Subrealm: Why I'm not going to Burns NightSo there's this thing in the D&D universe where it is sometimes possible to resurrect a dead character, but the spell involves powdered diamonds.
I am coming to realize that cars work on a similar principle.
"Oh, OK," said
sovay, who was cheering me up/listening to me bitch about the whole affair afterwards. "So I *thought* that your car had died catastrophically a couple of years ago, but in fact you brought it back to life by pouring money into it."
Yes, yes I did. And then I did it again this weekend.
See, I'd been kinda worrying that something like this was going to happen. It's been really cold, and I'd driven the car maybe once between getting back from England and this past Wednesday. Wednesday I got gas, because I was about to run out, and having made it back from the gas station...well, the battery light was on, but I figured that that was just the cold, and not being driven much. Thursday I went out to stock up on stuff* for Peter's visit. I got to the library without incident. Getting out of the library parking lot...my car stalled, and refused to start again.
I cursed, but was unsurprised. (See above.) What I *didn't* know was wtf I was going to do about it. I called Sovay to ask if her cousins had jumper cables; I called
teenybuffalo to ask if she had any; I even called my roommate (the one with no car) to ask if he had any thoughts. Eventually, somebody pointed out that my car insurance might be able to help, and they were right. I called Progressive; Progressive charged me fifty bucks and paged a repairman
[A] to come by with jumper cables. Everything looked like it was gonna be ok. I went out to my car to wait for the repair guy.
It is at this point that this story changes from mild tragedy to black farce. Because I tried turning the car on (just for the hell of it)...
And it turned on.Lessons learned, #1: This does not mean your car is in proper working order.SO I let it run for a few minutes...
Lessons learned, #2: It actually takes like 15-20 minutes to charge a dead battery....and then called repair guy
[A] to tell him he wouldn't be needed after all, and drove out of the parking lot.
Lessons learned, #3: NEVER DO THIS.My car stalled less than two blocks further on. The dude behind me helped me push it to the side of the road (into a bus stop, coincidentally)., but I was pretty much screwed.
I called Progressive back, asked if I could de-cancel the cancellation. They said "Ooooh boy..." but ultimately pages another repair guy
[B] (since repair place
[A] hated my guts now.) The downside was that he wouldn't be there for an hour.
Shortly after this, a DIFFERENT random dude
[C] showed up with a tow truck. I told him I had help coming. He went away, showed up again a while later, and offered to give me a jump pro bono. (Well, and in the hope of a tip, which I gave him.) So he got my car going...
"Your alternator light's on, though, so I'm not sure how far your gonna make it..." he noted.
Lessons learned, #4: Random dudes in tow trucks are sometimes right AND not trying to screw you out of cash, and I could have spared myself some pain and uncertainty if I'd just told him "Oh, in that case would it make sense for you to tow me to your place?"Because he was right. Attempting to actually DRIVE the car caused it to stall out.
I called my roommate again and begged him to Google me a towing service.
Lessons learned, #5: Very few towing services are still operating at 11pm.The local one didn't pick up, so I called the one in Waltham (who we'll call
[D}), which (a) is near my workplace, and (b) I thought was the one I'd taken the car to before.**
He took my car, charged me an arm, told me he'd give me a discount on the leg if he did the servicing. I said Great, and went to mourn my fate chez Sovay.
As it turned out, my car was ready the next day. This was actually NOT good news, since I'd planned my evening around taking Peter home on the train. Now, I guess, Grace was gonna have to pick ME up, then drop us both at
[D}...once we actually found it.
And then, as often happens, it appears that one thing going wrong (not even sure which) had taken out the adjoining systems. My battery was leaking; my alternator*** had seized up totally; one of the belts linking alternator to drive train had died violently. They had a diagram in the waiting room, with things related to your power train highlighted in red. I needed most of them replaced.
(The irony is that I'd emailed my Aunt just before all this happened. "PS: Tell Abe the car's still running," I tacked on to the end.
Lessons learned, #6: Avoid saying things like this. It attracts attention from the demons who administer Murphy's Law.)
Total damage to credit card...let's suck it up and look at that bill again...$758.61.
So yeah. Originally, I was planning to join
teenybuffalo and any other Scottish/folksinging/drinking enthusiasts at the Burren tomorrow for Burns Night. But as-is...I really don't feel like celebrating. Or spending any more money.
* Where by "stuff" I of course mean groceries and Dragonbreath novels.
** Answer: No. Also, the OTHER guy in Waltham had, at least according to [D}, screwed the oil pan over so thoroughly that he wasn't gonna touch it himself. %$^Y&UPOI.
*** WTF they call it an alternator, when "Generator" would be a less confusing term, is beyond me. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
teenybuffalo gave me a jump that evening. I sat around and ran the engine for fifteen minutes, then drove to B.K.'s and hung out for a bit (a) because I needed some moral support, and (b) to test whether the battery would actually, since (c) both she and M.C. are pretty handy and would probably be able to re-jumpstart me if it didn't. Fortunately, it WAS holding a charge, and I drove to star market and did some overdue grocery shopping.
