gogmagog | Never a dull moment. XD (Reply)

Well, the weekend from HELL is almost over. Thank God.

Let me elucidate. This morning we got up and took our rental car back to the airport to drop it off and pick up my brother's (which he'd already reserved). Then we dropped my mom off at home and picked up a new starter at the auto parts store (and confirmed that yes indeed, the problem was the starter, which was dead as a zombified doornail) before heading off, once again, to ~~Bumfuck, Missouri~~ New Florence.

When we finally got there, hours later, my brother replaced the starter and sure enough, it started like a dream. We even turned it off a few times and checked to see if it came back on, and it all worked smashingly. So my brother drove back to Memphis in his rental car, and my stepdad and I drove home from there (without a/c, natch).

We made it home just fine - of course, we didn't dare stop the car just in case, but we got here no problem. Of course, we were sweaty and felt like ass (and, after two 8-hour-plus days in the car, smelled like it too), so my mom suggested that we go out for supper. We were kinda leery about it, but the truck had been running fine all day, so my parents and I squeezed into the front seat of my truck - which was interesting in itself - and drove to Chelly's, a Mexican restaurant at 85th and Wornall. The truck ran like a charm (a very crowded charm, but a charm nevertheless).

We eat our supper in the air conditioning, get plenty of fluids, then come out to go home.

The truck won't start.

This isn't like before, though, where the truck would turn on, the ignition just wouldn't start; now, while the glovebox light and headlights came on just fine, nothing else gave even a buzz. Grrrr.

So I called poor

rathershady, who was nice enough to come out and get us AGAIN and take us home. Seriously, Vinnie is like our personal saint right now. XD

We think it may be either the ignition wire coming loose, or more likely the positive battery cable to the starter malfunctioning (it was kind of fraying anyway, but seemed OK, and we couldn't find a replacement at the auto parts store this morning and so figured we'd make it OK without it, since it seemed pretty clear it was just the starter).

So, that was my weekend. We have no car, and I sit here hot, sweaty, smelly, exhausted, covered in bug bites, some in rather unsavory places (from the time spent sitting outside while my brother fixed the starter), and looking at the possibility of not having a truck to go up to Iowa with. (Which is not a HUGE problem, given that I can make it around Iowa City pretty easily sans auto, but means that not only can I not take up very much stuff when whoever takes me up there, but that I'll have to deal with the long-distance bus system - which IS MY BANE ZOMG - to come back at Thanksgiving.)

We're gonna take it to our mechanics, who are great, but if the repairs to the truck are very expensive they may have to wait for a while (since my parents have to blow almost $2K on repairs for THEIR car). And if said repairs are TOO expensive, they'll have to wait until I can come up with the money for them, which on a grad's student salary, assuming I eat nothing but catfood, will be approximately the TWELFTH OF NEVER.

I keep bursting into kind of unbalanced laughter because if I don't, I'll probably start crying.

Also because y'know, it is kind of funny when you think about it - our car dies, and my brother is bringing us a new one, which ALSO dies, so Vinnie and Courtney take us to rent a car to go get him, and then we take him to rent a car, and then he takes us back to his car, and fixes it and gives it to us, so we drive it back and then IT dies, and then Vinnie saves us AGAIN, and it's all just kind of like a bad transportation-themed sitcom. XD

Edit: Because it makes me smile, and I oh so desperately need that right now: