Dammit, Joel! Never put Uncle Murphy to the test!

I’ll never learn.

So back in February something got stuck in the Jeep’s transmission valve body. Drive was Drive and so was Neutral, Reverse was Neutral and Park was some moving gear, possibly reverse, locked by the parking pawl. I spent the next several months carefully never getting myself into any situation requiring a reverse gear, and life went on.

Then early last month, the problem magically fixed itself. That was about five weeks ago, and I never trusted it. Never. I used reverse but always tested before I committed the Jeep to see if it was there – and I always prefer to back into parking spots anyway, because of course I do. I’m paranoid. Anyway. I never trusted the “fixed” problem. Until this morning.

I got a call from a neighbor who needed to run her well pump but had some generator problem…

Could I come over and look it over? Sure, I said. I’m just sitting around, and Tobie wouldn’t mind a Jeep ride. (as soon as he heard those words, Tobie resolved to give me no further peace until we did that thing.)

I drove over to her place, thinking all the while how I should park the Jeep. Normally I turn around a little bit from the house, because if I go all the way up the drive I won’t be able to get out without Reverse. But reverse has been working fine, right? And sooner or later I need to start trusting it. Right?

Uh huh. I got to the homestead and JUST PASSED my turnaround spot when like an idiot I stopped the Jeep to test whether reverse was there. IDIOT! THE VERY FIRST TIME I DID THAT! And guess what. I ended up needing her help to push the Jeep backward until I could turn it around. Idiot!

Well, the generator problem turned out to be very minor: We got her squared away and I drove home without incident, but…

…the Jeep will no longer back into its space.