taking viviene to the doctor

i’m soooo glad the election is over and that my team won. so glad i am, that having to get my car fixed yesterday and just about breaking my bank, i didn’t get over anxious about it. for a while now, and by a while i mean years, my gear shifting has been a little to hard to...well shift. i have broken the gear twice already and had to drive with it zip-tied until i could fix it. but in the last week it got really bad. so bad that i was afraid that i was going to break the shifter thingy again. and i didn't want that to happen because brad said he wouldn't band-aid it again. it involves removing the console and getting down in the floor board to unscrew things. and of course i knew it was sick but i just keep putting it off. so on monday i took it to the mechanic 1 door down from my work. and let me just say how much that rocks to have a mechanic within walking distance from ones work.

anyhoo, i drove over there at lunch and explained my problem, and then left it there for the guy to look at and tell me what’s up. i also wanted him to check on this whine when my car started. the sound was loud and had been loud for....you guessed it....years. so i walked back to work and about 20 minutes later i get the call. the clutch master/slave cylinder needed to be replaced and the whine came from a bad serpentine belt, a idler pulley and the tensioner pulley. don’t i sound like i know what i’m talking about??? i must confess that i wrote that from looking at the bill. i have the general idea but i don’t know the name of things like that. i just takes up too much brain memory. so i went to pick up my car and he told me to bring it back on wednesday cause that’s when all the parts would be there. he also gave me an estimate on how much all of this would cost. i did have the money. barely. and might as well fixed all those problems now. but no worries. like i said, i knew i would be a feel good week.

so wednesday came, the shop called me to tell me that the parts were there, i drove it over and left viviene, that’s what i call my car, and headed back to work. still no worries. usually i would have been in a panic for the entire day over the money and the fact that i couldn’t just get in my car and go. granted i wasn’t planning on leaving spur of the moment from work but for me the access to my car gives me a certain amount of control. i called back around 3:30 cause i just couldn’t stand it anymore and pam the shop’s office manager said that’s it’s ready to go and the amount would be $464 dollars. so i rearranged my money on line and headed down there. but of course all of my rearranging of money didn’t go into effect yet so i had to pay by check and credit card and then come back to work and rearrange money for a second time. oh well. i am really really broke for about a month but now my gears shift like butter. i miss that. muscle memory came back into play and i realized why i enjoyed driving my car. and there is no more whine. my car is quiet. viviene likes being in stealth mode again.

all in all it wasn’t that much money considering that viviene is 12 years old and that’s the first time i have put that much money into her for things other than necessities.

and i found a mechanic that i like. he was nice and i think fair and he took the time to show me what he was going to do. he showed me the belt and then he showed me what he replaced. i appreciate that since i am a visual learner.