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
