The Car Drama That Was Last Tuesday

Tonight is a quick post, mostly copied over from a lighthearted e-mail to Holly about how Libby and I got stranded at the house last week. I enjoyed the way it was written, and seeing as tomorrow is Tuesday yet again (where does the time go?) I figured I would post it to ward off evil car spirits. Mostly though, I have not quite gathered my thoughts enough to write a post on the things really on my mind as of late. And so, from last Wednesday's e-mail (with a little extra thrown in)...

Libby and I are sitting here waiting for a ride. Her to daycare (a little late) and me to work. Yesterday Crystal, my sweet little car, died. She was 2, just older than Libby. We went out yesterday morning to go to gymnastics and she wouldn't start. Just "click...click...click."

I figured it was just colder than I realized and she was a little chilled. So I popped the hood to see if there was a way to plug her in. And then I realized, she wasn't even turning over, like she was just too cold to start. She was just all "click...click...click." So I called my mechanic...aka Dad. He figured the battery was dead, even though I told him the lights were still working. Apparently a battery can hold enough of a charge to work the minor electronics. Who knew? Spent the rest of the morning trying to console Libby, who would suddenly start to whimper and beg me to "Go now...See 'Mir...Go Mom...Go now" as she sat in the leotard she refused to take off until after gymnastics. She was very upset that the car "boke" and she couldn't go see her new boyfriend Samir, her 50+ year old Tunisian sweetheart of a gymnastics instructor. The drama in that 2 year olds life, I tell ya!

Dad came over after work yesterday to check out the battery. The thing was frozen...hard core cold. No juice for the little engine that should. (When the guy commented on it's frozen-ness, I was a little irritated that he would find it so weird that a battery sitting out in - degree weather would feel cold, until it was explained to me that batteries don't really "freeze" unless they are dead.) And so, once my mom showed up to watch a late-napping Libby, dad and I headed over to O'Reilly's to buy a new battery. (They had the best deal according to my last minute, quickie Internet search.) Then we stood out in my freezing cold garage, me holding flashlights and dad putting in the new battery, with perhaps a little snafu here and there. But once correctly installed there was still nothing but a click...click...click. The look on my dad's face was priceless...eyes all wide with an expression of utter confusion and dread. So we tried jumping the car. Nope, no luck. And so, into the warm, warm house we went to call the dealership.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, I called the dealership, who said they'd take a look at her if I got her towed in. I, in my frugal savviness, decided to call Chevy USA Roadside Assistance for the third time in as many years.

The first time I ever had to call, in early 2009, I had to drive through a huge water puddle from a burst water main in downtown Fargo on my way to work, where I proceeded to stay for the next 36+ hours due to a blizzard and a MeritCare Winter Storm Watch. On the drive home, my car was making some horrible noise and having some trouble speeding up, so I turned into a driveway...oddly enough, the city of Fargo's impound lot. Turns out my entire wheel was frozen. They told me the wait was up to 8 hours, a result of the recent blizzard, and you have to be with the car when the tow truck arrives. I waited in my car in the -degree weather for a tow truck to take me in to the local dealership for a thaw. Not exactly great for me, as I hadn't pumped before leaving work. I ended up having to manually pump in the front seat of my car. My friend Rachael and I had a great laugh over the ordeal, as she was keeping me company via text. We got a good laugh over the possibility that a cop might stumble upon me, bottles and cones shoved under my scrub top with my hands massaging away. We had recently read an article in the paper about a woman getting a ticket for indecent exposure related to pumping in her car, or something like that. I figured if the cop actually had the ability to overcome the embarrassment of catching me pump, I would just offer him some homemade human ice cream. This was also around the time that the La Leche League was trying to talk Ben & Jerry's into using human milk to make their ice cream. Stupid, stupid idea if you ask me. It doesn't seem quite as funny now, but when I was stuck in that car with a rock hard, milk-full bosom (yeah, you can laugh), it was hi-freaking-larious. Thank goodness for my sanity the tow truck only took about 2 hours to rescue me, and I was home to my baby in no time at all. A shout out to Uncle Jonah, who hung around to babysit her, and Andy, who picked me up in the heavy duty truck to bring me home from the dealership.

The second time I ever had to call was this past summer, 2010. I hit a pothole coming home from Tawni & Mike's wedding and needed help changing my spare. Not because I'm a woman who had never done it before, but because it was pitch black on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere Minnesota and the bugs were going CRAZY. Well that and I actually would have had to change two tires. But thanks to the good Samaritan on the road I was able to cancel that assistance call. A good thing too 'cuz otherwise I would have been on the side of Highway 169 outside Aitkin for at least an hour and a half while someone drove up from St. Cloud. And you never know, the car may have been attacked by a bear at some point during the wait.

The third, 2011, was last night. Chevy Roadside Assistance is amazing. I will continue to buy Chevy's if only for their amazing (Canadian) customer assistance. They didn't care that my car was in the garage, although we would have pushed it out into the middle of the alley if they did. They did the research and found the towing company with the shortest wait before sending out a tow truck to bring Crystal to the dealer...for free. No insurance reimbursement here! And so, about 20 minutes later (not the hour I was told) my new hero Brandon, from Hurley Towing and Recovery, showed up to tow.

Being a man, he had to try and see if he could get it jump started too. He super jumped it, from the front and the back with a portable jumper and his huge truck. No go. Needless to say, by 8 we were standing in the service bay at Friendly Chevrolet, me getting Crystal all settled (thank goodness for power train and GE extended warranties) and Brandon getting a new headlight on the tow truck. They called late last night; my starter is out. It is covered under warranty, but they didn't have the part in stock, so it will have to wait until later this afternoon to get fixed. I am killing two birds with one stone, and getting the power steering doohickey that was recalled last year fixed as well. Crystal should be ready for pick-up sometime tonight and I will not have spent a dime (except for the new battery). A small price to pay if you ask me.

Now if only I had remembered to pull out my camera to take a few pictures!

P.S. She's back home and running like a champ. Now to get some new tires.