this past weekend was a bit of an adventure for me. i was slated to work the holiday weekend, that being saturday, sunday, and monday, so i was graciously given friday off. my plan for friday was pretty simple - i had to help jen move in to her new apartment, which is only a few blocks from where i live, and i had to take my car to firestone so that the front right headlight and blinker could be replaced, as they were not working. jen had a uhaul rental set up, so i figured we'd go get the uhaul in the early AM, then drive over to firestone and drop off my car, and then start the fun moving process. all these things happened according to plan, though it took a little longer than we would have liked to get going. the drive from the uhaul place to the firestone was far.

anyways, moving was difficult but not the worst. jen does not have a whole crapload of stuff, but we could only get half the stuff in to the van with the van packed to the brim. the first trip there and back was fine, though her living up 3 flights (6 sets) of stairs is very, very painful. the only issue was that time was becoming a factor. we got the uhaul at 7:30am, and it had to be returned by 3:30pm or jen would get charged unnecessary fees. as if moving isn't expensive enough.

i hadn't heard from the firestone guys, so i gave them a call. "oh he's out to lunch, call back in 20 minutes". fuckin great.

jen and i worked doubletime to fill up the van with all the rest of her stuff, but it was becoming increasingly evident that we were not going to be able to get everything in to her apartment before 3:30. a stress-induced plan was devised: we would go to her new place and move stuff into the lobby or sidewalk. then i would return the uhaul (bringing jen's driver's license and credit card with me), and then take a cab to firestone. then i would get my car, which was presumably done, and go back to jen's place and help her move shit around. ahh what a plan.

we executed the first part of the plan with speed and precision. within 15 minutes, half of jen's belongings were out of the van and 15 minutes later everything was in the lobby of her apartment building. that being done, i raced over to the uhaul location to drop off the van. i got it there by 3:31. they didn't charge jen extra. so now i'm at the uhaul in brookline with my car over in watertown. uhaul had numbers for taxi companies, so i called one and then went across the street to dunkin donuts to get a drink. by the time i got back outside of the DD, the cab was waiting for me at the uhaul place. pretty f'n speedy, i'd say.

so i got into the cab, having $18 on my person. about half-way to the firestone, the fare was up to $15. i made the cabby stop and go to an atm so i could pay him once this magical voyage finally ended. it did around 4:15 or so with me at firestone and down $30 for that ride. wheee.

so i get into the firestone, wait a minute or two for the guy to talk to me, and find out that he is about 50% done with the car. the place closes in a little over 2 hours so i see two choices - 1) make him suck it up, put the car back together, and go elsewhere or 2) let him finish his work. however, if i let him finish his work, since i have to go to work on saturday i would need to rent a car. to go to work. think about that. did you ever think the second time in your life you were renting a car it would be to go to work? yeah i didn't. but i was stuck between a rock and a hard place here, so i went ahead and asked for a ride over to enterprise. some guy about my age in a nice saab was over in a second and i was at the enterprise office before i knew it.

so i came in and said i needed a car, they asked me to pick one out in the lot and i pointed at the nissan we had parked next to and said "how much for that one?"
"the sentra? $54.95 a day"

hot damn. well, whatever. it was just for one day and i had driven the cheap cars before and really hated it. "sure ok whatever".
"since you're under 25, there will be an extra $25 surcharge"
"yeah ok. can i bring the car back tomorrow after work, at 6? i just need it for one day"

and here's where things really started falling apart.

it was friday at 6. they were open until 7 on weekdays, but they were only open until noon on saturdays. they were not open on sundays. and enterprise, like most companies in boston, would not be open on the 4th of july. so it was looking like i would need to have the car for friday to saturday, saturday to sunday, sunday to monday, and monday to tuesday. fucking wonderful.

i told them i only needed the car for one day while my car was in the shop. after a little bit of pleading, they offered me the car for the whole weekend (until tuesday at 5:30) for a grand total of $100. now this, this was not a bad deal. i went for it and secured the sentra for the weekend. so i could drive to work.

man my mind boggles.

anyways, after all this, the story dies down until saturday around 3. i'm at work and i think to myself, "i wonder whats up with my car". so i call firestone, only to find out that my car has been put back together, they couldn't find the problem at all, and i can come pick up the car any time. so i left my car overnight for him to not figure out the problem. that's fucking wonderful.

he went through and explained the whole thing to me. he started at the starter and basically checked wires all the way to the fuse box and found out that i'm getting power all the way there, no problem. however, i wasn't getting power to my headlights. so he checked the wires from the fuse box to the headlights, essentially got confused, and quit. thank god they only charged me the $15 for an oil change i got, and not the $100 for the wiring diagnostics that they did not do well at all.

so i have a predicament now. i still have no passenger-side headlights, and i was planning on going to cape cod on the 8th through the 10th with jen. however, i can not get my car to the infiniti dealership, my best chance of getting this all fixed, until the 8th.

follow me so far?

so jen and i moved our weekend to cape cod to the 15th 16th 17th. i am taking the car in tomorrow morning to the infiniti dealership and then jumping on a bus down to ken's house for the weekend. i can only hope that the car is fixed by the infiniti guys for a price i can somewhat rationalize affording.

so that's my story. it was long and winding and i hope you followed it.