This is going to be a lousy post, but I just have to vent a little....
My husband's car is broken :(
I absolutely hate dealing with car trouble.
My husband was helping a guy out with his computer and when my husband went to leave, the car wouldn't come out of park and the gear shift is all floppy. From my research, it sounds like the shifter cable is broken and it's not a difficult fix, but of course it still costs money. Not exactly what I wanted to spend the money from our first paycheck on. My biggest fear is that the repair shop will try to take advantage of me and charge me more than necessary. Anyway, I'm armored with my knowledge of gear shifts and shifter cables and hopefully will be able to recognize if they are trying to pull a fast one on me. The car is still at this person's house which means I get to go take my husband to work tomorrow at 7 AM, and then go to the broken car and wait for AAA to come and tow it while sitting in our van with all the kids.
The good news is that it got me to renew my AAA membership. It's been expired for 6 months. I have to wait until tomorrow to get it towed to avoid having to pay an extra $40 for the tow. Thankfully it's not a problem to keep it at this person's house until tomorrow.
Why do these things always happen right before Christmas? I was all ready to do some Christmas shopping. Ug.
A blogumentary of my family of ten. There's me, my husband, and our eight kids. No pets, just kids. Join us on our jolly joyful journey because alliteration makes me happy.
This happened to us too! Only my husband was getting ready to go home teaching and the car wouldn't start. Then I asked him what it was like (to determine battery/alternator vs. starter yeah I am a mechanic's daughter) and he went back to check and the alarm sounded and went off for a good 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to reset the alarm by disconnecting the battery for '2 minutes' though its been about 20. I read that the quick fix is to turn the key on (part way) and leave it there for 10 minutes so the alarm system will turn off, then you can start it. The actual fix is $300-600. And we just hope the car will be functional before Tuesday when we go to Florida for Thanksgiving.
Oh, and be grateful you have a second vehicle. We are carless at the moment. :-( We shall see what happens when the husband has to get to school tomorrow night and take an exam. Gotta find a car to borrow.
ReplyDeleteProbably good that it isn't your van that broke or you would have to stuff all the kids in a small car, like in the game of Life.
ReplyDeleteYou're the 3rd person in the last 24 hours that I've heard is having car problems...interesting...glad it won't be too bad!
ReplyDeleteBecca - I'm sorry to hear about your car trouble too, but it's kind of nice to be in misery together. You're right about being grateful for having a second car. My facebook status last night before reading your comment was, "Melinda has a broken car. :( .....But I'm thankful to have a second car so we can still get around :)" I remember the days of only having one car and three kids.
ReplyDeleteBeth - yes, it would be bad to have a car dangerously full of children like the game of life. However, if it was the van, then I wouldn't have to take my husband to work and I could just call AAA from my home.
Lori - I think it's the bah humbug spirit breaking people's cars and trying to get them upset before the holidays :) I'm not going to let it even if my repairs are totaling $830.
More tomorrow with details. I need to go to bed and get rid of this sore throat.