Under the Hood

Years ago my daughter and her roommate came home from college one weekend, 

and there was some concern about the oil level in the roommate's car. 

So my husband popped the hood 

and my daughter exclaimed, 

"Wow, look at all that stuff in there."

I thought my husband would just die. 

While I don't know what most of that stuff is, 

especially in newer cars, 

I can identify an air filter, the oil stick, the engine coolant 

and a few other basic things. 

 When we had our first baby -

the one that was impressed with 

all that stuff under the hood - 

we bought my favorite car. 

 It was a Nissan Maxima - a stick-shift of all things! 

But I loved that car because

it would talk to me, 

"The door is ajar."

"The lights are on." 

Would you like a spot of tea? 

At some point, 

the solenoid in the Maxima was going bad 

and for whatever reason we didn't have it fixed right away. 

 Occasionally, the car wouldn't start 

because something-or-other was on the dead part of the solenoid. 

I would pop the hood and hop out of the car,

tap the solenoid with my key, 

close the hood, hop back in and start the car. 

Easy as pie after my husband showed me how. 

 I cannot tell you how many men's jaws would drop when I did that. 

It gave me such a feeling of power! 

I kind of liked not having the car fixed. 

It was like a game. 

Oh those silly boys...

did they really have no idea how to tap a solenoid?