Warning: Rant Ahead

Okay, now we are angry.

Sweetie went to pick up the car. Another $400+.

Before he got it home, the check engine light was back on, and, to add insult to injury, when we dropped it off, the A/C worked. Now, it does not.

So in discussing this with them and with Sweetie, i compared the invoices. It turns out that 3 of the 6 DTCS codes that came up with both repairs are IDENTICAL.

This could mean that the things they repaired the first time were not really broken, but merely that the wires that connect them to the car's computer were damaged, thus mistakenly telling the computer they were broken.

We could have spent more than half of the first repair bill for nothing.

Also, it's a minimum $100 service fee to even get them to look at it! We just don't have it, especially if they mistakenly repaired stuff that was in good shape the first time to begin with.

So now we are stuck, and i am angry. Since i don't make good decisions when i am angry, the car will sit until i can get some advice from a family member who is friends with the dealer who both sold us this vehicle, and whose service shop repaired it.

Meanwhile, #1 Son will have to continue to use Sweetie's vehicle to go to work and school, and Sweetie will have to continue to bum rides with The Mouth or co-workers, who, by the way, left him to do heavy lifting when they all abandoned a project in the middle, even though it is in his records that his doctor orders he lift no more than 30 lbs. because of his bulging disk. Imagine being left to their tender mercies. Or i have to get him to work, then he has to wait until i've gotten home from school with the kids to come get him, which means spending almost an extra two hours at work. Can you tell i'm raving because i'm so angry, i don't even know if i'm making sense, i now understand the people in the Bible who would diloricate from frustration or anger or sorrow.

Now i'm wrung out from rehashing it twice, here and in the email i sent that aforementioned family member, as well as from the computer acting up the whole time.

Next step, unknown, but it will have to involve getting calmed down.


Today is:

Corn and Apple Festival -- Morden, MB, Canada (fun and free; through the 28th)

Daffodil Day -- American Cancer Society

Fiesta La Ballona -- Culver City, CA, US (through the 28th, a tradition since 1951)

First Thnork of the Year -- Fairy Calendar

Forgive Your Foe Friday -- part of Be Kind to Humankind Week

Green Corn Pow Wow -- Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (through the 28th, Pow Wow and presentations of Native heritage to all)

Heroes Day -- Namibia

Ilmatar Day -- Finland (Water Mother, goddess of the heavens)

Lailat al Kadr -- Islam

Make Your Own Luck Day

National Dog Day

National Cherry Popsicle Day

St. Zeohyrinnus' Day

Toilet Paper Day -- not sure why today, but what would we do without it?

Women's Equality Day -- US (commemorates Women's Suffrage)

Yoshida no Hi Matsuri -- Yoshida, Japan (fest to mark the end of Mt. Fuji climbing season; through tomorrow)



Birthdays Today:

Macaulay Culkin, 1980
Branford Marsalis, 1960
Ben Bradlee, 1921
Mother Teresa, 1910
Christopher Isherwood, 1904
Peggy Guggenheim, 1898
Albert "Bertie" von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha, husband of queen Victoria, 1819
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, 1743


Today in History:

Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta, 1498
The Pennsylvania Ministerium, the first Lutheran denomination in North America, is founded in Philadelphia, 1748
John Fitch is granted a US patent for his working steamboat, 1791
Charles Thurber patents a typewriter, 1843
The first news dispatch by telegraph is made, 1858
Major eruption of Krakatoa, 36,000 dead, 1883
19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the vote, takes effect, 1920
The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, 1939
The USSR announces the first successful test of an ICBM, 1957
The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec, 1977
John Paul I is elected Pope, 1978
The agreement on how to divide the Czech Republic and Slovakia is signed, 1992
Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia, 2008