Car trouble...again....

No pictures sorry, I mean, who wants to see pictures of our old car anyway... :) Last night after work I climbed into my car (with a co-worker, mind you, who was hitching a ride home), started the ignition, and then there was a popping sound under the hood and then it was dead. So I'm sure if you're a mechanic you're probably cringing at my spectacular description...my husband was when I called him at 10:45pm to try and "explain" what I heard. "What kind of a pop was it, like a small explosion or thud or....and was it under the car or in the engine....and was it metalic or plastic sounding..." I mean, who knows??? I didn't really want to turn the car on again to find out. Anyway, after I decided that the car wasn't going to blow up on me, I found the courage to open the hood. What we eventually found after much humming and hawing was that the battery had completely fried itself and there was a build up of hydrogen in the battery which was ignited when I turned the car on, blowing one of the caps off the battery which hit the hood causing the popping sound. So....our car spent the night in the parking lot and a large part of me was hoping someone would steal it! :) (Guess they wouldn't get very far...) This morning one of Eldon's work mates came around to get the keys and put a new battery in it for me. Thank you!

Oh, but the story isn't over yet! Happy to have a car, I decided to go see my friend Danielle. I jump in the car and realise that Eldon's mate has put the hand brake on...which normally wouldn't be a problem except in our lovely car...the hand brake sticks on! So I try to release it a few times and it seems to be working, but when I go to reverse out, it's very sluggish which tells me the brake is still on. So, I call Eldon again. (Did I forget to mention that he is away for two nights?...just my luck) He tells me how to check to see if it's still on blah blah blah....I'm still fairly ignorant when it comes to mechanical things. So...I think it's fixed so I start down the road to Danielle's...only to feel it being sluggish again. I can't do the speed limit and I'm starting to smell burning brakes...yikes! So I creep the rest of the way to Danielle's and when I get out, the tires are smoking! Another call to Eldon who then calls his mate who then comes round the fix it again! Luckily the brakes release for him and I'm free to drive it again. Danielle and I have a cuppa and discuss how we are going to drive the car into the lake or use it for a bonfire...we haven't decided yet...guess we'll have to have another cuppa.