Take a guess what happens on my way to work this morning.
Yup, I'm two miles from work and that blasted car dies. Again.
It's 49 degrees outside, I have no jacked with me and I am facing walking the rest of the way to work. Exactly what I did, too, except I was walking at a very brisk pace mixed with running to get the internal heat pump going so I wouldn't freeze to death getting there. Sure enough, after about 1/2 a mile I was feeling no cold.
Get to work - drive all day long in the semi - get off of work. I am there from 1:35 until 5:35. They didn't get started on it until after 3:00 - and that mechanic? Could not figure out what was wrong with it. I would not have spent the entire afternoon there if I had known I would have to go - get my other car. But I did and I didn't complain about it. I ended up calling a taxi. I had no presumption that my son would have ever been able to find that place to come get me. $21 later, I get my car, head to Fry's.
Why? M-Power was almost out and I HAD to replenish it today. A freakin' line to get to the machines. That wasn't the worst part, though, there was one lady who didn't know how to use the first machine and a lady on the other one kept inserting her card, getting information, getting the card back and reinserting it.
Well, whatever. Am I having second thoughts about that car? Oh YES. This is the 4th time in a little over a month that car has been in the shop. If I would have known the problems I was going to have with that machine in getting it running, I would have told my son it better to save his money to buy a good, used one. Now? I've got too much into it. To stop - at least at this point - would be a HUGE waste. To continue without an end to this nonsense - also ridiculous but right now, I have no choice. I do have a choice, it just isn't going to happen. They need to find out what's wrong with that thing and put this issue to rest.
For what it's worth, internally I might have had a few issues, externally I kept a good attitude. This included complaining customers at work for one of the deliveries I made (they are making this particular company pay in advance for materials ordered versus C.O.D. as they have done for years now and this is not setting well with them) and other things that occured during work today. It also included my pondering that I have had this vehicle in that shop - which is widely acclaimed as one of the best in the entire Phoenix area - 3 times before today - within 35 days of each visit and now the 4th time. My questioning to myself was: are all these problems related? Is there some deeper problem that was the source of all of this and the rest of what I had done a complete waste of money?
I answered the question to some degree that - no - not all of this is inter-related. The car needed a major tune-up to pass emissions, that was the first visit. The second visit, though, they said it was the crank sensor. That's a toss-up. That guy that put in the harmonic balancer might have damaged that sensor when he did it - or the computer was bad all along. The 3rd visit was the computer. The car was running swimmingly after that. Now? It just quits.
Here's the deal: I left at 5:05 am and got home at almost 6:30 pm. Nice, long day.
Whatever the case, I have my newer car - sorry Caleb - had to take it from him. I'm not paying the kind of price tag it would cost to get to work tomorrow in a friggin' taxi.
That's my day in a nutshell.
And now? I'm tired. What else is there to say.
Nothing.
Good evening.
ben
4 comments:
Wednesday
I'm going to write another Cafe World entry today or soon - the final word on slow running cafe or low buzz rating. It's very simply this: If you have a slow cafe, can't get in, yada yada yada, look at your computer and stop blaming Zynga. Period. I don't have any isses getting into Cafe World anymore and zinging right through everything with my new computer - and that using only half the RAM I have in it.
But let's not go there now, as I said, that would be a DIFFERENT entry and here I go sounding off on THIS entry. I think I'm still a bit peeved at that car, at least I have mine back to get back and forth to work until something is figured out with that old thing.
The most entertaining news of the day (for me anyway): 4,500 people stranded on what amounts to a dead ship. Lol. I wonder what kind of putrid smells and air must be floating around in that thing without AC and certainly no hot water gotta be fun. The only thing they have said is that there was an engine room fire - well that must have been QUITE the fire to knock out the engines completely!! And not be able to get them up and running again?!!!
Wow, this story gets sweeter by the line of type. Refrigerators went out - can you imagine? I mean, feeding that many people? There must be a lot of rotten food in there!! No internet service, no cell phones - what an unbelievably MISERABLE ordeal that would be.
Well, I feel for those people, but they are being taken care of so not the end of the world. Maybe for THEM it is, especially spoiled people - you know the kind - want everything and want it now. Poor little babies. Maybe the rich people can have a helicopter fly in and take them out of there, lol.
I was actually attempting to talk myself into getting Windows 7 - until the car broke down. Everything on hold. No idea what is wrong with it. Funny that that mechanic couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, either. He brought out 3 different computers and was walking back and forth retrieving wire harnesses for those computers over and over. I know cause' I sat there for almost 4 hours. I won't be sitting there today - I have my car and whenever they do figure the thing out, I am NOT taking a freakin' taxi. What a total ripoff. I don't take taxi's often. We had gone all of a mile and the thing was sitting at almost $9. I HAD to ask the guy about THAT. I know there is a flag drop fee then the fee is $1.99 per mile.
They freaking have "traffic delay" on those things. Meaning, when you are sitting at stop light, you are paying MORE for it. You call that a traffic delay? That's part of NORMAL TRAFFIC, not a traffic jam!!! It's rated at $28 per HOUR, on TOP of the mileage fee. That's pure insanity.
Whatever. Just another thing to get my goat I guess.
Apparently the Dems have somewhat woken up. GOP wants ALL Bush tax cuts - including those earnin over $250,000 per year - to be extended, Obama said no. Now the Dems have a new idea - too long to go into - but it does include at least a temporary extension of the tax cuts for everyone.
I do hope the people voted in under the Tea Party guise stick to their guns and aren't talked or bullied down because of people in there with "tenure". Who CARES about tenure? It hasn't gotten us anywhere good anytime recently that I can see. Let them raise heck and heterdyne and let the whole process be sent into chaos, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm feeling fiesty this morning, I have a LOT of driving to do today. East Valley; West Valley; going down south, back up to the FAR east valley and then back here (here being work). Which is okay, it makes the day go by faster and today? I do NOT intend sitting for hours at a repair shop. I'm not even going to call them, they have my number, when it's done, they can call me. My son will just have to go without a car for a couple of days (hopefully that's all it is).
As for me, I'm outta here, time to geeeeeet to work.
G'day.
ben
Sorry about the car...I despise going to the shop.
Yeah, kinda like going to the doc's: time spent may not be wasted, you have to do it, but it really SUCKS!!
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