Unwanted Adventure
By JoeBruin88. Filed in Life |Tags: cars, Food, general_stuff, Life, repairs, traffic
I had just gotten off the freeway on my way to pick up Josephine from work. Pourpa had the other car and was on his way to his company’s softball game.
“The car won’t start.”
[Great. More money to spend.]
“Does the engine turn over? Are the lights on? Are you getting any power?”
“The car is totally dead.”
[Wonderful.]
So after picking up Josephine from work we had to head back south on the freeway, going through traffic again, to pick up Tony and see what was wrong with the stupid car. When we arrived, I saw for myself that the car was totally dead. So I called the Auto Club (AAA). The driver was going to be out in half an hour.
In the meantime, Josephine and Pourpa went over to Mr. Chick to get us some dinner while we waited: gyros and fries. Yum yum. I was hoping that Josephine would get to try Mr. Chick some time. Too bad the circumstances were not more pleasant. While I waited for them to arrive with the food, I called the Ford dealership to let them know that my truck would be towed there to stay overnight. The service advisor told me he would diagnose it for $80.
“Thank you very much, Santiago.”
[Yeah right.]
So then the set of good news comes in the form of a telephone call. It’s the Auto Club calling me, letting me know that the driver won’t be able to come until 90 minutes because of rush hour traffic, which would put him there in the parking lot at 7:30 PM. But they said the driver would call me 15 minutes before arriving.
Great.
So we headed off to Starbucks for some coffee and to endure the long 90-minute wait. After finishing my mocha frappucino, my phone rings and it’s the towing company asking me how far away I am from the car.
“About 5 minutes.”
[Thanks for following directions, buddy. Now we have to run out of Starbucks to head back to car.]
When we got to the truck, the driver was doing something in the cab of his truck and did not see us. So we stood around waiting for almost 5 minutes. All I could think of was “meta dio heria” because he was doing something with his hands.
So he gets out of the car and asks for my key. He tries to start the engine. Nothing. Pops open the hood.
[Now I'm thinking... What are you going to do about this totally dead car?]
He fiddles around with the battery and the lights flicker.
[There is hope.]
Come to find out that the positive connector to the battery was loose. So he strips the wires and twists them tight. Then he inserts the wires back into the connector so that it’s snug. Voila, the truck is running again. So the story has a happy ending. I don’t have to pay $80 to find out that the wires were loose and what would most certainly be other ailments that my car has from the dealership.
We get back on the road again, finally headed for home. I called the Auto Club back to compliment the driver. I think he just saved us over $300 because that’s what the Ford dealership would have charged to fix all the things wrong with the car that they were bound to “find” from the diagnosis.
What a fun evening. Not.