Archives for July 2007

Thursday am: wife comes to get me to go to coffee. On the way back to work, her Yukon Xl dies- turns out to be a fuel pump. Turns out the brakes are bad too.

Thursday pm: I discover the repairs will cost $1100. I then call an old time friend who is a parts manager at a GMC dealer and he gets me one part over nighted to the repair shop I had it towed to. This, if all goes well, will save me $180. $920 to go.

Friday am: I get a really bad feeling about my truck and the 1200 mile round trip 10 day camping experience we’re about to embark on. So I call to get a quote on replacing the clutch. $1200 is the going rate. Ouch.

Friday am: I find out that my Midas brakes are covered by them, but I still have to pay for the labor to replace them. This saves me another $180. $760 to go.

Saturday pm: Shannon calls me from her cell. She’s driving my truck and the clutch is on the floor and won’t come back up. I have no vehicle to go get her. The neighbors take me down there. $1200 clutch, now not optional. I manage to limp home in second gear. My truck is now half way in/ half way out of my driveway because I can’t get it in or out of reverse. Monday I guess I’ll have it towed to the clutch shop. $1960 to go.

Saturday, dinner time: Dinner is over and Shannon starts the dishwasher. It disagrees. Freezes. And Dies. I should cuss, but instead I just smile at the stupidity of my world and try and remind myself of the blessing it is in the world to even say your top 3 problems are two broken down cars and a busted home appliance. I decide I’ll cuss later. Maybe after I discover that the going rate for a dishwasher is like over $600. $2460 to go. Cussing to commence promptly.

Anyway…. then I checked my voice mail on my cell… which had been on “silent” all day while I worked on TJ’s 10 year old birthday remodel his room present…. and discovered I had not sent a letter of recommendation for a student I said I’d send and that I sent my assistant coach to a soccer team meeting at the wrong location. UGHHHHHH!

My family is planning on going camping on Wednesday. I think I might go today. That is if I didn’t have to bike there.

Whelp. Ed, the main teaching pastor at our church… said this deep thing tonight at church that I thought was worth remembering. It even caused a “wow, that’s good stuff” from the people in the row behind me. Here it is:

Hmmmm…. chew on that for a while… or let it marinate… or simmer… or put it in your pipe and smoke it…. or uh.. you get the picture.

After seeing two blogs that got their blog rated (marko and dan). Marko was rated G and Dan rated R. So, I finally decided to see what mine is rated out of pure curiosity. My Blog got rated PG-13.

It was because I said “crap” somewhere once and “bomb” somewhere twice. I wonder if this is how movies are rated. Very random if you ask me.

Either way, you can and should do two things.

#1. Get your blog rated here.

#2. Keep anyone 13 or under away from my blog unless supervised by a parent.

Maybe I should hope and pray that my car can be fixed for $500. My initial estimate for rear brakes and my fuel pump assembly is $1100. Oh fun.

Oh the joys of broken down cars. So, from the land of broken down vehicles I offer these nuggets of wisdom….

• Remember, your car will break down someday and the guy who is blocking the intersection by accident and is really wishing they were somewhere else and NOT calling a tow truck right now… yeah that guy… one day will be you. So be nice to that guy.

• Keep your middle finger in your nose or your pocket or wherever before you wave it around in anger. The tow truck guy said that he got flipped off by a lady while he was helping a car that was broke down a few days ago. He remembered her cuz it pissed him off. 2 hours later he got another call from a broken down vehicle. It was that lady. Yeah… he towed her car…. slower than a car has ever been towed in the history of car towage.

• Use your horn to celebrate weddings. I know it’s illegal. But I’d say break a law in celebration before you use the stupid thing to get angry at someone else’s distress.

• Friends are good. Especially ones that come and save you and your kids from distress moments. Thanks Jared and the Hammond family!!!

• One final nugget… I have AAA- so my tow is free. But in a really nice conversation with my tow truck driver, I discovered he only gets $7 per AAA call from his employer. No matter how long it takes. Um… so tip your tow truck guy… with money and not your middle finger.

oh.. I really hope this episode is not a $500 pain in my arse.