It's always something
It was a weekend of marginal car trouble, which is now, thankfully, all resolved.
Friday, I had a couple of errands to run, so after we were done with school, I jumped in the van to do them. First stop, the yearly gift wrap sale that happens in our town. (It's great... $1 rolls of good quality wrapping paper, 10 cent bows, 75 cent tape.) I happily stocked up for the season and the coming year's birthdays, and headed out to the van for errand number two. I turn on the car, and,
click,
click,
click,
click.
Yep, dead battery. Not on the to do list. I call J. at work for suggestions as to what I should do. Suggestion number one was to call the local Chevy dealership in town, which is just about five blocks away and see if they will come and help. I do that, and they are willing to help, but everyone just went on a lunch break so I'll have to wait. I decide to go on a lunch break, too, and walk over the little coffee shop that sells really wonderful homemade sandwiches. I walk back and start eating my sandwich in the van while I wait. As I'm eating, I hear someone call my name and I look up to see a friend of mine who is also there to stock up on wrapping paper. She has jumper cables and knows how to use them, so we decide to try to jump the van ourselves. When the dealership calls back to say they can send someone over, I tell them we've gotten the jumping-thing taken care of. I'll just drive the van over for a new battery once it's going.
Which would have been a great plan if we had been able to get the car started. After a valiant attempt, we decided that perhaps there is something more wrong than just the battery, and my friend runs along to meet her daughter's bus. I decide I should probably call AAA, because if it needs to be towed, that tow would be free. At least it wasn't freezing and the wait for a two truck was under an hour. I wish I had brought a book along on my errands.
Finally the tow truck driver arrives and I am greeted with, "This isn't an Astro van."
"You're right, it's not an Astro van. It's a Chevy Express 15 passenger van." I reply.
"This isn't an Astro van. They told me it was an Astro van," the tow truck driver (TTD) continues.
"I know it isn't an Astro van. I never said it was. I know what I drive," I said.
"I can't tow this. This isn't an Astro van," said the TTD. As an after thought he asks, "What's wrong with it?"
"It won't start. I think it's the battery, but we couldn't jump it," I answer. I demonstrate the non-starting, clicking sound.
"It's your battery," said the TTD. I hold my breath a moment waiting to see if he would add that my van wasn't an Astro van. He didn't. The TTD takes his little jumper-box-thing to the front of the van and hooks it up. On the second time, the van starts. Hooray! I'm curious as to why he could jump it, but my friend and I couldn't. Evidently for a really dead battery, you need to leave it charging for at least an hour. You learn something new everyday.
"Thank you," I tell the TTD.
"You know, it's not an Astro van. I couldn't have towed this. I don't think we can tow something so big. It's just not an Astro van." replies the TTD. [I'm truly not exaggerating this conversation at all.]
"No, you're right. It's not an Astro van," I concede as the TTD heads to his tow truck.
I then head to the dealership. I park, run in, and tell them I'm the woman who keeps calling them about her van. I barely get the words out when I am told to pull it up and they'll open the door. I say a silent prayer that the van will start again and do as instructed. I hand over the coupon for the battery my friend happened to have, which she gave to me, and I'm asked if I'll be waiting for it. I now have a 30 minute window before I have to get home to change and head back out to the stable for my therapeutic riding shift. I tell him my time constraints, and he says they can do it. I happily sit in the warm waiting room.
Sure enough, the battery is installed in time, and because the type of battery I had a coupon for was not in stock, they gave me a better battery for the same price. I make it home in time to get to the stable. It wasn't my most productive day.
The next day, Saturday, I head out again, on the errands that didn't get done the day before. I have a new battery, all should be well.
Should.
As I'm driving, I realize that the passenger side windshield wiper is acting oddly. Sometimes it goes, sometimes it doesn't, but the driver's side is working fine, and I can see, so I continue. A little later, as I near my destination, the passenger side wiper starts acting odder. Now it is over so far to the driver's side, that it looks as though it might catch the driver's side wiper. Not much later, it actually does, though the driver's side wiper manages to escape. I think, "Hmmm... when I stop, I should really take a look at that. It would be bad if the driver's side wiper stopped working." Famous last thoughts, because not much later, the driver's side wiper is caught by the other again, but this time, the whole thing snaps off and goes flying behind the car.
I might have said a bad word.
I'm almost to where I'm going and it's not actually raining, so I continue on, and figure I'll deal with it after I'm done. Well, that would have been fine if it had not started to rain again. I get in the van and think, "If I go slowly, I'll be able to see. It will be fine." Except that I couldn't see and it wasn't fine. It was so not fine I pulled off the road at the first chance I had. It was one of those moments I was extremely thankful to have a smart phone, because I started searching for nearby car repair places. I found a Napa Auto Parts just a mile away, so I slowly inch my way there, breathing a deep sigh of relief when I arrive. I head in and tell the guys at the counter what happened and say I need new wiper blades and someone to put them on. No problem, they can do that. I'm asked what kind of car I'm driving, and I reply a Chevy Express 15-passenger. (I admit to waiting just a moment to see if he will tell me that that is not an Astro van, but he doesn't.) Instead, he rings up the $8 wipers, hands them to another guy who puts them on in a matter of what seems seconds, and I'm good to go. I did stop him and explain what had happened, so he looks at the wipers one more time, heads to his car, grabs his socket wrenches, fiddles with the wipers, and fixes the problem.
In the meantime, I'm digging through my purse for cash, so I can tip the very nice man who is standing in the rain fixing my wipers for free. I hand him the money and he asks if I really want to, because it is not necessary. Oh yes, I did want to hand him a tip, and did so. The rest of the return trip was uneventful.
I did another errand yesterday, without mishap. It may take a few days, though, before I really let down my guard when I drive myAstro van.
And to give credit where credit is due, a huge thanks to Bob Jass Chevrolet in Elburn and Napa Auto Parts in Naperville for their incredible customer service.
_________
Liturgy blog... Living in the in between
Friday, I had a couple of errands to run, so after we were done with school, I jumped in the van to do them. First stop, the yearly gift wrap sale that happens in our town. (It's great... $1 rolls of good quality wrapping paper, 10 cent bows, 75 cent tape.) I happily stocked up for the season and the coming year's birthdays, and headed out to the van for errand number two. I turn on the car, and,
click,
click,
click,
click.
Yep, dead battery. Not on the to do list. I call J. at work for suggestions as to what I should do. Suggestion number one was to call the local Chevy dealership in town, which is just about five blocks away and see if they will come and help. I do that, and they are willing to help, but everyone just went on a lunch break so I'll have to wait. I decide to go on a lunch break, too, and walk over the little coffee shop that sells really wonderful homemade sandwiches. I walk back and start eating my sandwich in the van while I wait. As I'm eating, I hear someone call my name and I look up to see a friend of mine who is also there to stock up on wrapping paper. She has jumper cables and knows how to use them, so we decide to try to jump the van ourselves. When the dealership calls back to say they can send someone over, I tell them we've gotten the jumping-thing taken care of. I'll just drive the van over for a new battery once it's going.
Which would have been a great plan if we had been able to get the car started. After a valiant attempt, we decided that perhaps there is something more wrong than just the battery, and my friend runs along to meet her daughter's bus. I decide I should probably call AAA, because if it needs to be towed, that tow would be free. At least it wasn't freezing and the wait for a two truck was under an hour. I wish I had brought a book along on my errands.
Finally the tow truck driver arrives and I am greeted with, "This isn't an Astro van."
"You're right, it's not an Astro van. It's a Chevy Express 15 passenger van." I reply.
"This isn't an Astro van. They told me it was an Astro van," the tow truck driver (TTD) continues.
"I know it isn't an Astro van. I never said it was. I know what I drive," I said.
"I can't tow this. This isn't an Astro van," said the TTD. As an after thought he asks, "What's wrong with it?"
"It won't start. I think it's the battery, but we couldn't jump it," I answer. I demonstrate the non-starting, clicking sound.
"It's your battery," said the TTD. I hold my breath a moment waiting to see if he would add that my van wasn't an Astro van. He didn't. The TTD takes his little jumper-box-thing to the front of the van and hooks it up. On the second time, the van starts. Hooray! I'm curious as to why he could jump it, but my friend and I couldn't. Evidently for a really dead battery, you need to leave it charging for at least an hour. You learn something new everyday.
"Thank you," I tell the TTD.
"You know, it's not an Astro van. I couldn't have towed this. I don't think we can tow something so big. It's just not an Astro van." replies the TTD. [I'm truly not exaggerating this conversation at all.]
"No, you're right. It's not an Astro van," I concede as the TTD heads to his tow truck.
I then head to the dealership. I park, run in, and tell them I'm the woman who keeps calling them about her van. I barely get the words out when I am told to pull it up and they'll open the door. I say a silent prayer that the van will start again and do as instructed. I hand over the coupon for the battery my friend happened to have, which she gave to me, and I'm asked if I'll be waiting for it. I now have a 30 minute window before I have to get home to change and head back out to the stable for my therapeutic riding shift. I tell him my time constraints, and he says they can do it. I happily sit in the warm waiting room.
Sure enough, the battery is installed in time, and because the type of battery I had a coupon for was not in stock, they gave me a better battery for the same price. I make it home in time to get to the stable. It wasn't my most productive day.
The next day, Saturday, I head out again, on the errands that didn't get done the day before. I have a new battery, all should be well.
Should.
As I'm driving, I realize that the passenger side windshield wiper is acting oddly. Sometimes it goes, sometimes it doesn't, but the driver's side is working fine, and I can see, so I continue. A little later, as I near my destination, the passenger side wiper starts acting odder. Now it is over so far to the driver's side, that it looks as though it might catch the driver's side wiper. Not much later, it actually does, though the driver's side wiper manages to escape. I think, "Hmmm... when I stop, I should really take a look at that. It would be bad if the driver's side wiper stopped working." Famous last thoughts, because not much later, the driver's side wiper is caught by the other again, but this time, the whole thing snaps off and goes flying behind the car.
I might have said a bad word.
I'm almost to where I'm going and it's not actually raining, so I continue on, and figure I'll deal with it after I'm done. Well, that would have been fine if it had not started to rain again. I get in the van and think, "If I go slowly, I'll be able to see. It will be fine." Except that I couldn't see and it wasn't fine. It was so not fine I pulled off the road at the first chance I had. It was one of those moments I was extremely thankful to have a smart phone, because I started searching for nearby car repair places. I found a Napa Auto Parts just a mile away, so I slowly inch my way there, breathing a deep sigh of relief when I arrive. I head in and tell the guys at the counter what happened and say I need new wiper blades and someone to put them on. No problem, they can do that. I'm asked what kind of car I'm driving, and I reply a Chevy Express 15-passenger. (I admit to waiting just a moment to see if he will tell me that that is not an Astro van, but he doesn't.) Instead, he rings up the $8 wipers, hands them to another guy who puts them on in a matter of what seems seconds, and I'm good to go. I did stop him and explain what had happened, so he looks at the wipers one more time, heads to his car, grabs his socket wrenches, fiddles with the wipers, and fixes the problem.
In the meantime, I'm digging through my purse for cash, so I can tip the very nice man who is standing in the rain fixing my wipers for free. I hand him the money and he asks if I really want to, because it is not necessary. Oh yes, I did want to hand him a tip, and did so. The rest of the return trip was uneventful.
I did another errand yesterday, without mishap. It may take a few days, though, before I really let down my guard when I drive my
And to give credit where credit is due, a huge thanks to Bob Jass Chevrolet in Elburn and Napa Auto Parts in Naperville for their incredible customer service.
_________
Liturgy blog... Living in the in between
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