This entry can be called one of 4 thing
#1 “If Susie would of just stayed home sick”
#2 “If only I would of went to work that day in February”
#3 “Bad car karma explained”
#4 “The death of relationships”
This is all about my darn car…still
Monday RAW takes my car with the newly installed leaking water pump. He holds his cool. Must of been a defective water pump Tom the owner says. He fixes it. RAW goes back at 3:00 to check up on them. He sees metal shaving under the hood. He is not thrilled. They say they had trouble with a bolt. One of RAW’s gripes was loose bolts but whatever. Then they mention that the tensioner for the newly installed timing belt is defective now. What? Huh? You guys were just in there 3 weeks ago, didn’t notice it then? I think they messed it up when putting in the new new water pump or they made this problem up to try and get us to pay labor for their problem.
Alright the gloves are now off and RAW goes off on the worker. He tells him about his issues with the ill fitting radiator as well. So there, three for three. All three things we went in for is junk. For $550 (timing belt and water pump, radiator was covered by insurance) we got the opposite of peace of mind. Where I didn’t really worry about those things before we took them in, I do now. A sub title of this segment is “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” If we would of just dealt with the radiator we wouldn’t be having these problems and my pocketbook would be heavier. (title #3)
When we went to pick up the car an hour later, Tom was waiting outside where all he said very somberly was, be sure to look at the receipt on the dash. There was no charge of course but they had their disclaimer that they aren’t responsible for any problems related to the fact we declined on them fixing the tensioner.
We now are without a mechanic, relationship #1 dead (part 1 of title #4)
Yesterday RAW tells me that we just lost the friendship of our neighbor. Jim and Barb next door are the nicest neighbor you can find. Jim owns a body shop. Right after RAW messed up my car in February (title #1 and #2) he took it to Jim for a quick estimate. Then we drove it and the hood popped up. We called insurance right away to arrange to get this now undrivable car to get fixed. They sent us to Platinum and we took it there without thinking twice.
Yesterday Jim asked if we got our car fixed. He thought RAW took it to Indiana to a friend. He would of be ok about that but when RAW said Platitum did it, we may as well stabbed him in the heart. This obviously upset Jim. Did Platinum pick up your mail when you were gone, did they watch your cat? Ug, RAW felt horrible and told me that we just lost our neighbor (relationship #2 dead).
RAW then went off to pick up a trailer trip for our upcoming camping trip this weekend. Hollace went to Haley’s for a birthday party for her 18 year old aunt. I got to go talk to Jim. I walk by his house once pretending to walk Hollace over to Haley’s. I go back home losing my nerve. I had that sick pit in my stomach that we hurt Jim like this. So I go right over there and knock on the door.
I apologize profusely to Jim that we just wasn’t thinking and how horrified we are over our mistake. He explains that if was anyone else besides Platinum he wouldn’t of been as hurt. He mentions several times how much it means to him that I came over. I told him that we will try to make it up to him even if it won’t impact his wallet as it would of if we would of went to him in the first place. He said, he likes chocolate chip cookies. He jokingly says, good now we won’t kill your cat (watching Cloudy while we are gone this weekend). I said, no we leave that to the other neighbors (and their dog, poor Eloise)
So now we are on operation shower the neighbor in kindness. I think we are good with Jim again, maybe a little bit scarred. Now I understand where the bad car karma was coming from. I kept telling Jim that this explains why we are having problems with the car. He tells us of a mechanic he likes. So we are healing this relationship and hopefully gaining a new one with a mechanic.
This was a turning point for me as for dealing with people. My shyness gets in the way but I didn’t let it in this case and I was surprised that I didn’t hesitate (much) in trying to fix things.
Recap, it all comes down to a few bad decisions
- First is Susie’s bad decision to come to Hollace’s birthday party in February with the flu
- Staying home sick that one day (still recovering from Susie’s flu). While I was still sounding bad (and driving the boss crazy) and had broken out in hives. I still felt well enough to go into work and I didn’t. RAW then took my car while I was watching Oprah and crashed it.
- Not going to Jim for the body work
- Fixing things that weren’t broke just for the hell of it. We have since found out that Subaru doesn’t even recommend changing timing belts until 105K (I am at 99K)
- Buying RAW’s truck so now I don’t have any money in the budget to replace my now unreliable vehicle