Plumes of white oily smoke billowed from warming engine parts as the
"Exon Valdez" slowly pulled away from port scattering oil dri to the
left and to the right as cool unpolluted air parted before it in the
clear North Florida night. Oil pressure read 75psi and the voltmeter
showed right around 13 as the oil and brake light dimly glowed like the
quiet euphoria of a job half done. Could Hemmingway have said it
better, thought the Captian as he surveyed the carnage created by what
was to have been a simple exchange of oil and turned out to be a week of
bitter bewilderment at British engineering and his own American
clumsiness. This, like springtime and his wifes amorous advances, could
happen only one time a year.
I could write a book better than I change oil and that ain't sayin much.
John Summers
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