so don't ask if you don't want to know
Posts tagged freelander
Hit and run
Sep 25th
I dropped Ginnie off at school this morning and right out in front of the school some ass zoomed a left right into the side of my car and then took off! To get out of the way of traffic I managed a U-turn and pulled onto a side street, hoping the culprit would circle back. No such luck. But one parent came by and gave me her card saying she’d be a witness. It was her eyes I was looking into when I knew he was going to plow into me, hoping I wouldn’t get pushed into her car.
Scraped along the front tire, down the side and a bit on the back tire, too.
The door works okay but now it doesn’t seal at the top. Oh, ignore the tape on the back window. That’s where I’ve had to tape it off because neither back window (or the tailgate window, or the moon roof window) work anymore and they both stuck open about three inches. Joy.
As soon as I stopped shaking I had to drive clear to south Phoenix to pick up Casey and Kira for our Thursday chores and drop him at work. Then back in time to pick up Ginnie from school. She’s more worried about the car than I am, and proceeded to take it up to Buck’s work. He said something about a bent strut rubbing and straighted that out, but repairs will run in the thousands.
Fuck it.
I HATE THIS CAR.
I'm officially caught up.
Jun 30th
As of this very moment, my car payments are caught up! I’m no longer behind!
Woot! And in celebration I took it to the car wash.
Now I can try and trade this fucker in for something that isn’t falling apart. I still owe probably twice what it’s worth, but at least I’m caught up.
Dribbles and drabbles.
Apr 7th
Well, it’s official. They’re lowering my monthly allotment because I was honest and filled out the proper paperwork about the divorce. $149 less. Apparently that’s all he was worth to me. Sounds about right.
I got my Dragon*Con postcard in the mail today. Yay!
I have another new tire for my POS car. Next month I’ll get the fourth for a complete set. And then something else will take a shit. Actually, there’s some whooshy whooshy sound coming up from underneath now that sounds like I need grease somewhere. Fucker.
This new phone is great except for one thing. Every twenty minutes or so it makes this beeping noise. Even when it’s plugged in so I don’t think it’s a low battery indicator. No warning pop-up to identify what it is. Dunno why. And the
Ginnie and I picked out various colors from the Home Depot oops paint shelf. Two gallon cans for $5 each and I got three little cans for $1 each to paint my bathroom. We’s gonna have some fun.
There was a preview of a movie that looked interesting before Shanghai Kiss (from Netflix) and I jotted down what I thought was the title onto a pad of paper. It had one of those sequences where they put descriptive words on the screen and then more preview and more words and you’re left to assume the final words are the actual title. Guess not. Premise: Something happens on a country road and people are stuck there until it’s cleared and there’s conversation and family and growth and confrontation and I can’t for the life of me remember three days later the names of any of the familiar actors that are in it so I can’t look it up. “Fifteen Travelers” doesn’t come up anywhere on the ‘net.
Also watched “Marie Antoinette” and Kirsten Dunst sucks as an actress. She’s always the same, and she has no inflection in her voice. She must have attended the Kevin Costner School of Wooden Acting. Probably an honor student.
Tuesday?
Feb 19th
I finally got my car back yesterday, exactly one month since I took it in. Other than a small rumble that sounds like my muffler isn’t happy, it seems to be back to normal. There was a lot of rattling going on under there for quite a while so I don’t blame the muffler for being a bit put out. Let’s just hope it doesn’t mind waiting for a while to get a check up. I still owe them another $100 but I can drop that off as soon as the stupid car-rental-that-I-didn’t-have-to-pay-for clears from my account. Hertz has been “holding” a weeks worth of rental for some reason.
Newton’s Folly Cider, Gotcha! Thanks Geistbear (Don’t ask. I have to note stuff or I forgets.)
I’ve been playing around a bit with Second Life again. It really doesn’t work well for me. Slow, choppy, and every time I try to change my appearance the thing goes crazy. Flashing every poster, billboard, sign, etc. I’ve passed during that session over whatever I’m trying to change. Gives me motion sickness.
Old and bitchy
Feb 15th
They finally called me that my fracking car is done. We’ll see. I can’t pick it up til Monday as I didn’t have the complete amount together when he called at 4:00. Their stupid rental car is tying up money in my checking account that I need to pay them off. Someone at that end is going to have to figure out how to release that hold.
I have The Screech overnight and boy is she screechy. I’m making her take an extra nap right now so I don’t have to kill her.
I appreciate and enjoy everything about my free VA health care except for one thing. Sitting on hold for the “help” line for 33 minutes to get a prescription refill approval sent to my doctor. Regular refills I can do online now! Great. The Phoenix VA Hospital is clean and the service I’ve received in just about every department has been exemplary, except the pharmacy. Why can’t I just send an email to my doctor or someone in that clinic for him to approve the prescriptions I’ve been taking for years and years? And the HOLD music is horrendous!
It’s been raining all day and I hate cold rainy days.
I need WI3D tomorrow. Seriously.
I tried reading back over my LJ to figure out the last time I had sex. Around a year ago. I can’t find the entry but that time frame really sucked. Not a good read for a cold rainy day.
Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps podcast novel is done (loved it, BTW) and now I need to go back and restart Scott Sigler’s Nocturnal. Those two stories were just way too different to listen to simultaneously and now I don’t remember how Scott’s started. Probably with blood and bizarre deaths.
Darn. Must go wake up The Screech now if I expect her to sleep through the night. I did get a few nice pictures after her bath – which she need after wearing most of her gelatin at dinner. I’ll post later.
humpday
Feb 13th
Nip/Tuck season finale is next week already.
The Riches starts up March 18th.
No call on my car. I took it in on Jan 18th, they started working on it the 25th, added more work on the 4th and told me it would be ready by Monday or Tuesday this week. It be late Wednesday night, y’all.
Babysat the Screech today. Hung out with my friend Jamie for a bit. Tried to nap.
My friend E made me cry a little. I miss hanging with him.
Oh yeah. Pissed me off moment. So Ginnie’s been bugging me from school. Sending “I’m so bored” texts and stuff. She wants to take tomorrow off school just because she’s so far ahead in every class (pretend you hear that in a whiny exasperated voice) and she’s sooooo bored. Uh, no. I felt the same way when I was her age which is why I read. Carry a book. Save your days in case you actually, you know, NEED them later. Then she calls me later to remind me it’s her father’s birthday tomorrow – like being with the man for over 30 years I’d forget – and he says he’ll call her out of school so they can spend the day together. Go to breakfast and then the moooooovies or something. Grrrrrr. Okay, he’s attempting to spend time with her so parenting points +5, but letting her out of school for it gives him parenting points -10. Loser.
I am Officially a Randy Divorcée
Feb 7th
That wasn’t so hard. I had all the correct paperwork even. Go me. It was just time consuming. Buck didn’t have to show up so of course he didn’t bother.
Judgy: Is this marriage irretrievably broken?
Me: Absolutely
Whew that’s a weight off my shoulders. I’m free! I’m freeeeee-eeeeee-hheeeeee!
Supposed to babysit for a short period late this afternoon. Casey has to work late and Ed has to go in early. I think while I’m over in Tempe I’ll pop into Rúla Búla and have a celebratory Strongbow.
So about the car. Casey and I went down there that night and chatted up the service manager. He’s dead on convinced all my issues were taken care of the first time I brought it in and that driving it an additional two months on bad tires broke everything since. Including the original bearings they replaced. I fear without getting a lawyer there’s no way I can argue that shit anymore. I flat out told him that if they couldn’t finish the repairs for under $1200 they should shove the car up their collective asses and I’d walk away. I actually said that aloud. There was no way I’m gonna win without big guns and I don’t have big guns. Fucking Land Rover. I have about half that left in the bank. Between now and Tuesdayish I need to come up with another $600. I wonder if I should take $10 and go play the slots.
Here's the deal
Feb 4th
Original repair $1,119 and the advice to go out and buy tires.
Tires $210 after I finally catch up financially after big repair.
Newer estimate $1,064 cuz I didn’t buy tires soon enough.
Today’s bullshit: Another $1,100 because they found the right front half shaft is broken. FUCK. $2,200 to finish the job.
Buck is continuing to snarl at me because I have no balls. I have no balls. I have to get past the crying shit and get good and pissed. I’m taking Ginnie to work, picking up Casey as backup and we’re going up there to raise some stink. Either they cut me some slack or I’m walking away from it and they can shove the fucking car up their collective asses. I cannot understand how having ONE tire a size larger than the rest can result in such shit in a car DESIGNED for off-road use.
Let’s not talk about Wells Fargo breathing down my neck because keeping up with the payments isn’t good enough. I have to CATCH up with the payments or they’ll go into repossession. Fine. Y’all go over to the dealer and fight with them and I’ll walk away.
My credit is shit anyway. Fuck everybody. What are they gonna do? There is no debtors prison anymore. Kiss my ass. You can’t get blood out of a stone.
I’ll walk away from it all and get something at one of those buy-here-pay-here places.
And here's how it stands
Jan 25th
The Car From Hell: I’ve had a loaner for the last week, while I “decided” whether to have them fix my POS car for the low, low price of $1,064. Charlie the Service Writer left a fairly pleasant message yesterday that he really couldn’t pay for the rental anymore and I really needed to make a decision please. So I called him back this morning and told him to go for it, but I can’t pay anything until next Friday and that I shouldn’t really have to pay for it anyway. I’d taken the car in for service in October for this very problem and I was sent on my way with a few new bearings, a pat on the head, a suggestion to get new tires and half my disability check for that month gone. I bought the stupid tires and everything got worse. Why wasn’t the BROKEN DRIVE SHAFT discovered the first time? He’s going to have his boss call me back about that.
I have an entire speech in my head. Mentioning the advice from my ex-husband, the Master Mechanic and the various blogs and online forums I’m a member of. I might even mention my friend who works for the Tribune and another friend who writes for the Arizona Republic. Let’s throw in the Disabled Veteran pay that I barely live on, my teenage daughter who also drives the car, the infant who rides along and maybe I’ll cripple the dog, too.
The Son: Every morning we get up at 4:00 am and I take him to work. If Kira stays asleep I leave her here and Ginnie knows to listen for her while I’m gone. If she wakes up she goes with me. Every morning as I exit the US60 on Mill, I think of machinegirl down the street. I just know she’s snuggly snoring at that time of the day. I go back home and sleep for another 2 hours until I have to take Ginnie to school. Then Kira and I stay up and play until I can get her to nap at 10. Then I sleep, too. Pick up Casey at 1:30, run around trying to find him an apartment and get his life together, then pick up Ginnie at 3. Kira goes to bed around 8 and I’m in bed by 9. Someday soon I’ll catch up on everything I’ve been DVRing. Hopefully this will only last another week, and then he’ll move and I won’t even be babysitting anymore.
The Big D: I tried to schedule my court hearing using eCourt and their program kept crashing. So I called and the lady told me I had to wait until next week to call. Gotta love the government.
This Weekend: Phoenix Comicon, which is technically in Mesa. No recording at the studio as everyone is attention the Con at various times. I think everyone is going to the Zombie Beauty Pageant tonight. After that, who knows. I plan on FUN.
