Butte La Rose

Bonjour!
On a Saturday night, last Dec. 20, I arrived home at about 10:30 p.m. I’d been spending time with my family to enjoy a little Christmas time and have a delicious early holiday feast and also our annual family exchanging of gifts.
Everyone brings a dish of their choice except me. Since my children all have families of their own now, I no longer need big pots for cooking since it’s just me and Vielle Femme living at home. Vielle is OK with sandwiches so I do not have to worry about throwing her name in the pot anymore. That is cool!
I might have mentioned in the past that the night before I’d gone to Hubert and Rose Maitre’s annual Christmas Party in Scott that they throw for all of the musicians and their following friends through the years. We’ve been friends since I have been playing music.
It rained the whole time I was there that Friday night. It felt like Christmas. Gives me the chance to visit and talk with their friends who are also friends of mine. Like the saying goes, we meet no strangers. I have met many of these Cajuns through the CFMA organization since I stepped down from driving those big rigs in the early 1990s.
Anyway, when I pulled up by my back porch that night, it felt like the van had slid a few inches and then it just suddenly and without warning happened that the engine totally quit on me.
Has that ever happened to you? The shift had stayed in drive. It would not budge. Only thing stayed on were all the lights on the dash, all lit up like a Christmas tree.
Battery was working but what good did that do for me? I had tried starting it back up to put the gear in reverse but it was locked. I turned the key off and then pulled it out, put it back in, tried starting it, nothing happened, key went in but it, or engine would not turn, not even a click, the transmission was deader then a door knob. Even brakes had no motion. Nothing! Was I doomed to live out my life without a car.
That Monday morning, I called Calais to tow my van to New Iberia. He loaded it by backing the van on his trailer. He told me my wheels rolled freely meaning they had not locked up like everything else. I did not know for sure what that would have meant because I am not a mechanic. But it turned out to be helpful.
The service director in the shop where we brought the van put it on the diagnostic machine. He called me to his desk and asked me who had worked on my transmission. I said no one. If anyone had I would’ve known. He showed me with his hands the way the steering column fits into like a cup in the transmission. He said the two bolts that hold it in place were gone.
And I will not forget his words when he said “they’d been removed.”
I said the only time that hood comes up is for oil changes and that time taken is a matter of minutes.
What he was saying about the bolts being gone naturally scared me. I could not absorb why his question of who had worked on my transmission and then to say these two bolts had been removed. Wow! This is serious stuff.
I will finish this next week. It could happen to you!
Hope you all had a fun and safe Mardi Gras!

Cousine Hélène
337-280-1988.
helenboudreaux@juno.com.