Journal Entry: July 1, 2009

Monday morning I stayed home from work because I had no car. My plan was to take the day off, go pick up the car once my mechanic was done with it, and then proceed through the rest of my week as normal.

When I didn't hear back from the mechanic by ten, I decided to call in and get an update. Turned out he'd already given up on it, but hadn't gotten around to calling me. He said the problem wasn't mechanical, but was something electrical in the car's computer. For that, I'd have to take it to the dealer.

So I called the dealer and learned they couldn't do anything on it that day, but I made an appointment to drop it off Tuesday morning. Then I made sure T-- didn't need her car for the rest of the day, and I went in to work to try to salvage a few hours.

Monday evening I worked late, and then worked out when I got home. (I'm still doing that, two or three times a week, even though it doesn't always get recorded in my weeklong summaries.) After that it was time for supper, and after that T-- took AB to church for VBS. I stayed home and spent my writing time scanning in old material for future use.

Tuesday morning I woke up early and we all three loaded into the Saturn for a trip to the mechanic's, and then from there to the Honda dealership. T-- and AB waited in the car while I went inside to speak with the repairman. He told me that they would put the car through a mechanical diagnostics test -- check out the Freon level and pressure, check that the compressor was in good shape, check all the electrical fuses and relays, and then call me and tell me what needed to be done. The diagnostics would cost $90.

I told him I'd already paid another mechanic to diagnose the problem, and he'd done all of that and found nothing, and the problem was in the computer. I asked if they could just skip their diagnostics, since he'd described in detail exactly what had already been done, and just check out the computer. He told me no. I wasn't allowed to tell them how to do their job. They'd go through their normal process -- and I would pay for it -- or I could just take the car home with no air conditioner and multiple warning lights on my dash.

I left the car with them, but I wasn't happy about it. It was about 9:30 by then, but I couldn't go in to work because T-- needed the car to call on some clients, so we dropped AB off at my sister's place, T-- dropped me off at home to get a little work done (by which I mean a lot more scanning), and then T-- made her business calls, which took a little longer than expected. Around 11:30 she picked me up and we went together to pick up AB. I'd already agreed to have lunch with them, so we went to Schlotzky's and didn't get out of there until nearly 1:00. Then AB and T-- loaded into my sister's car so I could go straight to work from lunch, but five minutes after I got on the highway T-- called to tell me I'd taken her keys, and they had no way to get into the house.

So at that point I was looking at more than an hour of drive-time to get in less than three hours of work, so I just called the boss on my way home and told him I wasn't going to make it in. I stayed home with AB during her nap and T-- went out shopping with my sister.

Five o'clock came and went without a word from the mechanics, which meant another day without my car. A little after six K-- and N-- came over, along with N--'s mom who brought us a new bed for AB! T-- has already commented on it on Facebook, and I'm sure she'll have some cute pictures up on her blog before long. Anyway, the bed is a perfect princess bed, and after a week of trying to prep AB for the change (and her screaming, "No, no, no, I love my bed!") she immediately fell in love with it. K-- and I had barely finished putting it together when she came in the room, saw it, and her eyes just lit up. She divided most of the rest of the evening between screaming and laughing, and she fell asleep in it no problem.

So that was pretty fun.

After that T-- and I curled up on the couch in the living room and watched Better Off Ted and Jimmy Fallon, and had a pretty quiet night. Went to bed early, got up, and left T-- carless so I could get in a full day of work.

Oh! I did finally hear back from the Honda service guy around 1:00 today. I'd been without my car for a full day and now owed them nearly a hundred bucks for their time, but their crack technicians had come up with an answer. He said the problem wasn't mechanical, but was something electrical in the car's computer. They would get back to me when they knew exactly what.

Now, if you're following along, that's all stuff I knew fifty-three hours and ninety dollars ago, but at least Honda is caught up to speed now. I still haven't heard anything new, which means they haven't even started doing the actual repair work, so I'm running out of hope that I'll have the car back today.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.