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Blah blah blah cars blah blah
Nov. 3rd, 2015 11:42 amWell, I have purchased a 2000 Toyota Camry in dark grey and begun the process of making sure it's up to code for all the driving I do now. Which still isn't much compared to many folks, but whoa do I ever drive a lot compared to when I first started three years ago.
I brought a mechanic with me to go over the cars I looked at and make sure they were solid buys, and we agreed pretty wholeheartedly on this one. Timing belt had been replaced, it had just over 109k miles on it, but the ride wasn't as smooth as I'd like, so I ordered some new shocks and struts and today, my mechanic friend was going to put them on. Got an appointment to get a shop real close to me to do a front-end alignment on Wednesday afterwards and everything! However, I woke up to a text from him reading, "Good morning! Sorry I have to get ahold of you this early, but we have problems. Call me, please?"
It turns out that they sent me the rear shocks to a Ford Focus by accident. They're sending the right ones free of charge and a call tag for the wrong ones. Meanwhile, my mechanic has noticed a power steering leak. And I'm driving to Chicago this weekend for Tooles gigs, so I'm not sure if I'll have to rent a car or what. And there are a couple other minor things - I need new wipers, and a new blower resistor (on order), and a cd player that doesn't skip so badly, or always give me an error message the first time I feed it a CD-R. Any suggestions for that last one? My current plan is, next time I get some cash, go to Best Buy and hope there's a free installation deal on, which I think they do from time to time if you buy a car stereo that costs more than a hundred bucks or something.
Thinking about all this, and considering the deer we hit in a friend's car coming back from OVFF, I called up my insurance company and made sure I had rental car coverage if I ever get in an accident. It cost me all of five dollars, which is perfect.
On the up side, I can deal with this, and I have a car that's generally in better shape than my Unspeakable Chariot, and it's on the insurance and I transferred my plates and all the requisite boring stuff. I've already added the Cthulhu emblem and Esoteric Order of Dagon sticker to the back (thank you, HPLHS Store), and I'm getting used to the different seat and the way it drives. But what shall I call it? There are so many Lovecraftian adjectives I could choose. Any suggestions?
Car update: Front struts are on, power steering leak is minor and is 95% a cracked gasket in the line which is very slightly cracked, because the fluid in the chamber is quite old and not perilously low. Shocks should come in the mail in four days, and my mechanic even saved the boxes so I can send them back all taped up nicely. Safe to drive this weekend, no need for a rental car!
I brought a mechanic with me to go over the cars I looked at and make sure they were solid buys, and we agreed pretty wholeheartedly on this one. Timing belt had been replaced, it had just over 109k miles on it, but the ride wasn't as smooth as I'd like, so I ordered some new shocks and struts and today, my mechanic friend was going to put them on. Got an appointment to get a shop real close to me to do a front-end alignment on Wednesday afterwards and everything! However, I woke up to a text from him reading, "Good morning! Sorry I have to get ahold of you this early, but we have problems. Call me, please?"
It turns out that they sent me the rear shocks to a Ford Focus by accident. They're sending the right ones free of charge and a call tag for the wrong ones. Meanwhile, my mechanic has noticed a power steering leak. And I'm driving to Chicago this weekend for Tooles gigs, so I'm not sure if I'll have to rent a car or what. And there are a couple other minor things - I need new wipers, and a new blower resistor (on order), and a cd player that doesn't skip so badly, or always give me an error message the first time I feed it a CD-R. Any suggestions for that last one? My current plan is, next time I get some cash, go to Best Buy and hope there's a free installation deal on, which I think they do from time to time if you buy a car stereo that costs more than a hundred bucks or something.
Thinking about all this, and considering the deer we hit in a friend's car coming back from OVFF, I called up my insurance company and made sure I had rental car coverage if I ever get in an accident. It cost me all of five dollars, which is perfect.
On the up side, I can deal with this, and I have a car that's generally in better shape than my Unspeakable Chariot, and it's on the insurance and I transferred my plates and all the requisite boring stuff. I've already added the Cthulhu emblem and Esoteric Order of Dagon sticker to the back (thank you, HPLHS Store), and I'm getting used to the different seat and the way it drives. But what shall I call it? There are so many Lovecraftian adjectives I could choose. Any suggestions?
Car update: Front struts are on, power steering leak is minor and is 95% a cracked gasket in the line which is very slightly cracked, because the fluid in the chamber is quite old and not perilously low. Shocks should come in the mail in four days, and my mechanic even saved the boxes so I can send them back all taped up nicely. Safe to drive this weekend, no need for a rental car!
