The (mis)Adventure continues.
I got up this morning & went to the garage to have an oil change, tune up, whatever is making my car get too hot fixed & the slow leak in 1 tire resolved.
The morning was lovely, I was awake early & put my laundry away before I left home, driving in to town it was beautiful, sun shining, grass greening up, daffodils, hyacinth & the beginnings of tulips were poking out all over the place. I was hoping they’d be as quick as possibe getting the work done because I wanted to get my errands in town done & come home to relax until the kids came home from school so we go & could get groceries in C’burg, I was really enjoying the idea that I’ve paid the car off, I’m being proactive by getting it up to snuff & tuned up for the vacation in June/July & fixing the temperature issue before it caused serious damage.
The ex, being a mechanic himself (at least part of the time) was really bad about letting things go on our cars, the mustang we had for most of our marriage had a bad oil leak due to a blown gasket that should have been replaced about 5 years into our ownership of the car, I drove the car annother 4 years with that gasket blown, putting oil in all the time. The fan didn’t work so we couldn’t sit in traffic for any length of time, I can’t tell you how many back roads I’ve explored because I was avoiding sitting in traffic!
We parlayed what needed to be done & I was relegated to the waiting room which is in the back through a long storage room & feels like siberia. I found I had a really great book though, (just started reading it during my last break yesterday at work- Shaman by Noah Gordon I should have known it would be good, his book The Physician is one of my favorite) I was almost immediately lost in the book’s story. After an hour the guy who runs the place called me out of the waiting room, I was rather surprised, the tune up takes awhile on my car (2001 PT Cruiser) & no one seemed to know exactly where the thermostat is on the stupid thing. Already? I asked. There’s a problem I was told. It seems they had trouble removing the first spark plug, the second one however, broke off inside my engine. only the ceramic part came out, the screw thread part is still in my engine (as I type this I imagine) They were very low key about it in a ‘oops, sorry bout that’ sort of way. There was some mention of the possibility of a bad spark plug, I pointed out that they’d done my last tune up back in February 2006 so it was their sparkplug to begin with. This was met with silence.
They tried a couple of things to get the piece out but it wouldn’t come out. They went to try to borrrow a tool which they said would help get it out but the other mechanic didn’t have one after all. This means the engine’s head had to come off in order to get the sparkplug part out. The garage I was at said they didn’t have the equipment or a mechanic experienced enough to do that. Of course they had a mechanic experienced enough to break the sparkplug!
The Chrysler Dealership’s Garage said they could fix it & it was agreed that they’d come tow my car there & I’d ride up there so I could at least get my errands done. While these decisions were being made I was text messaging miss 17 & Chrissie with updates. Chrissie offered to take me grocery shopping tommorow while she was visiting my house (the visit was already planned) I called my friend J. (also my ex husband’s cousin) to see if she could give me a ride home but she wasn’t home, tried her back a few hours later & still no answer (I didn’t even think about her possibly being online- since we got cell phones & satellite internet I’ve stopped thinking of the computer tying up the phone line- it turns out that was what happened)
After giving my phone # to the Chrysler people & telling them the other stuff that needed to be done (besides tearing down my entire engine that is) & having them give me a guesstimate of late Monday for when they’d have it fixed. I walked on down the road on foot to get some business done in town. I got down the hill & had to sit on a bench outside Cafe del sol because I’m no spring chicken & as anyone who even looks at the pictures on this blog knows, I’m not exactly svelte.
I called J’s mom AJ. to see if J. was at her house & ended up telling her what was going on, she told me her husband B. was home from work laid up with a foot injury & could come get me in their beater truck which is an automatic transmission & which he can still drive even with the injured foot. I explained that I needed to ‘run’ a few errands in town & that I’d call in an hour or so once I was done with the errands. The first thing I needed to do was go to the courthouse to get my county sticker (they’re proof you paid your taxes & also they allow you to legally dump trash in the county dumpsters we’re too wide flung to have curbside service except right in town) I went & got my sticker & the lady who took my money asked what kind of mileage my PT Cruiser got! I explained that this was not the day to ask & ended up telling her the whole story. She opined that the first garage, who broke the spark plug ought to pay the garage fixing the problem. (not the last time I heard that opinion today, let me tell you)
I walked from the courthouse to the bank to withdraw enough money to do the grocery shopping, pay the electric bill & pay 17 her babysitting money & 10 & 7’s allowences (just got my raise- better than I hoped & so kept my promise to them that they’d have $5 every 2 weeks, Miss 17 now recieves $60 for the same time period.) The bank is closed from 130 to 230 every day & I was 13 minutes early, it was very hot & sunny so I sat in the grass beside the bank in the shade. It really was a lovely day, about 67 but breezy & in the shade quite cool with the breeze. While waiting I was thinking about everything decided to ask AJ & B if I could use their other car, which is a stick shift-so they can’t use it anyway, until my car was fixed, I thought if I offered them $20. a day for the 3 days I’d need it- until my car was fixed they might be willing. I figured it couldn’t hurt & it might work out ok. I got my money & walked down to the Harvest Moon, while resting in their hand chair after the walk down the hill. I called AJ. to let her know to send B. any time as I was just about ready. When she answered she immediately asked me if I wanted to use their car while mine was in the shop! I never even got to make my offer, I told her about it though & she declined it, said they knew how hard it was to have car trouble & refused to take any money from me. While waiting for B I went into the Harvest Moon, picked up my breakfast mix & some other stuff, walked around a little in the store & then, after paying went outside to wait for B.
While I was paying I noticed a cordless phone on the counter beside the cash register but didn’t think anything of it. I perused the ads for a few moments & then went back to the hand chair which is out at the far corner of the parking lot, as I was walking to the chair a young man got out of his car & we crossed paths, right after that I heard a phone ring, I assumed it was his phone because I use music ring tones on my phone & it never actually sounds like a phone ringing. While sitting waiting for B. An elderly lady came out, got in her car & began driving away, I heard that phone again, odd, it was a rather strange ring. It must not have been the guy’s phone, the lady must have had a phone in her car & left it there in her car while she was shopping. Not something I gave much thought to considering I was mentally revising my plans to make my garage into annother finished room & hoping after paying for the car repairs I’d have enough to at least build the stairs & fix my windows & get my lawnmowers running.
B. picked me up & brought me back to his house where I visited with AJ & him for a few minutes & then went to get 17, who I’d let know via text what was going on. Now let me tell
you about AJ & B’s car. I drive a 4 door black PT Cruiser, cute, sort of a largish somewhat clunky vehicle. They drive a purple, 2 door, convertible PT Cruiser. With spinners yet! I love it! B showed me how to put the top down & left it down for me pointing out that I might as well enjoy it today since it’s supposed to rain tommorow! I drove back to town (they live about 3 miles out of town) to get Miss 17 & as I was driving along noticed a police car in the driveway of a farmhouse. I used to live in this area when I lived in the trailer & know the people who live there are elderly, as I pulled even with the house I realized there was a second police car in the drive, no ambulances or anything though, I discovered the deputies were handcuffing a guy against a truck. I think they’d just pulled him over at that driveway, not an issue at that house! I took some small comfort in the idea that I was not having the worst day in the county today, someone’s was, at least, a little worse!
I picked 17 & a friend who is spending the night, in style! We went to pay the electric bill & then went home. 7 didn’t even notice the car when he came out, just asked when we were leaving to go grocery shopping! 10 came out & said in her best mother’s voice ‘where did you get that?’ As if I’d stolen it. I tried to convince them it was the same car & I’d had it painted & the roof changed but they were’nt buying it. 17 got exasperated when they started asking if I’d bought it & reminded them that it looks just like AJ & B’s car!
When I brought the bag from the Harvest Moon in the house & unpacked it I found I had an unexpected addition to my bag, the casheir somehow picked up the cordless phone which had been on the counter & put it in my bag with my groceries! I called them on my cell & let them know I had it & when we left to go grocery shopping we drove all the way back to town & took it back to them!
Off we went, grocery shopping, dinner & a trip to Lowes for fence for my soon to be new flower garden, a dirt turner (looks like it would be painful if you hit someone with it) & lightbulbs (I am determined to use all energy saver florescent bulbs & they’re cheaper there) Long evening considering all the walking I did. I’m hoping to capitalize on all the walking I did today & continue it tommorow though it is supposed to rain.
We’re also supposed to do some easter crafts tommorow but more on that later. (unless I’m too tired)
I’m not happy about the whole car mess. I understand I am responsible for paying the bill for the repairs. It still seems like they should have offered to pay all or part of the bill. I’m not neccesarily saying all of it, I understand that cars malfunction, I also understand, because of my ex being a mechanic, that an aluminum head can warp through heat - and that my car’s engine has been very hot just lately. It’s not like I caused the problem, but I did drive it when I knew it was running hot. I did not, however, break the spark plug inside the car’s engine, they did that & I know that these things sometimes have to be finessed, you can’t, as my ex would say, ‘bull & jam’ them & I feel like if the plug broke it may very well have been pulled too roughly or yanked. I can hardly afford a lawyer, especially not for what will probably be aproximately a $750. bill. I’m going to just take the bill to them & make an offer to split it evenly. I hope they’ll take me up on it but I’m not holding my breath. I also hope that this will give my car a new lease on life, to pull the head will require pretty much a rebuild to put it back together again & that can be fairly useful to a car & would be a good thing to have done at this point since they’re sending me the title this week.
Posted in General Rants
