bone in sub

a fun time:

driving back from a gig in oakville (with my girlfriend and her harp in the car, she also played) last week, in a borrowed car. the car’s brakes had been really noisy for the past couple days, just making a scraping sound like they need new pads. something new happens when i’m backing out of the performance venue – when going in reverse, it’s like driving with the brakes on. it feels like i’m hitting something and it’s extremely loud. ok, that’s bad, whatever, don’t go in reverse.

i get on the QEW (arterial highway) heading back downtown at 11pm on a rainy night. as i’m getting up to speed, there’s a little bit of a “clunk” sound from the back of the car. i don’t think this is an issue. there aren’t many cars and the weather isn’t terrible, so i do 120 all the way.

around the kipling exit (20 minutes along), i slow down a little as traffic is increasing a bit. i say ‘slow down’, but i mean ‘try to’, because when i press the brake pedal NOTHING HAPPENS. i press it all the way down, and feel the front brakes respond a tiny bit, this is a bad thing. since cars steer with the front wheels only, braking with the front wheels only (especially on a wet road) would make the car spin out. i feel myself losing a little bit of control even trying to slow with the front wheels only, so i give that up.

i have only one recurring nightmare: driving a car with brakes that barely work. i get it about once every two months, and i always wake up all sweaty with my heart beating fast, like hayden christensen in “star wars 2″.

now this is happening in real life, i’m on a big highway with no brakes going 120, and my easily excited girlfriend is in the car. i decide to just not tell her what’s going on and get off at the next exit, assuming i can slow down enough. i carefully get in the left lane and completely stop using the accelerator. by the time i get to the lakeshore exit (before jameson) i’m going about 55 on the highway, and people are passing me angrily, and i don’t care. i’ve never taken this exit but luckily there was no crazy curve or sudden stoplight. i then proceeded to get all green lights on lakeshore all the way down to bay street. by the time i get down to about 20km/h, the front brakes are serviceable and i can stop with enough warning. i drop the harp off and take the car back to its mortified owners. “at least i got home faster!”

after my heart rate dropped back to normal and the adrenaline went away i felt awesome for surviving something like that.