My wife and I have owned our little 2009 Chevrolet HHR Panel since new. Purchased in Alaska at Alaska Sales & Service, it saw limited driving time in “The Last Frontier” before being shipped south to Seattle.
Joleen and I flew to Washington State during spring where we then drove it to Arizona. The pure white car that we named “Casper” became our #1 vehicle to use because it provided a comfortable place in back for Carly & Simon to ride. They’re both Pekingese dogs, sadly, no longer with us. A thick quilt allowed them to snooze on long trips.
This car has been through hail so to speak, skirting a storm containing the damaging pellets in Idaho without a dimple in the roof or hood. It smacked a large semi-tire-remnant on Highway 95 out of Parker, Arizona, suffering only minor road rash. I rubbed a few scratches out the next day with Simoniz and the paint looks good as new.
Casper has led a pampered life, with me fixing every mechanical thing that cropped up, including doing all maintenance work. New motor mounts, a starter, shocks and struts, complete brake jobs several times, new muffler and tailpipe, are a few of the things done with the list going on and on.
Our intention is to never sell it—leaving it for the kids to fight over. I’ll make sure they can’t get rid of Casper by hiding the title. Just kidding. We basically put our car in mothballs over the past year, purchasing a waterproof cover and properly securing it so that wind wouldn’t rips things apart. Casper sat there until just the other day when I decided it was time for a spin.
The battery was dead, so $249 dollars later all was good. Pulling out of the driveway, a check engine light instantly came on yet I continued driving. I could tell things weren’t quite the same because it lacked power.
Wheeling around the block, with my OBD11 scanner plugged in, the test instrument showed seven different codes. That told me that something big had happened while in hibernation. Both oxygen sensors turned out not to be working, along with the exhaust and intake cam position sensors, a MAP sensor, coolant temperature sensor, and mass airflow sensor. Eventually, Casper died and wouldn’t start.
Popping the hood and instantly smelling something rank, I removed the air cleaner, finding a petrified mouse underneath. The now hardened carcass was grabbed with a pair of plyers and tossed into the street. I’m sure a hungry Roadrunner thought it tasted like jerky. This mouse had been like Kryptonite to Casper.
Remnants of wiring and plastic loom were everywhere. The rodents teeth were sharp enough to eat clear through the outer covering—copper strands as well Evidently, a good dose of wire was what killed him, yet not before the pest did a number on engine wiring harnesses and looms.
It seems remarkable that one tiny mouse had brought Casper to its knees. That got me to thinking about other cars around town sitting in the open. Driving throughout the city, I see them in almost every neighborhood, some covered and others not. If one of these rodents can disable a car, it could definitely do the same with airplanes. That’s a sobering thought for a pilot just taking off.
Thankfully, I was able to repair things after spending $200 on parts. The hardest part was working with tiny wires in places where large hands barely fit. Had that job been performed by an automotive shop, the bill would’ve easily been in the thousands. It would have exceeded the value of the 15-year-old car. Casper now purrs like a kitten. I won’t ever leave him outside again for extended periods as I learned a valuable lesson from this experience.
One of my favorite movies is named “Casper.” Actors and actor’s voices in this highly acclaimed film include, Rodney Dangerfield, Clint Eastwood, Dan Aykroyd, Mel Gibson, and Fred Rogers. Steven Spielberg is executive producer.
In the 1995 motion picture, Casper the Friendly Ghost falls in in love with a girl named Kat. She asks him a poignant question and he has a simplistic, remarkable answer, one that I can equate to my own life in having accepted Jesus Christ as Savior.
Kat: “What’s it like to die?”
Casper: “Like… being born, only backwards.”
I interpret this to mean: starting a new life, and through God’s promise, for that life to never end for all of eternity.
The very last thing that Casper whispers to Kat fits perfectly with our little Chevrolet HHR.
“Can I keep you?”
I like to write junk... 