Thank God for GPS and muffler shops!

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This has been one of those roller coaster weeks so far, things have looked GREAT and then NOT SO MUCH.  My job requires me to visit client offices which - 10 years ago I never would have done, being quite simply the most geographically challenged person I know.  Ah-h-h GPS.  The lady in my car who has changed my life.  But sometimes I think she messes with me.  She doesn't calculate the route right away and I inevitably try to guess which then necessitates a u-turn when she decides she knows where I should go.  I think she does this on purpose.  The other day she sent me up on the tollway for 5 minutes (would have been shorter but there was construction) and a toll, and then she had me take the next exit ramp to a regular street.  WTH?  That same day she sent me up onto the highway on a very loopy ramp, had me drive about 10 minutes and get off on another circular ramp and get right back on another loop to a different highway.  5 minutes later I was exiting again.  And circling.  And dizzy.  I swear I heard her giggle.

Cause I knew you wanted to see it.

Today after leaving a client's office I was trying to hear what the lady was telling me and I kept looking around because OMG somebody near me had a muffler so loud I couldn't hear myself think!  I couldn't tell which car it was and after stopping at a light, accelerating and decelerating I came to the conclusion .. it was me!  ALL OF A SUDDEN!  My car was fine 5 minutes before.  And all of a sudden it was louder than any muscle car with headers and dual exhaust.  UGH.  The lady has the ability to find service stations and the like, and when I asked nicely she found the closest muffler shop and showed me how to get there.  Loudly.  Of course when I got there I realized my phone was on low battery and I had no way to charge it.  Can you say - stuck in a muffler shop God knows where without a phone/internet panic???  Heh.

A grand later .. yes, it was more than just a muffler .. I was back on the road, this time on my way home.  Good day, bad day, good day, bad day .. right now I would settle for simply smoooooth.

Sheesh!

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Good to know!

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The driver's side window controls in my car.  Yours may be similar.  

FYI - when that top button is depressed in the wrong direction - you do not have to take your car in to have the problem with your windows looked at.

You're welcome.

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Here's a thought

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When new cars are rolling off the assembly lines, those pesky turn signals might as well be left off.  I mean really, HOW MANY PEOPLE USE THEM ANYWAY???  Ahem.  I know I do road frustration posts periodically,  but this is something I think every single day I drive.  "Oh, slip in that little space in front of me at high speed without so much as a tiny blink to give me a heads up?  THANKS!"  "I guess I didn't need to know you were going to turn and I sat and waited when I probably could have gone.  But I thought you were GOING TO GO STRAIGHT because well .. NO SIGNAL!!"  


So if you are one of those people who thinks their decisions on the road are nobody else's business so choose not to signal, I am the one SWEARING AT YOU from my car.  Just sayin'.


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Let your nail polish be your guide

Taking days off work is a wonderful thing. Having enough time in at work to take a lot of time off is an even better thing. I took Thursday off just because, and Friday because I always take September 11th off. Thursday my BF came over to spend some time with me and help with some outdoor chores. YAY BF!

But before he got there I went to have my oil changed. My car gets treated nicer and nicer the older it gets. I needed to have my transmission flushed too, or my transmission fluid flushed, or - whatever. I had never had it done and the recommendation is every 15,000 miles. Um, 54,000 miles without it? Oops!

So I had that done and the fluid still wasn't a pretty color like it's supposed to be. So I had it done again. I told the guy "well at the risk of being the silly female, shouldn't the color be closer to my nail polish?" If the first flush didn't take out all the nasty sludge and ugly stuff, shouldn't I have it done again? Well, the guy wouldn't actually recommend what I should do but after determining I wasn't going to get charged double to have it done again, I had the re-do done. The guys in there said they had never had anyone try to get their transmission fluid to match their nail polish before. Silly boys! It's as good as any method THEY have!

I got home to find the front bushes almost done being trimmed. In the end there was a whole pile of clippings and some tree sprouts to get rid of so my BF decided to burn them. He pulled all of it around the back of the house and loaded a lot of it into the outdoor fireplace he got me just for that purpose. We came into the house where BF showered and then we were deciding what to eat for dinner when I saw a police car driving by. Slowly. It turned around and came back and next thing I knew there was a police officer walking up my driveway. Never something I want to see if the truth be told.

Apparently one of my lovely neighbors called the police because I was burning leaves. You're kidding, right? I told the officer we were burning branches that had leaves ON them, but - it's not fall - we weren't burning leaves per se. She told me that it's not against our city ordinances to burn branches, or sticks, but you are not allowed to burn leaves. Hmmm. She said she just had to tell me, took my name and phone number and then went and sat in her car for about 10 minutes, probably checking for wants or warrants. Lol!! For me?

So ladies always remember your transmission fluid should be a nice shade of pink - not quite red, and never brown. If it's not a shade you would wear on your nails - have your transmission fluid flushed. Or your transmission. Or whatever. And if you're going to burn branches in my neighborhood, strip the leaves off first. Oy.

It won't make ME rich. .

I have a suggestion for guys like my ex-boyfriend, who know A LOT about cars and can look passively aggressive while being polite. I would make the suggestion myself but my ex doesn't really talk to me, something about a faucet, and I won't see him, something about hearing him say "whoa! Have another sandwich!" Yeah.

But here's the deal. I brought my car to a small local place to get an estimate on getting my exhaust worked on. I have exhaust coming out where there is no pipe and the rattle rattle rattle boom boom boom (slight exaggeration) doesn't help either. So I got my estimate, the mechanic said he would check on availability of parts and call me. In the meantime I got on the Internet and went to some 'ask an expert' type sites to find out if my estimate was reasonable. And happily enough, it was! This mechanic was recommended by a hair dresser so you KNOW he had to be okay. But the last time I had my car worked on (at a different place) I felt so ripped off, like I got talked into things I didn't need, that I knew I had to take a different tack this time. Since this was, for lack of a better description, elective and not emergency surgery, I could take a bit more time deciding.

So the job thing. I think I would pay a guy to come with me when I get an estimate on car work, to be there and ask smart questions and steer things in the direction they need to go and not toward things I probably don't need. A car-guy backbone. Sort of. He could either take the car in for you and then call you with the estimate - or just go with you and act like the husband or boyfriend who isn't going to take any crap cause he speaks car just as well as those mechanics talk car. Like that.

A customer/mechanic liaison. So-to-speak. Being single and not always having the available male who knows about cars around, I would like the option to take someone with me. Even some of you married women might want to take advantage of a service like that if your husband is a different kinda guy than a car guy and you would like some support. And it wouldn't hurt if the guy looked a tiny bit scary, the little bit of implied danger could really work with some stubborn mechanics with their heart set on getting the nice lady to buy 4 new tires when she only needs two, or to have that alignment she doesn't want.

What do you think? I think there are guys out there who should start printing up business cards right now, I think there is a market for this. Would you use it?

Re-do

I've read a few blogs of people who would like to start the new year again due to bad ju-ju on the first or second day. Yeah, already. Thinking maybe I might want to join that group except I think I'd like to start the new year next week sometime. Would anybody out there object?

Cause really, my car shouldn't cost $700.00 to fix!!! I protest! That's puts really bad ju-ju out there for me for the rest of the year. I was going to count the car breaking down as bad luck on the last day of 2008, however the price of the repair is totally just as bad if not worse than sitting on the side of the road with your flashers on. And the repair is definitely in 2009.

Not liking this. Not liking this at all. Thank God for knights in shining armor.