Ba-humbug!

[davsand]

It is a holiday, and we WILL be jolly if it kills us...

We need a brake job on one car. No problem--we can use our Christmas money and get the brakes redone between the holidays. At least that was the plan.

Yesterday hubby calls me at my office to tell me the battery light went on in our other car when he was driving it to work. We make plans to take it to the mechanic this morning.

Last night, I get home from work and NO sign of the car or hubby and daughter. Figuring they ran late getting home I come in the house, and there they sit--waiting for me. My seven year old tells me (with great relish) about how they had to ride home with the after school lady's husband because our car died on the road a short ways from their house.

Hubby grunts that he's gonna have it towed to the garage in the morning--that it was cold and dark out and it will wait till morning...

Two hours later the phone rings and it is a County Sheriff's Deputy telling us the car was towed BACK into town (AWAY from the mechanic.) He says there is no ticket for abandoning the car--that all we have to pay to get it out of impound is the towing fee.

This morning we call the towing company that has our car and ask them how much the towing fees are. They tell us $135. That bites--we are auto club members and could have had a "free" tow if hubby had called last night. Towing company refuses to talk to us about the auto club being billed for it...

We scramble around and get ready to go into town to free the Ford (I have mentally dubbed this expedition by this time.)

We drive all the way BACK into town and pull up in the tow lot to find a sign saying NO checks accepted. We drive back out here to the bank. I'm grumbling it would have been kind of them to mention that policy when we called--but I'm still able to see some glimmer of humor.

We drive BACK into town to pay the man and Free the Ford, and when we get there they tell us that THEY are the towing company that our auto club called to remove the car from their lot, and they ask where our mechanic is. We give them an address and they are not sure they can FIND it.

We led them to the mechanic's house, and the tow truck guy STILL misses his turn and gets lost. WE have to back track and FIND the tow truck.

Mission is accomplished--the Ford is free and we leave it to the tender mercies of the mechanic. We go out to lunch.

Nice stress free lunch--everybody is relaxing and feeling a bit better. We are making jokes about freeing the Ford.

At that point, my 7 year old says she needs to go to the bathroom. I take her and she proceeds to vomit all over the inside of the handicapped stall. Some lady (who was not visibly handicapped at all) is standing outside the stall yelling at me that we are not handicapped... I explained that my kid was puking and she could wait her turn (and I contemplated dismemberment.)

7 year old gets cleaned up along with the handicapped stall, and we leave the restaurant.

We get back home and there is a message on the machine from the mechanic that the car is very seriously ill--and it is gonna cost about $700 parts and labor to fix it all.

I popped open the Meyers Dark Rum and a couple of cartons of egg nog, and I'm just now starting to ease back into the holiday mood...

Bah HUMBUG! You WILL have a joyful holiday if it kills you!

Anybody else finding the holiday cheer in short supply?


Laura

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. sorry to hear about your car karma

If you were our neighbors, you could have called my husband. He's a mechanic and fixes all our neighbor's cars, usually in trade for things like eggs and labor.

[davsand]

2. At this rate it's costing me a liver AND a kidney!

The Meyers Rum is taking care of my liver, I'm sure, and I'm gonna have to sell a kidney to cover too many more car repairs!

Frankly, I just needed to vent. For me the whole bathroom cleanup and vomit thing was pretty much the icing on the cake--ya know? Poor kid was horrified--and is fine now!

I've switched to mineral water now, and am able to laugh at it a bit more...

Thanks for the support!


Laura