Okay, the Cowboys are not literally ruining my life. Like, I have not been kicked out of my home to make way for a bigger stadium and/or parking lot. That happened to a lot of other people, but it did not happen to me personally. They are just making life annoying at times.
The Rangers were annoying enough. Then the Rangers got a bigger ballpark and got more annoying. The Cowboys were in Irving, in a part of Irving right next to Dallas, and I hate Dallas, so I was rarely there. The Cowboys were still annoying, just not in the same way as the Rangers, as long as they were staying near Dallas were I would probably not have to deal with them or their fans or the traffic problems involved with games.
But then they moved to Arlington. They moved to Arlington right next to stores that I shop at and restaurants I eat at and so forth. So they are now a problem for me. And as I care nothing for sports, I don't remember which days they plan to be a bother, until it is too late to do anything about it.
So today was one of those days. But it was early in the day, and we safely escaped from it all (though it would have been nice to eat an early dinner in the area, but we decided against it). But they are still annoying, as right now I am not watching The Event and such on TV, cause my husband is watching the game. Yet another lie that he told me, so on top of all the other things I have to put up with from him, he now watches football games, even when there is something else to do or something better to watch.
Anyway, the main reason for the football fans being a problem that had to be dealt with earlier in the day is that on top of whatever ridiculous price the fans paid for their tickets, they are expected to pay yet another $67 to $82 for parking their cars (this amount will go up another twenty dollars for next year's dreaded Super Bowl Game). And, while they have somehow been persuaded to give up whatever amount they paid for the tickets, they don't really want to pay $67-$82 just to park their cars. And it is a really big parking lot, so even after paying the $67-$82 for parking the car, that doesn't guarantee that your car will end up being parked near where you want to be, and you might still be in for a long walk even after paying that much. So many of the local stores and restaurants were charging $35-$40 dollars to park in their parking lots, and from their you might have an even longer walk, but since you're going to have a long walk anyway you might as well get a parking space for half-price.
The best deal seemed to be that of Half-Price Books. If you spend $40 dollars or more that day, you got to park in front of the bookstore for free if you taped the dated receipt onto your windshield. And, to make things even easier, instead of looking all through the store for something that you want to spend $40 on, you can just buy a $40 gift card and spend the money later. So that almost makes the parking free, if you are someone who buys a lot of books, and if you are willing to walk the extra couple of blocks to get there.
Not that I picture many of these people being readers, but perhaps these people have friends who are readers, and they can give these bookstore gift cards to their reading friends for Christmas.
Then there were also people walking from really far away places on the other side of the freeway. I have no idea where they were coming from or how much they paid to park their cars, but I can't imagine that they got a better deal than what the bookstore was offering. And even if you really just do not like the bookstore and don't have any friends who read and therefore have absolutely no reason to go to Half-Price Books, most of the other stores and some restaurants had a similar deal, and you might find something that you would want to spend $40 on.
Anyway, now I'm going to find something to watch on Hulu or Youtube, because I can't watch The Event like I'm supposed to, because the Cowboys are still on.
Showing posts with label cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cars. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday Morons: Me
Well, I've gone and done something not to bright. I do this once in a while, cause I feel bad and this temporarily makes me feel a little bit better. Only afterwards I don't feel so good about it, and I feel stupid for ever doing it in the first place. Still, the damage is done, and it does temporarily make me feel better, and it is beginning to look like it just isn't going to matter that much in the long run anyway. My situation is going to change anytime soon, except maybe to get worse.
I'm not feeling really bad yet, just acknowledging that I might have done something stupid.
But that isn't what I want to write about today. What I want to write about today is the car recall.
In the seventies, we had a Pinto. So sometimes car recalls are very scary. And I should have dealt with it right away, but I didn't.
After we stopped working for a certain company in 2001, we bought bought cars. Not new cars, just "new to us" cars, and much newer cars than what we had been driving. They seemed very nice and in good condition, but still, they were both about five years old and had a lot of miles when we got them. About the time all the really bad stuff happened, my husband had to have his vehicle replaced so that he could drive all over the place for his new job. He hadn't even had it for a year when he was in an accident and had to get yet another vehicle. This one was much newer, though it was still purchased used.
And while all this was going on I was having some car trouble, and it kept getting towed to the shop, where they would "fix" it, and then I would get stuck at the mall or something and have it towed again. So I was spending money on repairs, but I just think that they either didn't know what was wrong with the car, or else they were going to repair all the minor stuff, because if it turned out to be something major I just wouldn't be able to keep the car. It just wasn't worth the money to try to fix a now ten year old car.
And I just kept thinking that if I had bought a new car to begin with, that I wouldn't be dealing with this stuff, or at least not for another five years or so.
And so we finally gave up trying to fix my car and I bought a new one. Really, a new one, though it didn't cost quite as much as my husband's slightly used vehicle. This is the only actual new car that either of us has ever bought.
So we have both had our current vehicles for a couple of years now. And we got a letter in the mail from GM telling us of a recall. It didn't quite make sense. Something about a leak and something about the cruise control and the car maybe blowing up. It said that until I could get the car looked at that I should park the car as far as possible from houses and other cars and such.
I left the car right where it was. It wasn't leaking anything, so I think that it was unlikely just blow up while parked on the street. And there really wasn't anyplace else to park it anyway.
I looked up stuff on the Internet about my car, and there was a recall of some sort for the year that I bought the car, though it did not say anything about the cruise control. And it wasn't supposed to blow up just from being parked, only if there was a collision.
Anyway, my car doesn't have cruise control, which was why I was confused with the original letter.
The letter came before Christmas. We were about to go out of town, and I decided that it could wait a while. And then we got back, and I was very busy knitting and doing other Christmas stuff, and I decided that it could wait a bit more. The letter said that there would probably be a long wait anyway, since everyone else who had bought the car would also have to have their cars looked at. I wasn't driving the car much, so I decided it could wait a bit more.
And then I just sort of forgot about it for a while. It could wait til after Christmas and New Year's. Probably everyone else will have gone in for the repairs by then, and I wouldn't have a long wait if I took it in sometime in January.
As you can see, it is now past the middle of January, and I still hadn't done anything about the car. I misplaced the letter about the recall, but I didn't think that they really needed the letter. I finally took the car in Friday and told them I had this letter from GM, but I wasn't even sure that it was my car being recalled. They said that they would look at it anyway.
After getting some numbers from my car and looking on their computer, they did not find any recalls about my car, even though I had seen something about it on the Internet. Since I wasn't actually having and problems with the car, they thanked me for checking and sent me home.
So I'm thinking that I got this letter by mistake, that it was only for cars with cruise control, cause it said something about cruise control in the letter, and my car doesn't have cruise control.
So I've been trying to do a bit of cleaning, and I finally found the letter about the car recall.
It wasn't about my current car. It wasn't about my husband's current vehicle. It was for one of those other vehicles that we don't have now.
I'm not feeling really bad yet, just acknowledging that I might have done something stupid.
But that isn't what I want to write about today. What I want to write about today is the car recall.
In the seventies, we had a Pinto. So sometimes car recalls are very scary. And I should have dealt with it right away, but I didn't.
After we stopped working for a certain company in 2001, we bought bought cars. Not new cars, just "new to us" cars, and much newer cars than what we had been driving. They seemed very nice and in good condition, but still, they were both about five years old and had a lot of miles when we got them. About the time all the really bad stuff happened, my husband had to have his vehicle replaced so that he could drive all over the place for his new job. He hadn't even had it for a year when he was in an accident and had to get yet another vehicle. This one was much newer, though it was still purchased used.
And while all this was going on I was having some car trouble, and it kept getting towed to the shop, where they would "fix" it, and then I would get stuck at the mall or something and have it towed again. So I was spending money on repairs, but I just think that they either didn't know what was wrong with the car, or else they were going to repair all the minor stuff, because if it turned out to be something major I just wouldn't be able to keep the car. It just wasn't worth the money to try to fix a now ten year old car.
And I just kept thinking that if I had bought a new car to begin with, that I wouldn't be dealing with this stuff, or at least not for another five years or so.
And so we finally gave up trying to fix my car and I bought a new one. Really, a new one, though it didn't cost quite as much as my husband's slightly used vehicle. This is the only actual new car that either of us has ever bought.
So we have both had our current vehicles for a couple of years now. And we got a letter in the mail from GM telling us of a recall. It didn't quite make sense. Something about a leak and something about the cruise control and the car maybe blowing up. It said that until I could get the car looked at that I should park the car as far as possible from houses and other cars and such.
I left the car right where it was. It wasn't leaking anything, so I think that it was unlikely just blow up while parked on the street. And there really wasn't anyplace else to park it anyway.
I looked up stuff on the Internet about my car, and there was a recall of some sort for the year that I bought the car, though it did not say anything about the cruise control. And it wasn't supposed to blow up just from being parked, only if there was a collision.
Anyway, my car doesn't have cruise control, which was why I was confused with the original letter.
The letter came before Christmas. We were about to go out of town, and I decided that it could wait a while. And then we got back, and I was very busy knitting and doing other Christmas stuff, and I decided that it could wait a bit more. The letter said that there would probably be a long wait anyway, since everyone else who had bought the car would also have to have their cars looked at. I wasn't driving the car much, so I decided it could wait a bit more.
And then I just sort of forgot about it for a while. It could wait til after Christmas and New Year's. Probably everyone else will have gone in for the repairs by then, and I wouldn't have a long wait if I took it in sometime in January.
As you can see, it is now past the middle of January, and I still hadn't done anything about the car. I misplaced the letter about the recall, but I didn't think that they really needed the letter. I finally took the car in Friday and told them I had this letter from GM, but I wasn't even sure that it was my car being recalled. They said that they would look at it anyway.
After getting some numbers from my car and looking on their computer, they did not find any recalls about my car, even though I had seen something about it on the Internet. Since I wasn't actually having and problems with the car, they thanked me for checking and sent me home.
So I'm thinking that I got this letter by mistake, that it was only for cars with cruise control, cause it said something about cruise control in the letter, and my car doesn't have cruise control.
So I've been trying to do a bit of cleaning, and I finally found the letter about the car recall.
It wasn't about my current car. It wasn't about my husband's current vehicle. It was for one of those other vehicles that we don't have now.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Monday Morons: Another Update on the Violin a** Woman
Before I get into that, I have a smaller Monday Moron story. Yesterday I was out at Target's (cause yesterday they had the 90% off Halloween clearance stuff), and while I was out I also stopped at Walmart and got a couple of Rubbermaid Takealongs (not that they were particularly on sale, but I thought that I might never get a chance to buy more of them).
A moment of silence to mourn the passing of the Rubbermaid Takealongs.
Anyway, I was at the self checkout thing. If you've never used the self checkout thing, it is a place where you scan what you want to buy yourself, without a cashier, and a computer screen shows you how much each item costs, and then you put the scanned item in a bag. The bagging area is weight sensitive, and if you don't bag the item, or you try to put something in the bag that you didn't scan, the computer won't let you continue scanning items and you have to get an employee to help you. The computer will also ask you things like START, FINISH, TYPE OF PAYMENT, etc...
Unfortunately, in my area we are usually asked if we want to continue in Spanish.
But anyway, you have to look at this computer screen, and at the beginning it says something like WELCOME VALUED CUSTOMER, and then you either press start or just start scanning stuff. If the screen says something else, like there is a list of items, or maybe it says PLEASE TAKE YOUR CHANGE, then it isn't your turn yet, cause someone else is still using the thing.
And it would usually be obvious that someone is still using the thing, cause the person using the things is usually standing right there. Though I suppose that someone could still be using the thing and not standing right in that spot, cause maybe they moved a few feet away to add a magazine or gum or a magazine. If there is not someone standing right there, and it doesn't look like someone is a few feet away getting gum, then maybe someone changed their mind and just left, and you have to get help from an employee.
But usually it is just a matter of waiting your turn, waiting for the person ahead of you get her change and her receipt and collect her purchases and move away. Then you have to wait for the computer screen to think about it for a moment before it is ready for a new customer. And, if the previous customer is really slow, the computer screen says it is ready for a new customer, but you still have to wait for the previous customer to get out of the way before you start scanning things. If you start scanning things with the previous customer still there, and her bags are still there, then the computer will think that you are trying to steal something.
Pretty obvious stuff.
Besides, it is just rude to start scanning stuff before the previous customer leaves. Sure, put stuff down and get ready to scan it, but you can't actually scan anything until the previous customer leaves and the computer is ready for a new customer.
So I am at Walmart waiting for my receipt, and this guy comes up and starts trying to scan sodas. And I'm still standing there, and the computer isn't ready for a new customer. It is still going through stuff like PLEASE TAKE YOUR CHANGE and all that.
And the guy just keeps trying to scan his sodas.
Even if the guy is too stupid to wait look up at the computer screen and see if something is wrong, can he not see me standing there?
The guy looked older than me, and I didn't want to hang around and try to teach him to act like a grownup.
Whatever.
Anyway, what I really wanted to tell you about....
Quite a while back I wrote a post about a former friend. The former friend did really bad things and then ended up dumping his wife for a woman half his age, after he and he and his wife lost their youngest son. For more on the story, read this and this.
I hadn't heard much about them lately, but over the weekend I heard a bit. After the new wife decided to try to have a baby with another man, the former friend didn't want to be married to her anymore. But, her friends and family tried to smooth things over with them, and they didn't immediately get a divorce.
Anyway, she lost her job, because a lot of other people at her place of employment just refused to work with her anymore. So now she doesn't have a job, and she isn't the mother of an American baby. If she's no longer the wife of an American man, there's no reason she should be allowed to stay in this country.
And then the former friend also lost his job. I've heard different stories about this, but whatever the reason, he doesn't have a job, and his younger wife doesn't have a job, so he isn't going to have any money, place to stay, etc....
His mommy doesn't like the new wife.
I don't know where the new wife is staying, but after losing his job, the former friend had to move in with his mommy.
Did I mention that the former friend is in his sixties?
So the former friend, now in his sixties, is having to move in with his mommy, and she doesn't like his new wife and won't have her around. In fact, she dislikes the new wife so much that she has not only offered him a place to stay in her home, but if he will divorce the woman, his mommy will buy him a car.
I have heard that she is so sure this will get rid of the new wife, that she already bought the car and it is now in mommy's garage.
I'm not sorry that the former friend lost his job. I'm not sorry that the former friend has split up with his younger wife.
I am sorry that he's now going to get free rent and a new car out of the deal.
A moment of silence to mourn the passing of the Rubbermaid Takealongs.
Anyway, I was at the self checkout thing. If you've never used the self checkout thing, it is a place where you scan what you want to buy yourself, without a cashier, and a computer screen shows you how much each item costs, and then you put the scanned item in a bag. The bagging area is weight sensitive, and if you don't bag the item, or you try to put something in the bag that you didn't scan, the computer won't let you continue scanning items and you have to get an employee to help you. The computer will also ask you things like START, FINISH, TYPE OF PAYMENT, etc...
Unfortunately, in my area we are usually asked if we want to continue in Spanish.
But anyway, you have to look at this computer screen, and at the beginning it says something like WELCOME VALUED CUSTOMER, and then you either press start or just start scanning stuff. If the screen says something else, like there is a list of items, or maybe it says PLEASE TAKE YOUR CHANGE, then it isn't your turn yet, cause someone else is still using the thing.
And it would usually be obvious that someone is still using the thing, cause the person using the things is usually standing right there. Though I suppose that someone could still be using the thing and not standing right in that spot, cause maybe they moved a few feet away to add a magazine or gum or a magazine. If there is not someone standing right there, and it doesn't look like someone is a few feet away getting gum, then maybe someone changed their mind and just left, and you have to get help from an employee.
But usually it is just a matter of waiting your turn, waiting for the person ahead of you get her change and her receipt and collect her purchases and move away. Then you have to wait for the computer screen to think about it for a moment before it is ready for a new customer. And, if the previous customer is really slow, the computer screen says it is ready for a new customer, but you still have to wait for the previous customer to get out of the way before you start scanning things. If you start scanning things with the previous customer still there, and her bags are still there, then the computer will think that you are trying to steal something.
Pretty obvious stuff.
Besides, it is just rude to start scanning stuff before the previous customer leaves. Sure, put stuff down and get ready to scan it, but you can't actually scan anything until the previous customer leaves and the computer is ready for a new customer.
So I am at Walmart waiting for my receipt, and this guy comes up and starts trying to scan sodas. And I'm still standing there, and the computer isn't ready for a new customer. It is still going through stuff like PLEASE TAKE YOUR CHANGE and all that.
And the guy just keeps trying to scan his sodas.
Even if the guy is too stupid to wait look up at the computer screen and see if something is wrong, can he not see me standing there?
The guy looked older than me, and I didn't want to hang around and try to teach him to act like a grownup.
Whatever.
Anyway, what I really wanted to tell you about....
Quite a while back I wrote a post about a former friend. The former friend did really bad things and then ended up dumping his wife for a woman half his age, after he and he and his wife lost their youngest son. For more on the story, read this and this.
I hadn't heard much about them lately, but over the weekend I heard a bit. After the new wife decided to try to have a baby with another man, the former friend didn't want to be married to her anymore. But, her friends and family tried to smooth things over with them, and they didn't immediately get a divorce.
Anyway, she lost her job, because a lot of other people at her place of employment just refused to work with her anymore. So now she doesn't have a job, and she isn't the mother of an American baby. If she's no longer the wife of an American man, there's no reason she should be allowed to stay in this country.
And then the former friend also lost his job. I've heard different stories about this, but whatever the reason, he doesn't have a job, and his younger wife doesn't have a job, so he isn't going to have any money, place to stay, etc....
His mommy doesn't like the new wife.
I don't know where the new wife is staying, but after losing his job, the former friend had to move in with his mommy.
Did I mention that the former friend is in his sixties?
So the former friend, now in his sixties, is having to move in with his mommy, and she doesn't like his new wife and won't have her around. In fact, she dislikes the new wife so much that she has not only offered him a place to stay in her home, but if he will divorce the woman, his mommy will buy him a car.
I have heard that she is so sure this will get rid of the new wife, that she already bought the car and it is now in mommy's garage.
I'm not sorry that the former friend lost his job. I'm not sorry that the former friend has split up with his younger wife.
I am sorry that he's now going to get free rent and a new car out of the deal.
Monday, July 09, 2007
"Come out, Neville!"
Well, that line probably won't be in the new movie, since "come out" has become something you say to someone you think is gay. But last week I went to see the Transformers, and I saw the trailer for I Am Legend, the third movie made from the Richard Matheson story. The first one was The Last Man On Earth in 1964 and starred Vincent Price. It was soon followed in 1971 by The Omega Man starring Charleston Heston.
The new I Am Legend stars Will Smith. Will Smith is getting pretty good at saving the human race. Wonder if he can do it again?
I had heard rumors about someone making another version of I Am Legend back in 2002. But I thought that maybe the rumor wasn't really about Matheson's story, since 28 Days Later came out just after that. And then there were more zombie movies and remakes of zombie movies, so I could see how a person could get confused. So I'm glad that the rumors turned out to be true.
Matheson's story was published in 1954. The main character is the sole survivor of a plague that turns everyone into vampires. There's a lot of stuff out now about vampirism caused by viruses and plagues that turn everyone into zombies, but I think for the time it was a pretty original idea.
Anyway, the film is scheduled for a December release. And that makes me wonder why I haven't seen the Invasion trailer in theaters yet, since that film is scheduled to be released next month. That's usually a bad sign.
And while I was in the theater, I also saw a trailer for a film by J J Abrams. There are shots of New York being attacked by something, and the event is being recorded by someone with a camcorder. Makes the film look a bit like The Blair Witch Project. There was no title for the film, though a quick Google search finds that it might be a film called Parasite.
This site was also mentioned http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com/, though I can't get all of it to work yet, and I have no idea what Ethan was right about. And it might be totally unrelated to the J J Abrams film. I can't judge yet. I just read that a lot of people think that they are connected.
As for the Transformers movie itself, it wasn't even something that I had planned on seeing until a couple of weeks ago. Seems like when the Transformers were a big deal, I wasn't the right age to appreciate them. And they were marketed at boys anyway. I think maybe my brother had some. So the names were vaguely familiar, but I didn't really know much about them. I wasn't totally thrilled to hear that they were making a movie about them, and I didn't run over to the box office for advance tickets.
The first part of the movie has a lot of fun stuff with the main character buying his first car. And then there are some chase scenes and stuff like that. And then there's the whole bit about who the Transformers are and why they're on Earth and all of that. And then they still have to try to hide from the main character's parents. Then there were a lot more chase scenes and blowing up things and stuff like that.
If you like long chase scenes and blowing things up, you'll probably go see this movie. If you're a guy a little younger than me, you've probably already seen this movie.
Okay, as before, please leave comments.
BUT DON'T LEAVE ANY F****** SPOILERS!
The new I Am Legend stars Will Smith. Will Smith is getting pretty good at saving the human race. Wonder if he can do it again?
I had heard rumors about someone making another version of I Am Legend back in 2002. But I thought that maybe the rumor wasn't really about Matheson's story, since 28 Days Later came out just after that. And then there were more zombie movies and remakes of zombie movies, so I could see how a person could get confused. So I'm glad that the rumors turned out to be true.
Matheson's story was published in 1954. The main character is the sole survivor of a plague that turns everyone into vampires. There's a lot of stuff out now about vampirism caused by viruses and plagues that turn everyone into zombies, but I think for the time it was a pretty original idea.
Anyway, the film is scheduled for a December release. And that makes me wonder why I haven't seen the Invasion trailer in theaters yet, since that film is scheduled to be released next month. That's usually a bad sign.
And while I was in the theater, I also saw a trailer for a film by J J Abrams. There are shots of New York being attacked by something, and the event is being recorded by someone with a camcorder. Makes the film look a bit like The Blair Witch Project. There was no title for the film, though a quick Google search finds that it might be a film called Parasite.
This site was also mentioned http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com/, though I can't get all of it to work yet, and I have no idea what Ethan was right about. And it might be totally unrelated to the J J Abrams film. I can't judge yet. I just read that a lot of people think that they are connected.
As for the Transformers movie itself, it wasn't even something that I had planned on seeing until a couple of weeks ago. Seems like when the Transformers were a big deal, I wasn't the right age to appreciate them. And they were marketed at boys anyway. I think maybe my brother had some. So the names were vaguely familiar, but I didn't really know much about them. I wasn't totally thrilled to hear that they were making a movie about them, and I didn't run over to the box office for advance tickets.
The first part of the movie has a lot of fun stuff with the main character buying his first car. And then there are some chase scenes and stuff like that. And then there's the whole bit about who the Transformers are and why they're on Earth and all of that. And then they still have to try to hide from the main character's parents. Then there were a lot more chase scenes and blowing up things and stuff like that.
If you like long chase scenes and blowing things up, you'll probably go see this movie. If you're a guy a little younger than me, you've probably already seen this movie.
Okay, as before, please leave comments.
BUT DON'T LEAVE ANY F****** SPOILERS!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Interesting week
In the last week or so I've gained a few new readers. Welcome new readers. Stick around, leave comments, etc....
I bought a car. It was weird. It was sort of like buying a pizza, only it took longer. We've been seriously talking about it for a few months, and we were talking about a bit before since the whole thing that happened last year. But I didn't want a car last year. It seemed like he was trying to buy me back, and I didn't like it when he first mentioned it. Later, it didn't sound like that was what he was trying to do at all, but there was nothing wrong with my car and we couldn't afford to get a new one. But, now the old car was doing odd things and rather than get stranded somewhere in the dark I decided that I should probably get a new one.
So we had been talking about getting a certain kind of car, and we had talked about waiting til the holiday sale time to see if the ad was a gimmick or what, and then when the day of the sale arrived they didn't have that car in stock anymore. So I had a bit of a panic attack. And then we were looking at the car ads and I found an ad for a different car that was really cheap. I don't understand, but it seemed like someone made a bunch of really cheap cars that were orange for some reason. But I don't care what color the car is. If it's cheap and it runs and has an A/C, who cares what color it is. But, the cheap car turned out to be manual, and I only drive auto.
But then we were thinking maybe I should drive one of these kinds of cars anyway. The automatic cars with A/C and such cost at least four thousand more, but often cost even more with all the other stuff added. We saw one that had been 13 something that was marked down to 11 something. And it wasn't orange.
I really don't think all this stuff that they put on cars is worth all of that. I do like the gizmo that melts the ice off of the back window, but I don't think I would pay extra for it. And I never listen to the radio anymore; it is just a distraction. So I would not have paid an extra two thousand dollars for a lot of stuff that I mostly don't even know what it is, even if it includes the thing that melts the ice off of the back window. But, on the other hand, if they want to give me all that stuff for free, why not?
So I drive this car around the block and such. The seat is a bit taller than the car I've been driving, which may take a while to get used to, but I will probably appreciate it later. If I drive the new car for ten years, I'll still have the thing when I'm fifty. I really don't want to be driving around in those low sports car seats when I'm fifty. The back has more space than my old car, but is not quite as long as the car I had when I was an Art Major. But I guess it's close enough, and I'm not an Art Major anymore.
There was not much discussion about the thing. I think my husband was just getting sick of going back and forth with the idea. It went sort of like--you need a car, and here is a car, and you like the car, and that's not a bad price on the car, and the place is nearby if the car needs service. That was pretty much that. So now I have a car.
There is all this stuff about getting a copy of the title of my old car that is starting to be a pain. But I think I finally have the right forms and will get it taken care of soon. Not like they really gave me much for the old car. I've seen other places give you that much if you don't have anything to trade.
Some friends of mine had some fun on TV. There were at least three different segments on two different channels, but this is the only one that I could find on the Internet.
http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=148126
I bought a car. It was weird. It was sort of like buying a pizza, only it took longer. We've been seriously talking about it for a few months, and we were talking about a bit before since the whole thing that happened last year. But I didn't want a car last year. It seemed like he was trying to buy me back, and I didn't like it when he first mentioned it. Later, it didn't sound like that was what he was trying to do at all, but there was nothing wrong with my car and we couldn't afford to get a new one. But, now the old car was doing odd things and rather than get stranded somewhere in the dark I decided that I should probably get a new one.
So we had been talking about getting a certain kind of car, and we had talked about waiting til the holiday sale time to see if the ad was a gimmick or what, and then when the day of the sale arrived they didn't have that car in stock anymore. So I had a bit of a panic attack. And then we were looking at the car ads and I found an ad for a different car that was really cheap. I don't understand, but it seemed like someone made a bunch of really cheap cars that were orange for some reason. But I don't care what color the car is. If it's cheap and it runs and has an A/C, who cares what color it is. But, the cheap car turned out to be manual, and I only drive auto.
But then we were thinking maybe I should drive one of these kinds of cars anyway. The automatic cars with A/C and such cost at least four thousand more, but often cost even more with all the other stuff added. We saw one that had been 13 something that was marked down to 11 something. And it wasn't orange.
I really don't think all this stuff that they put on cars is worth all of that. I do like the gizmo that melts the ice off of the back window, but I don't think I would pay extra for it. And I never listen to the radio anymore; it is just a distraction. So I would not have paid an extra two thousand dollars for a lot of stuff that I mostly don't even know what it is, even if it includes the thing that melts the ice off of the back window. But, on the other hand, if they want to give me all that stuff for free, why not?
So I drive this car around the block and such. The seat is a bit taller than the car I've been driving, which may take a while to get used to, but I will probably appreciate it later. If I drive the new car for ten years, I'll still have the thing when I'm fifty. I really don't want to be driving around in those low sports car seats when I'm fifty. The back has more space than my old car, but is not quite as long as the car I had when I was an Art Major. But I guess it's close enough, and I'm not an Art Major anymore.
There was not much discussion about the thing. I think my husband was just getting sick of going back and forth with the idea. It went sort of like--you need a car, and here is a car, and you like the car, and that's not a bad price on the car, and the place is nearby if the car needs service. That was pretty much that. So now I have a car.
There is all this stuff about getting a copy of the title of my old car that is starting to be a pain. But I think I finally have the right forms and will get it taken care of soon. Not like they really gave me much for the old car. I've seen other places give you that much if you don't have anything to trade.
Some friends of mine had some fun on TV. There were at least three different segments on two different channels, but this is the only one that I could find on the Internet.
http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=148126
There were a couple of better Klingons on one of the other segments, and they aren't even on the Klingon ship. We rarely see them either, except around Halloween. I saw M and J at a Ren Fest last year. They were dressed as Gandalf and Frodo, and the costumes were really great, but I didn't recognize them as M and J. Someone had to tell me who was wearing the costumes a week later.
But these guys aren't too bad either. Of course, I know the humans in the group, but I'm not sure if I've meet these particular Klingons. I'm sure that they were at the picnic I missed a couple of weeks ago.
Anyway, the point of the news segments was that my friends are going to help out at this Star Trek thing with Robert Picardo (EMH from Voyager) and John De Lancie (Q) at the Dallas Symphony next week. I don't think I'll be going. I have a costume, but my best Star Trek costume is a Borg parody. And, after what happened to a girl who went to the Star Wars thing in the Princess Leia bikini, I think that I won't be wearing the Borg thing unless I am specifically invited.
And of course, I hate Dallas. And I do not plan to drive to Dallas. And I especially do not want to drive to Dallas in my new car, even if it does have gap insurance.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Things I found while cleaning
So I've been trying to do some cleaning this weekend, and I decided that it was finally time to take everything out of the car. So I've found some interesting things, mostly in the car.
I found two non-working calculators. One of them was actually melted.
I found some kind of tool, still sealed in the box. It's rather like a Dremel, but cheaper. I have been looking for the thing, and I remember buying the thing. But if I bought it for something specific I do not remember, and I don't even remember what I meant to do with it the last time I was looking for it.
I found a copy of an email sent to me by the Homewrecking-slut last year. I should post that sometime. There were a lot of things I hoped that she might be sending me, like she misunderstood the situation and thought that we were getting a divorce anyway and now that she knew better she would back off so we could go to counseling. And then there were more practical things that I thought she might be sending me to get me to not try to drag out the divorce, like a promise that they were not going to go on a bunch of vacations and such until he paid what he owed me, or that she might even be offering me some money herself to help things. But for some reason she decided to send me this letter trying to convince me that my marriage wasn't suddenly over because he'd found some slut from London who was constantly talking to him about sex and offering to let him live in London with her. For some reason she wanted to try to convince me that she was doing the right thing and that they were just meant to be together and all of that. At some point she goes on about how she knows how I must feel, but there's nothing that I can do about it so I should just give up and then we'd all be happier. She actually tried to convince me that she was a good person and that most of the stuff on her blog was made-up. Ten minutes later she emailed my husband and told him that she lied to me and told me she was just a normal person pretending to do all this weird sex stuff, but actually she did even more weird sex stuff and just didn't want to write about the extreme stuff on her blog.
I found a lab manual for a science course that I didn't even take. More than twenty years ago I took Astronomy as an elective, without the lab credit. I took Geology as my science requirement. When I went back to college, one of the degree plans required more science credits than I had, so I made arrangements to just do the extra lab part without having to take the whole course again. But then I ended up with a different degree plan and didn't ever use the lab manual. I bought the thing in Spring of 2002, and it was still in my car. I guess that's why I had the melted calculator there too.
I found a bunch of stuff about getting a vasectomy. I've always worried about getting pregnant, and I thought he was concerned about it too. At some point I offered to make it worth it to him to go ahead and get the problem permanently taken care of. I'd also heard a rumor that there were other benefits from the procedure, but I've since been told that was a myth.
I found a bunch of stuff about the divorce. And I found the address and phone number to the motel my husband stayed at when he left me for a few days. I ended up staying at the place with him most of the time he was there. He didn't want it to be over between us, but he was too embarrassed to tell the Homewrecking-slut that after she'd already bought the plane tickets.
I found a jar candle that I put in the car last December, just in case I was in a gift exchange or something like that I forgot about. Funny that the candle wasn't a melted mess but the calculator was.
I had to move a bunch of clay and other ceramic stuff into the house. Class has been over for a few weeks, but the stuff has been in the trunk of my car cause I don't know where to put it in the house. I still don't know where to put it, but right now it is on the floor in the hall.
I found some stuff I got from All-Con last year. There was a fictional newspaper to promote a horror film that I didn't see.
I took out a folding metal chair. I have no idea why I even had that in the car.
And I found a Star Trek 10 movie poster that the theater people gave us for going in costume to opening weekend. Mine got wet, and I left it in the trunk and forgot about it.
I usually enjoy finding old stuff like that when I'm cleaning, but most of this stuff just made me sad.
I found two non-working calculators. One of them was actually melted.
I found some kind of tool, still sealed in the box. It's rather like a Dremel, but cheaper. I have been looking for the thing, and I remember buying the thing. But if I bought it for something specific I do not remember, and I don't even remember what I meant to do with it the last time I was looking for it.
I found a copy of an email sent to me by the Homewrecking-slut last year. I should post that sometime. There were a lot of things I hoped that she might be sending me, like she misunderstood the situation and thought that we were getting a divorce anyway and now that she knew better she would back off so we could go to counseling. And then there were more practical things that I thought she might be sending me to get me to not try to drag out the divorce, like a promise that they were not going to go on a bunch of vacations and such until he paid what he owed me, or that she might even be offering me some money herself to help things. But for some reason she decided to send me this letter trying to convince me that my marriage wasn't suddenly over because he'd found some slut from London who was constantly talking to him about sex and offering to let him live in London with her. For some reason she wanted to try to convince me that she was doing the right thing and that they were just meant to be together and all of that. At some point she goes on about how she knows how I must feel, but there's nothing that I can do about it so I should just give up and then we'd all be happier. She actually tried to convince me that she was a good person and that most of the stuff on her blog was made-up. Ten minutes later she emailed my husband and told him that she lied to me and told me she was just a normal person pretending to do all this weird sex stuff, but actually she did even more weird sex stuff and just didn't want to write about the extreme stuff on her blog.
I found a lab manual for a science course that I didn't even take. More than twenty years ago I took Astronomy as an elective, without the lab credit. I took Geology as my science requirement. When I went back to college, one of the degree plans required more science credits than I had, so I made arrangements to just do the extra lab part without having to take the whole course again. But then I ended up with a different degree plan and didn't ever use the lab manual. I bought the thing in Spring of 2002, and it was still in my car. I guess that's why I had the melted calculator there too.
I found a bunch of stuff about getting a vasectomy. I've always worried about getting pregnant, and I thought he was concerned about it too. At some point I offered to make it worth it to him to go ahead and get the problem permanently taken care of. I'd also heard a rumor that there were other benefits from the procedure, but I've since been told that was a myth.
I found a bunch of stuff about the divorce. And I found the address and phone number to the motel my husband stayed at when he left me for a few days. I ended up staying at the place with him most of the time he was there. He didn't want it to be over between us, but he was too embarrassed to tell the Homewrecking-slut that after she'd already bought the plane tickets.
I found a jar candle that I put in the car last December, just in case I was in a gift exchange or something like that I forgot about. Funny that the candle wasn't a melted mess but the calculator was.
I had to move a bunch of clay and other ceramic stuff into the house. Class has been over for a few weeks, but the stuff has been in the trunk of my car cause I don't know where to put it in the house. I still don't know where to put it, but right now it is on the floor in the hall.
I found some stuff I got from All-Con last year. There was a fictional newspaper to promote a horror film that I didn't see.
I took out a folding metal chair. I have no idea why I even had that in the car.
And I found a Star Trek 10 movie poster that the theater people gave us for going in costume to opening weekend. Mine got wet, and I left it in the trunk and forgot about it.
I usually enjoy finding old stuff like that when I'm cleaning, but most of this stuff just made me sad.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
I am stuck at home
The car hasn't worked for a week. Despite having the starter replaced and the battery replaced and all of that, it still doesn't work right. Something is draining the battery and I have no idea what it is. Having the mechanic find out would probably cost a lot of money, so I didn't even bother calling this time.
So I don't have a car today. Today is the club's annual outdoor meeting. The outdoor meeting is not really my thing, but I usually put in an appearance anyway. And I like eating hamburgers and hotdogs as much as the next person. I just don't get into the water guns and all of that. And I'm not smart enough for to bother with the engineering test either.
So I was mostly okay with missing the meeting, until today, and now I just really don't care for being stuck here. We had invited some Klingons and some Browncoats, so there will be new people to met, and I won't be meeting them. Great. Just great.
So I don't have a car today. Today is the club's annual outdoor meeting. The outdoor meeting is not really my thing, but I usually put in an appearance anyway. And I like eating hamburgers and hotdogs as much as the next person. I just don't get into the water guns and all of that. And I'm not smart enough for to bother with the engineering test either.
So I was mostly okay with missing the meeting, until today, and now I just really don't care for being stuck here. We had invited some Klingons and some Browncoats, so there will be new people to met, and I won't be meeting them. Great. Just great.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Monday Morons--people will get the dumbest ideas in their heads
Well, after writing a really long post last Monday about certain people, I don't really want to get into any of that right now. And I didn't get especially ticked off at anyone this week. So I was just thinking about the dumb ideas people get into their heads.
And rather than talk about the usual suspects, I thought I'd pick on my little brother for a bit.
Let's be fair. He said some dumb stuff, but he was a teenager at the time. He still says dumb stuff once in a while, but it is different dumb stuff.
So it was like twenty years ago, and I was in college and he was probably a high school senior. And for some reason we were talking about how it isn't fair that jobs that are mostly for women pay less than than other jobs that are just as much work. And my brother comes in and says that men need more money than women.
Well, everyone who has given it any thought knows that for the most part women need more money than men. And it was the eighties, and so if you didn't already know that, and it was a slow news day, there would be a news story about women being charged more for haircuts and dry cleaning and stuff like that.
There are some exceptions. Car insurance is the main thing that comes to mind. Young men are usually charged more for car insurance than young women. But, more men drive fast and wreck their cars and such, the insurance companies noticed a pattern, and so young men have to pay more. It doesn't last forever, and if you don't have wrecks and/or get speeding tickets, the car insurance goes down a bit after you turn twenty-five. If your car insurance is still high after that, it's probably your own fault. (My husband never had a problem with this, since he didn't learn to drive til he was twenty-five anyway.) Or a man's car insurance might go down a bit after he gets married. But generally speaking, young men pay more for car insurance than young women.
But a lot of other stuff costs more if you're a woman. After you've had your two point five children and want permanent birth-control, the surgical procedures for women cost more than for men. And women have that extra annual exam to pay for. And women have to buy more clothes, and women are expected to wear makeup, and women have to buy stuff at the drug store that men don't use.
There's all this kind of stuff to deal with, and everybody knows that. So why was my brother saying that men needed more money?
So we thought maybe he was thinking that the man of the house needed more money so that his wife could be a stay at home mom or something like that. So we said that he should either think about people who were single or married people who both had to work to take care of their children or single parents that didn't have financial help from the other parent. Not counting stay at home parents or people married to stay at home parents, why would a man need to make more money than a woman?
To buy nice cars.
Women need nice cars too. We have to drive to work too, why should a man need a nicer car than a woman?
Guys need nice cars to get girls.
Okay. There it was, spoken out loud. Men needed more money to buy nice cars to get women.
I know that people have dumb ideas in their heads. But I just kind of thought that once a person said something dumb out loud, it wouldn't make as much sense. And that they should hear what they've said and know that it doesn't make sense. And while they shouldn't have gotten the dumb idea in their heads to begin with, once they've said the dumb thing out loud they should be able to hear that it doesn't make as much sense as they thought it did. But, if you're still in doubt, the looks on other people's faces should tell you that you're not making sense.
Guys need nice cars to get girls.
I do not even know what is the most funny about that statement. There is so much about it that just doesn't work.
Okay, so if all men are to be paid more money so that they can all go out and buy nice cars to attract women, doesn't that sort of level the field so that all men have nice cars? Who is going to notice your nice car if all the guys have cars just as nice? If men buy nice cars to make up for what they lack in other areas, but then all men get nice cars, how are we supposed to figure out....
But let's not go there.
I really can't imagine that most women are really looking at the cars anyway. Now, some women just like cars. Some women are just nuts about cars, and if a nice guy who is nuts about cars meets a nice girl who is nuts about cars, and they find out they have other things in common, then that's great and may they drive off into the sunset and be happy forever. But the rest of us just don't care that much about cars.
Now, some women will be impressed that you have a certain kind of car. But I think men greatly overestimate the role their particular kind of car plays in getting a date. My brother-in-law had a BMW when he met my sister. He was sure it was going to impress her. He kept trying to come up with excuses for my sister to see his car. It's funny now, but at the time he was just making no damn sense. He wanted to go get his car and drive her to her car so she wouldn't have far to walk, but it wasn't raining or anything, and she parked closer than he did. Why didn't he just want to walk her to her car? Isn't that the thing to do when you met someone you want to spend more time with?
Me, I care so little about cars that half the time I probably don't even know which car you're talking about. I might notice something about the car that might suggest something about a man. I might notice that his car is cleaner than mine, cause I'm just not known for neatness. Or I might notice that the car seems well cared for. Or I might notice that the car is new.
So I might infer from the well taken care of car that the guy takes care of his things or is a good mechanic, both of which are good qualities in a guy, especially if I am seriously looking for a husband. The type of car is not relevent, though if the car is decorated with orange flames or is a truck with extremely big tires, I might infer something that is not something I would look for in a husband.
And if the guy has a new car I might infer that the guy either has a good job, or at least an okay job and has managed to save up enough money to obtain a new car. Again, the type of car is not relevent. But if the car is some almost useless thing with a label that is supposed to impress people, I might infer something else that is not desirable in a potential husband.
Now other women might show an interest in your particular kind of car. You might have the same kind of car, and she might think that is cute. Or you might have just bought a car that she is thinking of buying, so she might ask you if you're happy with your car. Or you might have a "classic" car that you fixed up that is just like the car her dad used to have. Or you might have the same kind of car that was in a favorite movie or favorite TV show.
Okay, so we are back to why would a guy need a nice car to attract women?
So you've got your nice new expensive car, and the women are all over you. And the women are all over your car, and they just love your car. They don't have have an interest in the car as described in the paragraphs above, but they know that the car is new and/or expensive and they are just so excited about it.
Let's see. I think there's a name for women who are into cars that way. What are those women called?
Gold-diggers, right? You've bought a new car to impress women who just want to spend your money. And it seems to be working. Congratulations.
Are you sure that's a good idea? Is that really a good way to meet women?
Hey, I've got an idea. If you want to buy a woman's affection, try this. As long as it still works, keep the car that you already have. Put a bumper sticker on it that says what kind of car you wanted to buy, but you decided to save the money for her engagement ring and the honeymoon trip instead.
And rather than talk about the usual suspects, I thought I'd pick on my little brother for a bit.
Let's be fair. He said some dumb stuff, but he was a teenager at the time. He still says dumb stuff once in a while, but it is different dumb stuff.
So it was like twenty years ago, and I was in college and he was probably a high school senior. And for some reason we were talking about how it isn't fair that jobs that are mostly for women pay less than than other jobs that are just as much work. And my brother comes in and says that men need more money than women.
Well, everyone who has given it any thought knows that for the most part women need more money than men. And it was the eighties, and so if you didn't already know that, and it was a slow news day, there would be a news story about women being charged more for haircuts and dry cleaning and stuff like that.
There are some exceptions. Car insurance is the main thing that comes to mind. Young men are usually charged more for car insurance than young women. But, more men drive fast and wreck their cars and such, the insurance companies noticed a pattern, and so young men have to pay more. It doesn't last forever, and if you don't have wrecks and/or get speeding tickets, the car insurance goes down a bit after you turn twenty-five. If your car insurance is still high after that, it's probably your own fault. (My husband never had a problem with this, since he didn't learn to drive til he was twenty-five anyway.) Or a man's car insurance might go down a bit after he gets married. But generally speaking, young men pay more for car insurance than young women.
But a lot of other stuff costs more if you're a woman. After you've had your two point five children and want permanent birth-control, the surgical procedures for women cost more than for men. And women have that extra annual exam to pay for. And women have to buy more clothes, and women are expected to wear makeup, and women have to buy stuff at the drug store that men don't use.
There's all this kind of stuff to deal with, and everybody knows that. So why was my brother saying that men needed more money?
So we thought maybe he was thinking that the man of the house needed more money so that his wife could be a stay at home mom or something like that. So we said that he should either think about people who were single or married people who both had to work to take care of their children or single parents that didn't have financial help from the other parent. Not counting stay at home parents or people married to stay at home parents, why would a man need to make more money than a woman?
To buy nice cars.
Women need nice cars too. We have to drive to work too, why should a man need a nicer car than a woman?
Guys need nice cars to get girls.
Okay. There it was, spoken out loud. Men needed more money to buy nice cars to get women.
I know that people have dumb ideas in their heads. But I just kind of thought that once a person said something dumb out loud, it wouldn't make as much sense. And that they should hear what they've said and know that it doesn't make sense. And while they shouldn't have gotten the dumb idea in their heads to begin with, once they've said the dumb thing out loud they should be able to hear that it doesn't make as much sense as they thought it did. But, if you're still in doubt, the looks on other people's faces should tell you that you're not making sense.
Guys need nice cars to get girls.
I do not even know what is the most funny about that statement. There is so much about it that just doesn't work.
Okay, so if all men are to be paid more money so that they can all go out and buy nice cars to attract women, doesn't that sort of level the field so that all men have nice cars? Who is going to notice your nice car if all the guys have cars just as nice? If men buy nice cars to make up for what they lack in other areas, but then all men get nice cars, how are we supposed to figure out....
But let's not go there.
I really can't imagine that most women are really looking at the cars anyway. Now, some women just like cars. Some women are just nuts about cars, and if a nice guy who is nuts about cars meets a nice girl who is nuts about cars, and they find out they have other things in common, then that's great and may they drive off into the sunset and be happy forever. But the rest of us just don't care that much about cars.
Now, some women will be impressed that you have a certain kind of car. But I think men greatly overestimate the role their particular kind of car plays in getting a date. My brother-in-law had a BMW when he met my sister. He was sure it was going to impress her. He kept trying to come up with excuses for my sister to see his car. It's funny now, but at the time he was just making no damn sense. He wanted to go get his car and drive her to her car so she wouldn't have far to walk, but it wasn't raining or anything, and she parked closer than he did. Why didn't he just want to walk her to her car? Isn't that the thing to do when you met someone you want to spend more time with?
Me, I care so little about cars that half the time I probably don't even know which car you're talking about. I might notice something about the car that might suggest something about a man. I might notice that his car is cleaner than mine, cause I'm just not known for neatness. Or I might notice that the car seems well cared for. Or I might notice that the car is new.
So I might infer from the well taken care of car that the guy takes care of his things or is a good mechanic, both of which are good qualities in a guy, especially if I am seriously looking for a husband. The type of car is not relevent, though if the car is decorated with orange flames or is a truck with extremely big tires, I might infer something that is not something I would look for in a husband.
And if the guy has a new car I might infer that the guy either has a good job, or at least an okay job and has managed to save up enough money to obtain a new car. Again, the type of car is not relevent. But if the car is some almost useless thing with a label that is supposed to impress people, I might infer something else that is not desirable in a potential husband.
Now other women might show an interest in your particular kind of car. You might have the same kind of car, and she might think that is cute. Or you might have just bought a car that she is thinking of buying, so she might ask you if you're happy with your car. Or you might have a "classic" car that you fixed up that is just like the car her dad used to have. Or you might have the same kind of car that was in a favorite movie or favorite TV show.
Okay, so we are back to why would a guy need a nice car to attract women?
So you've got your nice new expensive car, and the women are all over you. And the women are all over your car, and they just love your car. They don't have have an interest in the car as described in the paragraphs above, but they know that the car is new and/or expensive and they are just so excited about it.
Let's see. I think there's a name for women who are into cars that way. What are those women called?
Gold-diggers, right? You've bought a new car to impress women who just want to spend your money. And it seems to be working. Congratulations.
Are you sure that's a good idea? Is that really a good way to meet women?
Hey, I've got an idea. If you want to buy a woman's affection, try this. As long as it still works, keep the car that you already have. Put a bumper sticker on it that says what kind of car you wanted to buy, but you decided to save the money for her engagement ring and the honeymoon trip instead.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Monday Morons--I'm going to be nice today
I'm going to put off that other thing yet again. I promise that I will get to it, just not today. Trying to address everything that I can remember being mentioned. Thoroughness takes time, and I have other things to do right now. It is the last regular week of classes this semester, and my husband is home this week.
And before I forget, welcome to my new readers, including everyone's favorite hairy nurse.
So for today I will talk a bit more about the car situation. This isn't quite a retraction from the earlier post. http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2007/04/monday-moron-mechanics.html I still think that the world would be a much better place if people would just be honest and tell you that you are not their main priority and they can't get to your problem until later, maybe much later, and you might have to come back later or just go somewhere else entirely. But I will say that I'm liking the people at the car repair place a bit better this week.
So every once in a while my car doesn't start. Usually, if I take a deep breath, count to ten, make sure that I haven't left the lights on, make sure to to turn off the AC or the heater or whatever, then right after that the car does start. Sometimes I go away for five minutes or so and then the car will start. Once in a great while it just doesn't want to play nice and I go away for like an hour and then it will start. Once or twice this past year I couldn't get it to start at all and then when I would call someone for help it would make a miraculous recovery.
Wednesday afternoon, after doing all of the usual stuff, it just wouldn't start. Since I was in a shopping center, I tried going shopping for about an hour. The car still didn't start. Okay, so this is like one of those emergencies that I got an emergency cell phone for.
The cell phone was missing. I must have left it on the charger and I left the house too sleepy to notice I didn't have it. Great.
So some nice people at Office Max let me use their phone to call the auto club. I got a recording. Press one for English, etc.... Okay, a few minutes later, I'm talking to a real person who asks for my name and could I please repeat my membership number.
I'm sorry, that account was closed in December of 2006 for lack of payment.
Okay, I don't feel like arguing about it. Since I didn't personally write that check, I can't swear that's a lie. I just want to go home. The car can wait, and school can wait, and all the other stuff I meant to do can wait. I'm tired now. I call my mom for a ride home.
Mom doesn't just jump in the car and come get me. For some reason she has a bunch of questions. She doesn't know any more about cars than I do. What is the point of the questions? Does she really need to know exactly what the problem is for her to give me a ride home?
Is that all you need? A ride home?
Well, the car probably just needs a jump. Maybe we could figure out how to do that.
Trying to do stuff like that when you don't know what you're doing is dangerous. I don't want to do that.
I thought so. Just a ride home will be fine. I can probably get someone else to help me out with it later.
Okay.
I wait for her to come give me a ride. She lives a bit closer to the place than I do, but somehow it takes her longer to get there than I expect. Since the last time I had trouble with the car it started just as soon as someone can to help, I try the car again. No luck.
Why don't we call your brother and see if he knows what might be wrong with the car.
Okay.
My mom and my brother have a discussion about the car. He doesn't even talk to me about it. Mom keeps coming back to "but we might have to get it towed anyway. So maybe we should just go ahead and pay someone to tow it now."
I don't want to pay for someone to tow it now. I'm almost certain that I have already paid for such things to be taken care of, and I'd rather just go home and find out why the motor club claims that the account was canceled due to lack of payment and maybe have it towed somewhere tomorrow. I'm just really tired right now. I've been stuck here for more than two hours and I just want to go home.
But before I do that I should probably stop at school and clean up the work area so that someone else can use it. Since I won't be able to use the space during the evening class I should at least move my stuff out of the way so that someone else can use it.
The idea of making a detour to the college seems to totally confuse my mother. Like she forgot I was taking a college class. She's told me often enough that I'm wasting my time with it. But when I mentioned it Wednesday she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. But, she didn't want me to be rude, so she did make the detour to the school so I could put my things away.
I got home just in time to have a soda right before my brother called to tell me he could drive me back to Arlington and have a look at the car. I haven't had time to call the auto club and find out about this cancelled account business, but I'm almost certain that it just needs a jump and that my brother can handle it faster than the auto club people anyway.
So back to Arlington we go. I don't have any jumper cables, but that is something that I should probably buy anyway, and the car was nice enough to get stuck in the shopping center next to a place that sells them. But after we try the jumper cables, the car still doesn't start. Some gizmo of Dad's says that the battery and the alternator are in fair to good condition. So maybe it's the starter. Seems like I just got a new starter like maybe a year ago, but I can't really remember.
Never mind. My brother is nice enough to take me back to school where I talk to the professor and tell him about the car and that I don't know how long it will take to get it fixed and all of that. So I wrap up one of my projects and take it home. I can't do that much with it at home, but working on it a bit at home is better than not getting to work on it at all.
So the next day after calling my husband and looking at the auto club card and emptying my wallet and finding another auto club card, we figure out that he has yet a third auto club card. They are all from the same company, but they all have different membership numbers and different emergency service numbers. Apparently the card I tried to use had been "cancelled" when my husband cancelled a certain credit card and got a new one. So I got the third auto club number from him and called the auto club back and got a recording saying that the account was paid until March of 2008. That's what I thought.
I called my mom and we went back to Arlington. I had my phone with me this time. She offered to let me use hers, but no, this is what I have the emergency phone for, and I really never use it, and I should make sure that it actually works once in a while.
Twenty minutes later, after talking to both the auto repair place and someone at the auto club, my mom and I are waiting for a tow truck. It's probably going to be an hour, and I had planned to buy my mom lunch while we were waiting, but we are not supposed to leave the car. She says that she just wants something like a hot dog anyway, so maybe she could go get one and come back. But mom is in luck, cause there's a guy with a hot dog stand in front of the Home Depot.
The tow truck guy is a little early, and I don't quite finish my lunch. My mom and I were talking, and for a moment we forgot we were supposed to be watching for the tow truck. Oh, look, there it is.
The tow truck guy came a bit earlier than expected, because the car at his last stop made a miraculous recovery as soon as he arrived.
So he fills out a form that asks for every number that is anywhere on my car. Then he puts the car in neutral and moves the car to a better spot in relation to his truck. I could have helped him with that if I'd realized that he couldn't get the truck close enough to the car where it was. But he seemed used to doing stuff like that all by himself. Then he lifts up the car and puts lights on it and all that stuff and takes it away.
I go around with Mom for a bit to run some errands.
After I get home someone from the auto repair place calls and says that it does just appear to be the starter, and they've looked and found out that I just had that replaced in June. So since the starter has a 12 month warranty, there will not be any charge for fixing the starter and I can have my car back Friday morning if they don't finish with it by 6pm on Thursday.
Great. I might even get my car in time to go to Friday's ceramic class.
No such luck. No one calls. After lunch on Friday I call them, and they tell me the car is ready for me to come and pick it up.
So that afternoon my mother gives me a ride to the auto repair place. The guy who must be the new manager comes out to meet me and explains that he's the one I talked to on the phone. After looking at the paperwork a second time, it looks like the starter was replaced in June of 2005, and is no longer under warranty.
But since he'd already told me over the phone that there would be no charge, they went ahead and fixed it for free anyway.
Okay. Liking the auto repair people a lot better now.
There is still stuff wrong with the car, cause I didn't get all of the suggested repairs last time. And now I think maybe car needs new shock-absorbers. But I don't have the money and I'm pretty sure that all of that can wait til I get a job or something.
And just in case you haven't had enough morons for Monday, here's some links to some really silly stuff.
The llama song:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php
The Sawyer song (LOST):
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/sawyer.php
The Dalek song (Dr. Who):
http://artistic-insanity.net/song/daleksong.html
And before I forget, welcome to my new readers, including everyone's favorite hairy nurse.
So for today I will talk a bit more about the car situation. This isn't quite a retraction from the earlier post. http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2007/04/monday-moron-mechanics.html I still think that the world would be a much better place if people would just be honest and tell you that you are not their main priority and they can't get to your problem until later, maybe much later, and you might have to come back later or just go somewhere else entirely. But I will say that I'm liking the people at the car repair place a bit better this week.
So every once in a while my car doesn't start. Usually, if I take a deep breath, count to ten, make sure that I haven't left the lights on, make sure to to turn off the AC or the heater or whatever, then right after that the car does start. Sometimes I go away for five minutes or so and then the car will start. Once in a great while it just doesn't want to play nice and I go away for like an hour and then it will start. Once or twice this past year I couldn't get it to start at all and then when I would call someone for help it would make a miraculous recovery.
Wednesday afternoon, after doing all of the usual stuff, it just wouldn't start. Since I was in a shopping center, I tried going shopping for about an hour. The car still didn't start. Okay, so this is like one of those emergencies that I got an emergency cell phone for.
The cell phone was missing. I must have left it on the charger and I left the house too sleepy to notice I didn't have it. Great.
So some nice people at Office Max let me use their phone to call the auto club. I got a recording. Press one for English, etc.... Okay, a few minutes later, I'm talking to a real person who asks for my name and could I please repeat my membership number.
I'm sorry, that account was closed in December of 2006 for lack of payment.
Okay, I don't feel like arguing about it. Since I didn't personally write that check, I can't swear that's a lie. I just want to go home. The car can wait, and school can wait, and all the other stuff I meant to do can wait. I'm tired now. I call my mom for a ride home.
Mom doesn't just jump in the car and come get me. For some reason she has a bunch of questions. She doesn't know any more about cars than I do. What is the point of the questions? Does she really need to know exactly what the problem is for her to give me a ride home?
Is that all you need? A ride home?
Well, the car probably just needs a jump. Maybe we could figure out how to do that.
Trying to do stuff like that when you don't know what you're doing is dangerous. I don't want to do that.
I thought so. Just a ride home will be fine. I can probably get someone else to help me out with it later.
Okay.
I wait for her to come give me a ride. She lives a bit closer to the place than I do, but somehow it takes her longer to get there than I expect. Since the last time I had trouble with the car it started just as soon as someone can to help, I try the car again. No luck.
Why don't we call your brother and see if he knows what might be wrong with the car.
Okay.
My mom and my brother have a discussion about the car. He doesn't even talk to me about it. Mom keeps coming back to "but we might have to get it towed anyway. So maybe we should just go ahead and pay someone to tow it now."
I don't want to pay for someone to tow it now. I'm almost certain that I have already paid for such things to be taken care of, and I'd rather just go home and find out why the motor club claims that the account was canceled due to lack of payment and maybe have it towed somewhere tomorrow. I'm just really tired right now. I've been stuck here for more than two hours and I just want to go home.
But before I do that I should probably stop at school and clean up the work area so that someone else can use it. Since I won't be able to use the space during the evening class I should at least move my stuff out of the way so that someone else can use it.
The idea of making a detour to the college seems to totally confuse my mother. Like she forgot I was taking a college class. She's told me often enough that I'm wasting my time with it. But when I mentioned it Wednesday she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. But, she didn't want me to be rude, so she did make the detour to the school so I could put my things away.
I got home just in time to have a soda right before my brother called to tell me he could drive me back to Arlington and have a look at the car. I haven't had time to call the auto club and find out about this cancelled account business, but I'm almost certain that it just needs a jump and that my brother can handle it faster than the auto club people anyway.
So back to Arlington we go. I don't have any jumper cables, but that is something that I should probably buy anyway, and the car was nice enough to get stuck in the shopping center next to a place that sells them. But after we try the jumper cables, the car still doesn't start. Some gizmo of Dad's says that the battery and the alternator are in fair to good condition. So maybe it's the starter. Seems like I just got a new starter like maybe a year ago, but I can't really remember.
Never mind. My brother is nice enough to take me back to school where I talk to the professor and tell him about the car and that I don't know how long it will take to get it fixed and all of that. So I wrap up one of my projects and take it home. I can't do that much with it at home, but working on it a bit at home is better than not getting to work on it at all.
So the next day after calling my husband and looking at the auto club card and emptying my wallet and finding another auto club card, we figure out that he has yet a third auto club card. They are all from the same company, but they all have different membership numbers and different emergency service numbers. Apparently the card I tried to use had been "cancelled" when my husband cancelled a certain credit card and got a new one. So I got the third auto club number from him and called the auto club back and got a recording saying that the account was paid until March of 2008. That's what I thought.
I called my mom and we went back to Arlington. I had my phone with me this time. She offered to let me use hers, but no, this is what I have the emergency phone for, and I really never use it, and I should make sure that it actually works once in a while.
Twenty minutes later, after talking to both the auto repair place and someone at the auto club, my mom and I are waiting for a tow truck. It's probably going to be an hour, and I had planned to buy my mom lunch while we were waiting, but we are not supposed to leave the car. She says that she just wants something like a hot dog anyway, so maybe she could go get one and come back. But mom is in luck, cause there's a guy with a hot dog stand in front of the Home Depot.
The tow truck guy is a little early, and I don't quite finish my lunch. My mom and I were talking, and for a moment we forgot we were supposed to be watching for the tow truck. Oh, look, there it is.
The tow truck guy came a bit earlier than expected, because the car at his last stop made a miraculous recovery as soon as he arrived.
So he fills out a form that asks for every number that is anywhere on my car. Then he puts the car in neutral and moves the car to a better spot in relation to his truck. I could have helped him with that if I'd realized that he couldn't get the truck close enough to the car where it was. But he seemed used to doing stuff like that all by himself. Then he lifts up the car and puts lights on it and all that stuff and takes it away.
I go around with Mom for a bit to run some errands.
After I get home someone from the auto repair place calls and says that it does just appear to be the starter, and they've looked and found out that I just had that replaced in June. So since the starter has a 12 month warranty, there will not be any charge for fixing the starter and I can have my car back Friday morning if they don't finish with it by 6pm on Thursday.
Great. I might even get my car in time to go to Friday's ceramic class.
No such luck. No one calls. After lunch on Friday I call them, and they tell me the car is ready for me to come and pick it up.
So that afternoon my mother gives me a ride to the auto repair place. The guy who must be the new manager comes out to meet me and explains that he's the one I talked to on the phone. After looking at the paperwork a second time, it looks like the starter was replaced in June of 2005, and is no longer under warranty.
But since he'd already told me over the phone that there would be no charge, they went ahead and fixed it for free anyway.
Okay. Liking the auto repair people a lot better now.
There is still stuff wrong with the car, cause I didn't get all of the suggested repairs last time. And now I think maybe car needs new shock-absorbers. But I don't have the money and I'm pretty sure that all of that can wait til I get a job or something.
And just in case you haven't had enough morons for Monday, here's some links to some really silly stuff.
The llama song:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php
The Sawyer song (LOST):
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/sawyer.php
The Dalek song (Dr. Who):
http://artistic-insanity.net/song/daleksong.html
Monday, April 09, 2007
Monday Moron Mechanics
I have this awful desire to blog about my husband today. Not about the whole what the hell were you thinking last year, but just why did you have to be a pain yesterday? I'm so trying to keep my mouth shut about stuff he's doing, and he has to tell me I'm a bad person for some imaginary thing I did. Most weeks we only see each other for two days, but he'll manage to ruin one of those.
According to Tara, today is kiss a stranger day. I feel like I have been married to a stranger for seventeen years. I kissed my husband today. Does that count the same as kissing a stranger?
Probably won't get to that new recipe thing either.
But never mind about all that. We are here today to talk about mechanics.
So this is what happened. I have three annoying extra expenses in March. I have my annual. And I have to register and buy tags for the car. And I have to get an inspection sticker for the car.
The annual exam we have already discussed.
The tags for the car cost about fifty-three dollars. You usually have to wait in a long line to pay your fifty-three dollars, but getting the tags is not usually a problem. If you lived somewhere else last year, or you had a different car last year, you might hit a snag, but not usually. And I had both the same car and the same address as last year, so my only thing is remembering to either bring actual cash or at least a paper check. They don't take credit cards or debit cards.
I have sort of a tradition of getting my inspection sticker before my tags. I used to worry that my old car wouldn't pass inspection. Not that I worried it wasn't safe to drive, but I worried that it wouldn't pass the emissions test. Then you have to pay for a lot of expensive useless repairs that do not actually make the car pass the emissions test, and usually the car is f***** up more after the "repairs" than before. So I used to get the inspection sticker first, just in case I finally had it with the car and decide to drive it into the lake rather than "repair" it. And I might as well do that before I spend fifty-three dollars on the tags.
But my current car is a 1996 and the emissions test is not the great headache that it was with the 1980 car. So I didn't give it much thought. I didn't run out the first week and get the inspection over with. And I didn't go the second week because I was out of town for spring break. And I didn't go the third week before I only had sixty dollars left for the week. I meant to go, but I got there just after the place had closed on Wednesday. Thursday morning I was driving by the vehicle registration place and decided to do that instead. Only four people ahead of me. Not much of a line at all.
The fourth week of March I finally took the car to an inspection place and was told that it had a few problems. I'd gotten so used to the emissions being my only problem, I kind of forgot about the rest of the test.
The windshield wipers needed to be replaced. I probably knew that, but didn't think about it being part of the test. And I had a brake light out, which now that I think about it maybe someone had mentioned it before and I just forgot about it. But those are not expensive things and I didn't think that they would take long to fix.
And the power steering fluid is leaking.
Okay. Well, I'd known that I should have that looked at, but it had been a really long time since I'd given that any thought. I'd forgotten all about it. I just got used to it not working properly. I could still drive it. I quit noticing that there was a problem.
Okay, so it is the last Thursday of March, and I take the car to have someone look at it and give me an estimate. I can either leave it there Thursday if I can have the car back Friday afternoon, or I can bring the car back on Saturday afternoon and pick it up any time before Wednesday night. I need the car until 3:00 or so on Saturday. The rest of the time I either don't need to be anywhere or I can get a ride.
They tell me to leave it Thursday.
That was a surprise. The last few times I have needed repairs they've told me to bring it back later. But that's great, if they can get it back to me Friday.
If it is just a leaky hose, they might even give it back today. They'll check all the inspection sticker stuff, check for leaks, and inspect the car.
Great. One of them drives me home.
A couple hours later they call and tell me that a pump needs to be replaced to fix the power steering, and that they've also found an oil leak. Fixing all that stuff and getting an inspection sticker will cost me just under a thousand dollars.
I do not have a thousand dollars. I have five hundred dollars, and I wasn't expecting to pay that much. If I had heard a thousand dollars earlier, I might have thought about selling the car and getting a newer one.
Okay, is this oil leak thing going to ruin the car or make the engine blow up or anything like that?
Not really. You still need to bring it in sometime, and you have to check the oil pressure a lot. But you should be okay to drive the car for a while without it. The other repairs without fixing the oil leak cost almost five hundred dollars.
Fine. I have five hundred dollars. Do the other repairs.
Should be finished about 2:00 on Friday afternoon.
2:00 on Friday passes. 3:00 on Friday passes. I call them and ask about my car.
They got the wrong part for it. They don't think I can have my car on Friday. Probably first thing Saturday morning.
That will make me late for something Saturday, but I don't know what else to do about it.
Saturday morning I call and ask about the car, but it still isn't ready. Saturday at lunch I call, but it is still not ready. At 3:00 I call, but the car is still not ready. I have totally missed ceramics class and everything else I had planned for the day. The car is still not fixed. They are still waiting on some part.
Why couldn't they have just been honest about it as soon as they knew there was a problem? I could have taken the car home Friday and brought it back Saturday before 4. I would have missed some stuff, but I still could have gone to ceramics class. What do they get out of misleading people about the repair time?
Monday morning, still no car. Two people called in sick. I spend the rest of the day with my husband, running errands that I couldn't do over the weekend without a car. Monday night there was no message on my machine about the car.
Tuesday morning my husband drove me to ceramics class. He went home for a couple of hours, and still there was no word on the car. We went to lunch and such. Still no car. This time my husband called. No luck.
About 4:00 I ask them what is going on with the car. They claim to be waiting on another part.
The car has been there since Thursday. I can't believe they are still waiting on windshield-wipers, brake lights, or a pump for the power steering fluid. And they aren't supposed to be fixing anything else. What part are they waiting on?
They'll call me back in a hour.
No one calls me in an hour. I call them back. What is going on with the car.
The car is ready, but the paperwork isn't done, and the guy that has to do that is gone for the day. But I can pick it up first thing Wednesday morning.
About nine thirty on Wednesday, someone calls to tell me I can go and get my car. My mom drives me over. I check and make sure that it has an inspection sticker before I give them any money. It cost just about five hundred dollars. On the receipt it says that the customer declined to have some repairs done. And there were three parts that were added to the bill and then later taken off the bill. Whatever.
So I'm not sure what happened. Did they fix the car by mistake and then just not want to give me back my car since I hadn't agreed to pay for the other repairs? Did they un-repair the car and take off the parts? Did they really wait four days for parts to arrive cause they forgot that I couldn't pay for them? I just hear this bit about waiting for parts so often that I don't really believe them any more. It might happen one day, but from Thursday til the next Tuesday? I don't think so.
Why won't mechanics just be honest and tell you that it will be several days before they can fix what's wrong with the car?
According to Tara, today is kiss a stranger day. I feel like I have been married to a stranger for seventeen years. I kissed my husband today. Does that count the same as kissing a stranger?
Probably won't get to that new recipe thing either.
But never mind about all that. We are here today to talk about mechanics.
So this is what happened. I have three annoying extra expenses in March. I have my annual. And I have to register and buy tags for the car. And I have to get an inspection sticker for the car.
The annual exam we have already discussed.
The tags for the car cost about fifty-three dollars. You usually have to wait in a long line to pay your fifty-three dollars, but getting the tags is not usually a problem. If you lived somewhere else last year, or you had a different car last year, you might hit a snag, but not usually. And I had both the same car and the same address as last year, so my only thing is remembering to either bring actual cash or at least a paper check. They don't take credit cards or debit cards.
I have sort of a tradition of getting my inspection sticker before my tags. I used to worry that my old car wouldn't pass inspection. Not that I worried it wasn't safe to drive, but I worried that it wouldn't pass the emissions test. Then you have to pay for a lot of expensive useless repairs that do not actually make the car pass the emissions test, and usually the car is f***** up more after the "repairs" than before. So I used to get the inspection sticker first, just in case I finally had it with the car and decide to drive it into the lake rather than "repair" it. And I might as well do that before I spend fifty-three dollars on the tags.
But my current car is a 1996 and the emissions test is not the great headache that it was with the 1980 car. So I didn't give it much thought. I didn't run out the first week and get the inspection over with. And I didn't go the second week because I was out of town for spring break. And I didn't go the third week before I only had sixty dollars left for the week. I meant to go, but I got there just after the place had closed on Wednesday. Thursday morning I was driving by the vehicle registration place and decided to do that instead. Only four people ahead of me. Not much of a line at all.
The fourth week of March I finally took the car to an inspection place and was told that it had a few problems. I'd gotten so used to the emissions being my only problem, I kind of forgot about the rest of the test.
The windshield wipers needed to be replaced. I probably knew that, but didn't think about it being part of the test. And I had a brake light out, which now that I think about it maybe someone had mentioned it before and I just forgot about it. But those are not expensive things and I didn't think that they would take long to fix.
And the power steering fluid is leaking.
Okay. Well, I'd known that I should have that looked at, but it had been a really long time since I'd given that any thought. I'd forgotten all about it. I just got used to it not working properly. I could still drive it. I quit noticing that there was a problem.
Okay, so it is the last Thursday of March, and I take the car to have someone look at it and give me an estimate. I can either leave it there Thursday if I can have the car back Friday afternoon, or I can bring the car back on Saturday afternoon and pick it up any time before Wednesday night. I need the car until 3:00 or so on Saturday. The rest of the time I either don't need to be anywhere or I can get a ride.
They tell me to leave it Thursday.
That was a surprise. The last few times I have needed repairs they've told me to bring it back later. But that's great, if they can get it back to me Friday.
If it is just a leaky hose, they might even give it back today. They'll check all the inspection sticker stuff, check for leaks, and inspect the car.
Great. One of them drives me home.
A couple hours later they call and tell me that a pump needs to be replaced to fix the power steering, and that they've also found an oil leak. Fixing all that stuff and getting an inspection sticker will cost me just under a thousand dollars.
I do not have a thousand dollars. I have five hundred dollars, and I wasn't expecting to pay that much. If I had heard a thousand dollars earlier, I might have thought about selling the car and getting a newer one.
Okay, is this oil leak thing going to ruin the car or make the engine blow up or anything like that?
Not really. You still need to bring it in sometime, and you have to check the oil pressure a lot. But you should be okay to drive the car for a while without it. The other repairs without fixing the oil leak cost almost five hundred dollars.
Fine. I have five hundred dollars. Do the other repairs.
Should be finished about 2:00 on Friday afternoon.
2:00 on Friday passes. 3:00 on Friday passes. I call them and ask about my car.
They got the wrong part for it. They don't think I can have my car on Friday. Probably first thing Saturday morning.
That will make me late for something Saturday, but I don't know what else to do about it.
Saturday morning I call and ask about the car, but it still isn't ready. Saturday at lunch I call, but it is still not ready. At 3:00 I call, but the car is still not ready. I have totally missed ceramics class and everything else I had planned for the day. The car is still not fixed. They are still waiting on some part.
Why couldn't they have just been honest about it as soon as they knew there was a problem? I could have taken the car home Friday and brought it back Saturday before 4. I would have missed some stuff, but I still could have gone to ceramics class. What do they get out of misleading people about the repair time?
Monday morning, still no car. Two people called in sick. I spend the rest of the day with my husband, running errands that I couldn't do over the weekend without a car. Monday night there was no message on my machine about the car.
Tuesday morning my husband drove me to ceramics class. He went home for a couple of hours, and still there was no word on the car. We went to lunch and such. Still no car. This time my husband called. No luck.
About 4:00 I ask them what is going on with the car. They claim to be waiting on another part.
The car has been there since Thursday. I can't believe they are still waiting on windshield-wipers, brake lights, or a pump for the power steering fluid. And they aren't supposed to be fixing anything else. What part are they waiting on?
They'll call me back in a hour.
No one calls me in an hour. I call them back. What is going on with the car.
The car is ready, but the paperwork isn't done, and the guy that has to do that is gone for the day. But I can pick it up first thing Wednesday morning.
About nine thirty on Wednesday, someone calls to tell me I can go and get my car. My mom drives me over. I check and make sure that it has an inspection sticker before I give them any money. It cost just about five hundred dollars. On the receipt it says that the customer declined to have some repairs done. And there were three parts that were added to the bill and then later taken off the bill. Whatever.
So I'm not sure what happened. Did they fix the car by mistake and then just not want to give me back my car since I hadn't agreed to pay for the other repairs? Did they un-repair the car and take off the parts? Did they really wait four days for parts to arrive cause they forgot that I couldn't pay for them? I just hear this bit about waiting for parts so often that I don't really believe them any more. It might happen one day, but from Thursday til the next Tuesday? I don't think so.
Why won't mechanics just be honest and tell you that it will be several days before they can fix what's wrong with the car?
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