Another Car Saga

Well, maybe saga is a bit too strong.

Here we are with my #1 Son having gout, and his car making a funny noise. When you drive deliveries for a living, the car making a noise is not a good thing.

So he took my car to work Monday morning, and i ran Sweetie to work so i could use the Honda after i dropped #1 Son's Chevy off.

Sometimes i go to the dealership, but it is always expensive and takes several days to go that route. Sometimes i go to a mechanic i trust who also takes at least a day to get back to you with what is wrong. This time i went to another local place where they have never done work i didn't need, and have always been willing to work with us. They have enough people on staff that they can tell you in an hour or less what is wrong, and whether they will work on it, as they specialize in tires, brakes, and minor repairs.

In this i was not disappointed. They came to me in less than half an hour with a diagnosis of a wheel bearing going out. Ten minutes and a call to the warranty company later, they knew i would be out of pocket $200 and the warranty would cover the remainder. This is something you don't put off, as your whole wheel can fall off if the bearing breaks apart while you are driving, which #1 Son is, all of the time.

This repair takes about 2 hours, so Ken, the nice front desk guy, drove me home, which is across the highway and about a half mile as the crow flies. As the traffic has it, it is a two minute drive interrupted by a 3 minute red light at the very busy highway intersection.

Once home, Bigger Girl and i took Sweetie's car and went to drop of #1 Son's prescriptions, and then to the store. She likes to buy a lot of her own organic produce and such, so we make a trek up there once a week. On the way back, they called with the news that the car was done, so she dropped me at the corner and i walked the quarter mile to the shop, and she went on home.

At the shop, everything was great, except that the fax machine was out of ink. Thus Ken couldn't fax the repair sheet i signed to the warranty company to get that part of the reimbursement. Because i've been in there so often, and Ken knew it was time for me to get home and take the kids to school, his boss did what they don't do for other people. They let me pay for my share, and drive off without having the transaction from the warranty company done. As i left, i made Ken promise to call if they couldn't get the warranty transaction completed, and as i never heard from him, i can only guess when the runner came back from the office supply place with the fax machine ink, everything worked out.

As for us, we were barely in time for school, but barely counts.

All day i played musical cars, moving my glasses, sweater (which i have with me at all times, even in summer, as they keep places way too cold around here), puzzle book for waiting time, water bottle, and booster seat (yes, i'm that short, i use a booster seat to drive, what of it!) from car to car.

Makes me glad to have the van back, even if it was returned from #1 Son's day at work on empty. Such is life with a college student.


Today is

Apollon Day -- Ancient Roman Calendar (god of music, poetry, sunlight)

Battle of Las Piedras Day -- Uruguay

Flag and Universities Day -- Haiti

International Museum Day

Moonbeam Hopping Gala -- Fairy Calendar

National Cheese Souffle Day

National Employee Health and Fitness Day

No Dirty Dishes Day

Revival, Unity, and Poetry of Magtymguly Day --Turkmenistan

St. Eric's Day (patron of Sweden)

St. Theodotus' Day

Visit Your Relatives Day

World AIDS Vaccine Day

World Goodwill Day -- commemorates the opening meeting of 26 nations in the First Hague Peace Conference, 1899


Anniversaries Today:

Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1152


Birthdays Today:

Tina Fey, 1970
Chow Yun-Fat, 1955
Rick Wakeman, 1954
George Strait, 1952
Reggie Jackson, 1946
Brooks Robinson, 1937
Dwayne Hickman, 1934
Robert Morse, 1931
Pernell Robers, 1930
Pope John Paul II, 1920
Margot Fonteyn, 1919
Perry Como, 1912
Frank Capra, 1897
Omar Khayyam, 1048


Today in History:

The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch, 1268
Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India, 1498
Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy (under torture) lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe, 1593
John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts, 1631
Rhode Island passes North America's first anti-slavery law, 1652
Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec, 1763
The first United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States, 1783
Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate, 1804
The destruction of Saturdays forever after: Edwin Budding of England
signs an agreement for manufacture of his invention, lawn mower, 1830
The Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland, 1843
The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional, 1896
A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people, 1896
Bram Stoker's Dracula is published, 1897
The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley, 1910
Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier, 1953
Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1974
Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage, 1980
In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3km/h (357.2 mph), 1990