Perpetual Ruminations

Thursday

Another day shot to hell. At least it was a productive day for us, I worked this morning, picked up parts for the GMC after work, and had it in the shop for repairs this afternoon, and have it back tonight.

I should add here that I am very thankful for my wonderful wife's help. She called around to find the part we needed, then let me know where to pick it up at. She also called the garage here in our little town, and the mechanic was nice enough to let us bring it in to have the part installed. He had quoted her $65.00 over the phone if we supplied the part.

It wasn't looking too good at first, but with her help things fell into place. I left work and picked up the part, then drove to the garage which is about a block from our house. He confirmed that he could get it in this afternoon and have it done by closing time. This was important, since I need to be back to work tomorrow morning at 5:00.

As it turned out, the part was similar but not quite the same, so he had some extra work to get things switched around so it would work. It was also a bigger job than he thought it was going to be. He had not looked to see what was involved, since I had the vehicle at work, and had only talked to Rhonda over the phone. Also, besides being more work, it took him longer, so he stayed an hour late just to get the job finished for us, and then charged the quoted price anyway.

We thanked him, but I would like to do a little more. Especially since he stayed the extra hour and had more work than he anticipated. I'm thinking a gift certificate for Applebees would be nice. He has helped us out a couple of times and always given us a good deal on work and parts. This time was a real blessing for us to have it fixed. We need to use it everyday, and for now, it's our only source of transportation.

We did have one little problem after we picked it up, but I'm not even going to say anything. We took it for a test drive and it seemed to work fine, but the lights didn't shine very bright. I should have known something was wrong, but I was too excited to have it back and fixed. We drove out of town a ways, then turned around and came home. As we neared town, the engine missed and I thought it very odd since it had never done anything like that before.

As I turned into our driveway, it died and after stopping, it would not restart. I couldn't imagine what could have gone wrong, but I was anticipating it to be bad. It's just the way things have been going for us lately. Lately? Hell, all year. Anyway, I took out the trouble light and looked to see if I could see something wrong, and there it was. He had been working late, rushing to get it done for us, and had missed one plug on the alternator. The battery had gone dead while we drove it.

I pluged it back in, put the charger on it, and it should be fully charged and ready for me in the morning. Nothing serious at all, and a good thing Rhonda had suggested going for a test drive or we would have been stranded tomorrow morning on our way to work.

I have to say, it's looking like things are starting to turn around. Now I just need to balance my check book and hopefully I have enough money left to pay my membership in here.

Merry Christmas -- to all!