The Machinery of Night

The Twelve Days of Sparky

Thinking about the kind of dough I dropped on my beloved old car, I got into a kind of "Twelve Days of Christmas" rhythm. So here are the Twelve Days of Sparky. You know the drill.

On the ___ day of Christmas, my Sparky cost me:

Twelve thousand dollars[*]
Eleven gallons of coolant
Ten bleeding knuckles
Nine mechanics laughing
Eight fuel injectors
Seven jump starts
Six thermostats
Five piston rings[**]
Four bald tires
Three windshields
Two radiators
And an engine rebuilt completely

[*]The approximate price of the car, new, give or take a grand. That was a lot for a car in those days. As I said, money was less of a problem then.

[**] OK, it was only a four cylinder engine. My artistic license is paid up. Nyeah.