else could see through cloud of smoke I was leaving...I decided I had better pull over and see if I could rectify the situation.  I found a reasonably level spot and pulled over onto the shoulder.  I crawled up under the car and quickly realized what was causing the problem.  The leak was very minor and I was not losing enough oil to cause a real mechanical problem...it was just creating all that friggin' smoke. 

So, I figure about the only thing I can do at the time is to try and wipe off the exhaust to minimize the smoke.  I start digging around in the car looking for something I could use and this is the only thing I found...

I can only guess at JM's mother's surprise when she went to look for them :-)  Despite my initial misgivings, I figured they were supposed to be absorbant...and they were disposable...and most importantly, they were all I had...and no one would ever know!  So, back under the car I went with my trusty pack of Kotex.

As I was woking, I saw a shadow approaching and peeked out from under the car...to see a Connecticut State Trooper standing there...he looked from the Kotex package to me and back at the Kotex package and started laughing so hard tears were rolling down his cheeks! 

Once he got himself under control, he asked if I needed a tow truck.  I assured him I had the situation under control...he thanked me for the best laugh he'd had in ages and when about his merry way!!!

Needless to say...I was just a tad embarrassed by the whole situation...not real manly to repair your car with Kotex :-)