Stuck in Limbo

So I was all ready to post something exciting about the wedding, like my proposal story or engagement ring pictures, but instead I've found myself stranded at the car dealership. I started my day productively, my honey and I went to his Doctor's appointment (which took FOREVER) and we dropped by Ross to return a jar and get more for the candy buffet. Ross is an awesome place for apothecary jars right now but you need to inspect each one carefully. We didn't take one out of the box when we bought it and it ended up having a chip in it, hence the return.   A quick stop for lunch and then I was planning to head over to my friend's to spend the day with my favorite little person in the world, Roxie. I loaded up my car with Roxie's Christmas presents and goodies and this is where the problem started.

When I tried to start my car at about 2pm, the engine wouldn't turn over. I'd needed a jump start every day this week and figured that my battery was on it's way out. After six attempts at jump starting, the darn thing turned on and I figured I should call the dealership and check out the battery. It was too much to hope that they'd have an appointment open tomorrow so they asked me to come in right away. If you live in Los Angeles, you'll know that going anywhere on a Friday is a bad, bad idea. An hour later I'd finally made it to the dealer and figured I'd be out in no time to go see Rox and her awesome mama. Boy, was I wrong!

The Great Termite Saga: Phase 2

After a long and unnecessarily exhausting day, all people and animals have been moved out of what will henceforth be referred to as the house of death. I'm not sure we'll ever be the same, but most (cringe) of us are safe and will be able to return home on Monday.

To start the day, my honey and I wrapped up our house sitting job in Santa Monica and returned home to start bagging fish and catching cats. Since we were pressed for time as I had class in Santa Monica at 6:45, we locked the cats inside and bagged as many fish as we could. As you might be able to guess, fish don't really like being bagged so that charming endeavor took most of the day. We got all but eight and around 4pm successfully loaded them into the car. It was about this time that we realized we were missing two cat carriers, so Button (who is escape and hide prone) and Zena (who is a mean motherfucker) were boxed into the two carriers we did have and put in the car. Zena voiced his displeasure loudly and frequently while Button proceeded to freak the fuck out and wouldn't stay calm until pressed against me with her carrier being worn like a purse. Devlin, who is an indoorish kitty, was put in a plastic box with a towel and one of those lids that close but don't seal (don't worry - lots of air) and also put in the car. Our mistake then, was Haji.  As we were putting kitties in the car, Haji somehow slipped out of the bedroom and made for the outdoors. We thought he was trying to escape so we quickly caught him. Mistake number 1. Only later would we learn what a bad idea that was. Haji is a seasoned car rider who generally doesn't really need a carrier so instead of putting him in a plastic box I strapped on his harness and kitty leash and let him wander around the car. Mistake number 2. With Zena and fish in my honey's car and Button, Haji, Devlin and my sister in my car, we hit the road going approximately 0.2 miles an hour and headed for the valley.

If you live in Los Angeles, have visited Los Angeles, or basically know of Los Angeles you will likely know that traffic here SUCKS. When I say sucks, I don't mean oh shucks it'll take 30 minutes instead of 20 to get somewhere, I mean it'll take 2 hours instead of 20 minutes to get somewhere. Especially if you have to take the demon 405 freeway like we did. Expecting some inevitable time delay, we left 2 hours and 45 minutes before my class and figured we'd be good. Mistake number 3. About 30 minutes (2 miles) into the trip, Haji got super agitated. He started meowing and pacing and is exuding a general "shit is going down soon" attitude. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite literal shit as 5 minutes later he took a giant crap on the floor of my front passenger seat.   Not only could we not open any windows or clean up said crap, but it was at this time that we realized we'd forgotten the litter boxes at home. Mistake number 4. Since the car stunk, the cat was miserable and we had nowhere for them to go (literally) we turned around and headed back home. To add a cherry on top of the experience, I decided to open the sparkling water my honey had so graciously given me for the tip and it exploded all over me, soaking my only pair of clean jeans. Fun stuff man. To make a long story short (too late) we ran home, dumped and rinsed the litter boxes, put Haji in a plastic box and hit the road again 30 minutes later. Though he hated it the box proved to be a smart move because he later had to pee while we were trapped on the 405 for 1.5 HOURS.

If you've been keeping track of time by now you might be wondering "hey! didn't you say you had class at 6:45??" Yes, you would in fact be right. We arrived at my honey's house in the valley at about 6:20ish, 25 minutes before my class was scheduled to start on the other side of the city. Big uh oh. We dumped the fish and cats as quick as we could, jumped back in the car and drove to Santa Monica, making me about 30 minutes late for my three hour class. My professor was not amused. To add to the stress, instead of being able to go back and relax after class, we had to go back to my place to catch the remaining 8 fish.

Even after ripping up my entire aquarium, draining water and soaking ourselves, my honey and I could only catch 3 of the 8ish fish. This decision was made at 1am to seal the tank up as well as we possibly could and hope for the best since my hun had to work in the morning and my sister was alone in the valley with all the animals. We used the special bags the termite company gave us and sealed the entire top of the tank, hopefully making it airtight and turned off all equipment that disturbs the water surface.

Hopefully when we move back in on Monday everyone will be alive and well and this will all fade into a bad memory.

Los Angeles Car Hell

This summer has not been good for cars. My fiance's got rammed by a crazy lady trying to make a right turn into the side of his car from the middle lane. My tutor's got rammed by an emotionally unstable woman who had to be talked down by her therapist before she could hand over her insurance information. My friend's car got hit, repaired, hit again, and then impounded by the DMV because they had outdated records. My other friend's car was supposed to be shipped to him in AZ, but it's still sitting in CT and the shipping company hasn't even put it on the truck yet.

My poor car, my precious 2002 Jetta "Sydney", has now been hit. By a 6 inch metal disk. That fell off some P.O.S. sea foam green compact that drove away. This tiny little disk apparently managed to crack my transmission housing, causing me to leak fluid in the middle of the 10E in pre-rush hour traffic. There was nowhere to pull over and she seemed fine, until 3 blocks later my gas pedal stopped working. My transmission fluid was leaking = no more power to move. I turned on my hazards, hung out the window and literally coasted 3 lanes over to the shoulder. I just barely made it and I got incredibly lucky. The actual car not moving/coasting was not scary, but I felt a bubble of panic once I made it to the shoulder and thought about how expensive it would be to fix my precious car and contemplated how likely it would be that someone would hit my Sydney on the shoulder.

I pulled out my Crackberry, it hasn't worked quite right since it went through a few airport scanners in Europe but it served me well, and made some calls. I called 21st century, who promised me a tow truck in about an hour. I called my honey and convinced him that he wanted to come wait with me so I wouldn't have to sit in my hot car. Luckily, a friendly CHP officer pulled in behind me who commiserated with the suckiness of being stuck on a freeway, and called me a CHP tow truck that arrived just as my honey pulled up behind me. For 160 dollars, he towed me 10 minutes away in traffic to a very reputable body shop that made me feel comfortable and okay about my car repair. I thought everything would be okay.

Once I got back home, I called up my friendly 21st Century claims department and because of the one sentence description she had of my car "damage to the under carriage in the transmission area with a fluid leak", she said that Sydney was 1 point over their damage point system and they would try to total my car. This makes no sense. Syd only just hit 50,000 miles, her biggest accident was having her bumper bumped by a drunk neighbor, and there's no other substantial damage on her other than this hairline crack and dent in the transmission housing. Even if I needed my entire transmission replaced, a used tranny is what, 1-2k? Dealers are still selling my Syd with more miles than she has for 13k. I won't let them total her. They want to take her to some storage facility while they contemplate her fate.

I'm going to call my official claims person tomorrow and see if I can convince them to just fix her. I started saving for this car at 12 and I can't let her go.

EDIT 8/11/10: After finally talking to some people actually familiar with cars, my Sydney is officially on the mend. She's going to need a bit of work - new front bumper bottom, new transmission (the new housing was 6 grand but an entire used one was 1.5 grand, so we're going with the entire used one) and a few new power steering lines. I should have her back by Wednesday and since things falling off cars falls into the "Acts of God" category, I only have to pay my $250 deductible. Phew.

EDIT 8/21/10: So it turns out my Sydney is not on the mend. In fact, they ordered the wrong transmission and cannot find the correct one used. This means that not only have I been without a car for 11 days while she sat at the mechanic untouched, but they might be possibly trying to total her again. The insurance adjuster hasn't called me back so at the present moment I have no idea what's going on with my car.

EDIT 8/26/10: The insurance people have pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to order Sydney a new transmission. They still won't give me a rental car. I really really hope this is the last update before I get my car back.

EDIT 9/2/10: The new tranny is in! But the punctured power steering line is not -_- I'm hoping for next week...