Weekend Hell
Aren't they all, these days? Not catching up on posts from the weekend, so if there's something you need to tell me or want me to see, please link it here. On my drive home from work Friday, all hell broke lose. And by all hell breaking lose, I mean my car inexplicably died. Well, let's explain the scenario a bit better, shall we?
Driving out of the parking garage, la di da. Oh look, the battery light flickered for a few seconds, that's not cool. Granny, who I'm on the phone with, do you think everything's okay? Yes, okay, well, keep driving home then. La la la, traffic's pretty light today.
Sixty miles per hour... wtf... suddenly my dash lights went out, headlights went off, radio turned off, heater turned off, and all my guages read zero! 0 mph, 0 rpm, fuel is on empty (even though I had half a tank), etc. Oh crap, Granny, who I'm still on the phone with, I'm pulling over. Shift to the side of the road asap, stop on a wide shoulder of the highway. Park and shut off the car.
Wait. Turn car back on. No, wait, scratch that. Car won't turn on. Engine won't turn over. Stranded. Shimatta.
From there, I called my insurance, who gave me a run around about how if I didn't know where I wanted them to tow me, I'd have to pay the tow truck cash. Complain. Get hung up on. Call Granny back in a panic. Call ragresen to get advice on where to get towed, and he tells me he will come get me. Warning lights finally die, so battery is now NO power at all, and I call 911 (know better now, 511 for HERO units, Atlantians!) and a cop comes to sit behind me with his warning lights on.
ragresen arrives eventually, but copman warns him that he shouldn't jump my car with his pretty Corvette, as it'll kill his computer systems. HERO unit is called, and eventually arrives. Copman leaves after many thanks. HEROman (sounds like a bad superhero name) gets in position to jumpstart my car, and we jump the car. Car runs, yay. Remove cables... car shuts down immediately. Crap.
HEROman (who was awesome) left as I was trying to call my insurance company again. ragresen and I sit in his car, trying to ward off the cold without keeping the engine running, which failed since his car has no insulation. Finally get my insurance company on the line, tell them where I want to get towed, and have them send someone. It takes an hour. Towman is awesome, and lets us drive off while he gets the car on his truck. We meet him at the nearest Sears Auto Center, and have to leave the car there overnight.
NO dropbox, so this means I had to beg immortallander to take me there the next morning. Didn't get home until 11 pm. Didn't get food in my stomach until midnight. Didn't get to bed until 2 am. Woke up at 7 something when ragresen calls to suggest I call immortallander to make sure he gets up so we can go get my car fixed. Try to go back to sleep, and immortallander calls. 8 am, and I'm awake, getting ready. I believe he picked me up around 8:15 or 8:30.
I won't bore more with the details, but I had to replace the battery and the alternator. immortallander stayed with me as long as his prior obligations would allow, and by that point we knew it was just a matter of waiting for the part to get there so it could be installed. He also made sure I payed as little as possible to get the car working again. Car got fixed. Now I just have to figure out how to replace the money that was meant to go to the house payment. >.> Bye bye, 401k. Or at least part of it.
Driving out of the parking garage, la di da. Oh look, the battery light flickered for a few seconds, that's not cool. Granny, who I'm on the phone with, do you think everything's okay? Yes, okay, well, keep driving home then. La la la, traffic's pretty light today.
Sixty miles per hour... wtf... suddenly my dash lights went out, headlights went off, radio turned off, heater turned off, and all my guages read zero! 0 mph, 0 rpm, fuel is on empty (even though I had half a tank), etc. Oh crap, Granny, who I'm still on the phone with, I'm pulling over. Shift to the side of the road asap, stop on a wide shoulder of the highway. Park and shut off the car.
Wait. Turn car back on. No, wait, scratch that. Car won't turn on. Engine won't turn over. Stranded. Shimatta.
From there, I called my insurance, who gave me a run around about how if I didn't know where I wanted them to tow me, I'd have to pay the tow truck cash. Complain. Get hung up on. Call Granny back in a panic. Call ragresen to get advice on where to get towed, and he tells me he will come get me. Warning lights finally die, so battery is now NO power at all, and I call 911 (know better now, 511 for HERO units, Atlantians!) and a cop comes to sit behind me with his warning lights on.
ragresen arrives eventually, but copman warns him that he shouldn't jump my car with his pretty Corvette, as it'll kill his computer systems. HERO unit is called, and eventually arrives. Copman leaves after many thanks. HEROman (sounds like a bad superhero name) gets in position to jumpstart my car, and we jump the car. Car runs, yay. Remove cables... car shuts down immediately. Crap.
HEROman (who was awesome) left as I was trying to call my insurance company again. ragresen and I sit in his car, trying to ward off the cold without keeping the engine running, which failed since his car has no insulation. Finally get my insurance company on the line, tell them where I want to get towed, and have them send someone. It takes an hour. Towman is awesome, and lets us drive off while he gets the car on his truck. We meet him at the nearest Sears Auto Center, and have to leave the car there overnight.
NO dropbox, so this means I had to beg immortallander to take me there the next morning. Didn't get home until 11 pm. Didn't get food in my stomach until midnight. Didn't get to bed until 2 am. Woke up at 7 something when ragresen calls to suggest I call immortallander to make sure he gets up so we can go get my car fixed. Try to go back to sleep, and immortallander calls. 8 am, and I'm awake, getting ready. I believe he picked me up around 8:15 or 8:30.
I won't bore more with the details, but I had to replace the battery and the alternator. immortallander stayed with me as long as his prior obligations would allow, and by that point we knew it was just a matter of waiting for the part to get there so it could be installed. He also made sure I payed as little as possible to get the car working again. Car got fixed. Now I just have to figure out how to replace the money that was meant to go to the house payment. >.> Bye bye, 401k. Or at least part of it.