look at that, ten days since i last posted.
last tuesday night, jen borrowed my car to meet some people for dinner. she mentioned to me that the brakes were kind of weak, which i had kind of noticed but not really noticed. i drive my car pretty hard and tend to brake when i'm going fairly fast, so i just figured that was why the brakes, you know, needed extra time to stop the car. anyways, she said she felt as if the brakes were not there. this, this required an immediate follow-up.
i took the afternoon off on wednesday and went to midas, which is sorta near the new place. i was hesitant, because after all midas is a huge chain and they get off on screwing their customers. i don't really have a local mechanic though, and brakes are not something to fuck around with, right? so i got there at 3 and gave them my car for a brake inspection.
everything goes to hell from here. first, i'm told its going to cost $800. then i'm told it's going to cost $1200. then i tell the guy that they are gouging me on parts. he says, and i fucking quote, "do you think that or do you know it?" and claimed i was insulting him by implying that struts for a '98 camry cost less than $200 (they cost about $70 for me to purchase them at autozone). at one point, i asked them to stop doing work on the car, but the guy claimed that they couldn't. i'm not sure if this was a fucking lie or not.
after paying my huge bill right at 6pm (when they close), i took my car out and... the ABS light on the dash is on. fuck.
i drive back to midas, only to see that the mechanics have all left for the day. i can bring in my car at 7:30am the next day if i want? fuck you you fucking dick. ok, fine, fucking fix my car. i didn't get my car back until thursday afternoon, once the fuckers at midas finally replaced the left rear wheel sensor that they destroyed when replacing my rear struts the day before.
i just get pissed retelling that goddamn story. they are a bunch of fucking crooks - never go to a chain mechanic. let's move on to happier things!
i bought a 42" panasonic plasma tv from best buy. of course, they have royally fucked up the delivery of said tv, so i don't know when i'm going to get it at this point. but, it is a real nice tv, and i got a decent tv stand too. i decided to make the plunge this past weekend, since it was a tax-free weekend and all. best buy opened at 6am on saturday, and i was there with jen (the girl's got heart, what can i say?) at 6:05am because the salesman i spoke to last week told me to get there early. yeah, there was one other person in the store. i know it got insane later in the day (hence my delivery date is still not set) but 6 might have been a bit early :). anyways, tv purchased and i should get it in our apartment sometime this week. i'm real excited to watch sports in hd, i can tell you that.
so in between these two adventures that will combine to cost me lots of money, i discovered something that will help on the financial front. 3 words: anna's steak plate.
you get your standard three compartment styrofoam container (shut up hippie). salsa in the top right. black beans in the top left (refried if you're insane, i suppose). rice in the larger, bottom compartment. and cover that rice, and i mean cover it, in no less than 3 scoops of meat. steak, in this particular case. throw in 2 corn tortillas, and for less than $5 you have a fucking meal. now that i'm, you know, going to anna's by myself in between the 3rd and 4th innings of baseball games, i think it is necessary that i fully explore the menu. so far, i'm not disappointed.
remind me to write about my plans for elscorcho at some point. you know, since its not dead yet. or is it? you really never realize these things are dead until its too late.
thanks for indulging me.
update: tv is coming in tomorrow (wed, 8/16) at 2:30pm. yay!
update 2: except i guess the fucking best buy guy who told me wednesday was wrong, because no one came here today. i'm supposedly going to get the tv on thursday at 6pm. i really, really hate best buy (and midas). i cannot stress this enough.
the old weekly recap
1844-august16-2006
comments
re: car
from: phil (2006-08-14 18:28:55)
oh, and the trip to the pontiac mechanic to get my engine fixed in june was another $700...so i spent almost $2K in just over a month getting my car fixed.
being an adult with adult problems is awful.
re: i fear for bank account.
from: ken (2006-08-17 22:38:17)
yeah so my AC pump has been siezed as of say.. February? It was masquerading as a loose belt with a rusted shut adjustment bolt so I never found out that I needed to replace the whole AC unit until the middle of July (of course). It's a 100$ part that's a pain in the pain in the pain in the ass to fix. Thus.. I've yet to take the plunge and find a mechanic to fix it.
I fear for my bank account.
In some fun news, I went with a guy from work to Jen's Tufts alumni gathering (3rd thursday every month.) It was actually a lot of fun. I also won 4 patriots tickets about 3 minutes after walking into the damn thing via raffle. Sadly, I am going to be busy this weekend and can't got. Ironically, i actually could've gone to the game on the same tickets earlier, but since Niv knew I was busy they went to the raffle instead, where I promply won them.
Oh well, I made some '05s really happy that Niv and Thad will get to meet this weekend.
re: curiouser and curiouser
from: ken (2006-08-18 11:52:42)
I thought it was 6 tickets, and instead of keeping 4 and raffling 2 she kept 2 and raffled 4. Either way it was funny.
re: car trouble
a year ago on my first day of work at my current job my car wouldn't start and i took it to the local AAA certified place and they said i needed to replace the fuel pump. they replaced it for a hefty $1400 and then less than 10 months and 19,000 it broke again. fuel pumps aren't supposed to crap out at all unless you have a really old car, and then when the do the replacement is supposed to last forever, so i was pissed at the mechanics who put it in. Since that was the place AAA towed to i had to go through it all again and then they tell me that for some reason my fuel injectors aren't firing and they need to replace the computer that sends that signal. there was nothing wrong with my car one night and then the next day its so busted that i need to pay $1200 to fix it. then instead of my car being ready on thursday like they tell me i have to wait til monday afternoon to get it. on top of that they were supposed to change my oil and only put in 2 quarts instead of 5 and it nearly destroyed my engine, at least that's what the pontiac mechanic told me in june when i took it in to them when the service engine light came on.
the bad thing is that the pontiac place said that although the other mechanic (AAA certified no less!, which i've found to be a fucking joke) did a piss poor job and gave me really awful service and made up reasons why the fuel pump might have broken for the 2nd time in a year (they said that if you drive with less than 1/4 tank of gas then i'm destroying my car. you'd think that they'd made 1/4 tank about the time when the empty light comes on if that were the case) that i really couldn't prove any negligence on their part. also apparently the first place did use GM parts and inexplicably the pump just happened to break. no wonder GM is going down hard and no one buys american cars.