Category: Miscellany

So take your fast car and keep on driving

My car is hopefully fixed. I took it up to the shop on Friday night, so they’d have it for Saturday morning to look at. They called me midday on Saturday, because they were having problems recreating the dropping idle. They did finally get it to do it once or twice, though. They fixed the battery – it wasn’t properly installed when the guy put it in for me last week. After more tests, they called me back again. Kelly let me know that the battery/alternator/starter/cables/connections/etc were all fine. The other possible suspect for giving me those problems was some motor (I forgot what), that costs $500 to replace. But, because he wasn’t able to get it to do it more than twice, he didn’t want to condemn that motor and have me be out that much money, when he couldn’t guarantee that was the problem. He told me if this gets significantly worse, then we’ll look at that motor again; but otherwise he wasn’t going to touch it. He did also clean out the system for me, which should also help clean out that motor and keep it going. So far, so good. It hasn’t acted like it was going to stall since I picked it up Saturday afternoon. YAY!

When I was out on Saturday, I lost my cell phone. I didn’t know until about an hour after I’d lost it that it was gone. I called the last store I remembered having it in, but they hadn’t had one turned in. After I picked up my car, I was going to drive everywhere I’d been, and double check to try to find it before suspending service. When mom was dropping me off to get my car – my cellphone called her. It had been found in the PARKING LOT of the store that I’d originally thought I’d lost it at. I got VERY lucky there – since I have a RAZR, I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone kept it instead of turning it in. I also got very lucky that it didn’t get run over and crushed in that parking lot. When I picked up my cell, I tried to give them a reward, but they turned it down. I’m so so thankful I got my phone back. I didn’t wanna think about having to buy another, right as I’m paying out all this money on my car.

The engine's thumping like a disco

On the way home from work last night, I stopped by AutoZone and had them check the battery. Sure enough, that sucker was bad. Everyone there kept asking where I had bought it, apparently they were all surprised that it was still the factory battery in a 4+ year old car. That set me back $70.30, then one of the guys there installed it for me, outside, in the sweltering heat. I felt bad for him, but there wasn’t much I could do. If there had been a garage or somewhere cooler for me to pull into, I gladly would have. It took a while to get installed, he had some issues getting one of the posts fastened, because the bolt wanted to move every time he tried to tighten the nut. He was having to use pliars in one hand to attempt to hold it still while tightening it with a socket wrench in the the other.

After that, it started right up and was time for me to head home. On the drive home, though, I noticed that it felt a little strange to me as I accelerated. Almost as if it would stick, then the acceleration suddenly push through all at once and lurch slightly; instead of gently increasing speed the way it should. Honestly? It felt slightly like the way the car used to move back when I was initially learning to drive stick shift. (And should be noted that this car is an automatic, so it wasn’t me regressing in my ability to drive stick. Ha.)

On the way to work this morning, I had some of the same acceleration problems. It’s not every time I accelerate, so at first I thought I was just imagining things. But, in addition to those problems, this morning I encountered a new one. Each time I would slow down to stop at a red light, the engine would feel like it was stuttering and about to stall out on me. Eons ago I had a car that used to do that (and actually stall) on a regular basis. I can’t remember what the final diagnosis had been in that case.

I talked to my boss about it some this morning, though, and he thinks I should get my alternator checked — that it could be going bad. Here I had thought I dodged the alternator bullet yesterday, by it having been a bad battery. I guess not. So, Saturday my car goes back into the shop again to get that checked out. I’m praying this isn’t going to cost me much, but with my luck… :-\

Oh, and speaking of luck, on a completely random note: yesterday I won a cruise! Well, kind of. I won a 2 for 1 deal on a 10 day Hawaiian cruise. Sadly, even just a single fare on the cruise is too expensive for me, even if I split it in two with the friend I’d take; especially with all these damn car repairs. Oh well. Maybe I’ll get to go to Hawaii someday.

Put your silver key into my cold ignition

Last week, I was attempting to start a wish list at Wists, but I wasn’t getting very far due to website issues, and the bookmarklet not wanting to cooperate. The one website I was trying to bookmark a camera on was wonky and wouldn’t let me access anything. So, I did a quick Google of the camera, and found out news. I admit, I’m late in finding this out, but it still is very very sad news for me. Apparently? Konica Minolta is no longer making cameras. This is EXTREMELY disturbing and disheartening for me, especially considering they sold off their camera business to Sony (ew ick). My film SLRs have always been Minolta. I love Minolta. So I have to decide if I want to get a camera that’s discontinued, and won’t have further support… or if I should try and decide on a new digital SLR to get. The Canon film SLRs never impressed me (in fact, often doing the opposite when I’d use a friends), and after a very bad experience with a Sony digital camera – I cannot stand them. The higher cost of Sony equipment is typically for the brand name, and not for better quality. Sure, I get an employee discount off any digital camera I want, as long as we sell it, but that doesn’t make a Sony any more desirable.

Migraines have been getting the better of me the past few weeks, with a few even messing up my vision. It’s very weird when it looks like things you’re watching aren’t real. For instance – I was writing addresses on checks to be mailed out Thursday, and it didn’t seem like it was my hand that I was watching write the words. The screwed up vision made me feel very disconnected from it. I swear it seems like I’m always falling apart. If it isn’t one thing, it’s something else. I’m getting sick of it. Anyone know some place where I can trade my body in for a new one?

I’m getting incredibly restless again. Back when I first got my driver’s license, any time I got bored, restless, frustrated, etc – I would just hop behind the wheel of my car and drive. I’d travel all over the Metroplex just driving, with absolutely no destination in mind. Just being on the road was a catharsis for me, releasing a lot of that tension. I could have the radio blaring as long as I wanted, singing along at the top of my lungs without worrying about anyone else hearing my terrible voice unless the windows were down. 😉 I could even scream as loud as I wanted if I felt the need. (Side note: Sometimes, when friends and I would go out cruising, we’d get to a red light, count to 3, and all scream as loud as we could. It would make us feel better, and then collapse into laughter.) The world seemed so full of possibilities, like there were so many places I could go in that driver’s seat.

Granted, I did end up going a lot of places. I drove to/through 19 of the 21 states I’ve been to so far. The travel to 13 of those 19 states was between ages 16-22, with a great majority of the time me traveling by myself, or with one close friend. I know I was very very lucky to get to do all the traveling I did. Of course, I did lie to my parents about a lot of it – telling them I was going one place, and then heading off many many miles further away instead. :-X While most teens were rebelling by partying and drinking and the like – I was rebelling by traveling cross-country without my parent’s knowledge, often staying in the homes of people I knew only from the internet. I guess I got lucky that nothing bad happened to me – I’ve always been too trusting for my own good.

I miss that, though. Like I was saying, I’m getting incredibly restless. I NEED to travel, desperately. I don’t like being all cooped up and stuck in one place for so long. I’ve got a nomad soul that longs to travel and roam and explore. Work’s one of the two things that has me cooped up now a days. I can’t travel as far as I used to, since I can’t miss work. My schedule isn’t as flexible as it once was. (The job I had before my current one? I loved for traveling. If I worked a holiday, I had my choice between getting paid Double Time+Time & 1/2 OR getting paid normal time and get an extra 8 hours of PTO. I always opted for the PTO, and had plenty of paid time off to travel on!) The other thing, of course, is the goddamn gas prices. I used to be able to travel all the way from Dallas to Nashville on roughly the same amount of money that it now costs for a single fill-up. I would probably be able to go one way to Nashville on what it used to cost me to make the round trip, and then some. I cringe every time I see that total on the gas pump as I fill it up, and it creeps over $30 a tank. That evil price of gas makes it so I can barely do any necessary travel around town, and there’s just no way I can travel much further anymore. It’s a very sad day when it’s cheaper for me to fly somewhere than drive there.

I miss the days of deciding I wanted to go to a concert, picking up, and just taking off to go. The location didn’t matter – I would travel anywhere I wanted. I didn’t always even have tickets in advance. My friend Anita and I drove all the way out to Nashville to see Garth Brooks without tickets. We just went to the ticket window the morning of the shows to see if any tickets had been released, and we were able to get into every show we wanted. Now? If I didn’t have a guarantee that I could get in to that concert in advance – I wouldn’t be able to justify the expense of travel to get there. I can barely even justify the cost of getting across the Metroplex to Ft Worth for a concert anymore. I can’t even recall the last time I went to Billy Bob’s. It had to be some time last year.

I still go on trips, but they’re almost always by plane now. There’s also a lot fewer trips than I used to take. I guess I’ve got to find a way to get used to it… to find some other way to take care of my restlessness. I miss driving. I think this ramble lost it’s steam somewhere along the way. Oops? I’m sure it will end up being revisited again.