11:10 pm - THU 1/10/02
Jim's Vehicular Adventure
Thursday 1/10/02

4:07 pm

(Offline, and from the "book journal")

(At a muffler shop on Central and Gage, deep in the heart of South Central)

Had breakfast with Tony B. today, around 9 am. We went to the Denny's on Vermont, near my apartment.

It was a lot of fun. We talked about his upcoming National Guard stint, my various woes, and had a lot of laughs.

(Tony did something very nice for me, by the way, that I haven't gotten around to mentioning in Diaryland; A couple weeks ago, when I was having a particularly down day at work, we were talking, and he asked me if I'd ever read Stanislavski. I said I was sure I had at some point, but it was a long time ago, so a little later there were two gift wrapped Stanislavski books in my box, along with a card, with signatures from as many coworkers he could catch on the fly.)

After breakfast, which he paid for (I'd really intended to treat HIM, but it was pretty hard to argue with his logic, particularly after I'd just been crying about money--"I'm living at home"), he dropped me off, and I just hung out, mostly watching tv and dozing, until around 1:30.

Then I really felt the pull to do what I'd TOLD myself I was going to do yesterday, which was to pick up my car from Gustavo's garage.

When I talked to him on the phone on Monday, he sounded ever-so-slightly ANNOYED; He mentioned my car having been there for a month, and said he'd thought I was going to pick it up while he was on vacation, but that his son said I never called ( Actually, I called TWICE while he was gone--Once during the middle of the day on a weekday, and no one answered, then again right before the New Year. When I was told Gustavo would be back on the sixth, I thought I might as well wait to talk to him; I've never spoken to anyone else there about the car, and for all I knew, no one else KNEW anything about the car. And yes, I was also procrastinating, because I didn't want to get the bad news ).

Gustavo's slight annoyance slightly annoyed ME. After all, who's the CUSTOMER here? Who shelled out over $200 to have the car not be FIXED? And in every other conversation we'd had, he asked for MORE time to try and figure out the problem. And if he'd wanted me to pick up the car at any point, all he had to do was call and tell me he was giving up (But every time we talked, he'd inevitably ask for my phone number. But whose fault was it if he couldn't hold onto my phone number?).

But I didn't SAY any of that, figuring there was no point getting antagonistic at this juncture ( Not being able to fix this problem notwithstanding--and the last guys couldn't EITHER--I still read him as being a good guy, and I'd been thinking I'd maybe want to use him when the time came to check out used cars).

So I thought the time was right for me to pick up the car, fixed or not.

(END)

Now, where were we...?

I was all set to go pick up the car.

And the rear tire on my bike was FLAT.

This has special significance, because yesterday morning I took my bike to I. Martin, a bike shop on Beverly, where they replaced the rear wheel for $53 and change.

But this has even MORE "special significance", because it was the SECOND time I had a tire fixed there, only to have to take it back the next day.

So I took the bus to I. Martin, where I expressed my unhappiness with the situation. Then they fixed the tire--the tire had been punctured by a THORN, they said--and I was off to Gustavo's.

Well, I wasn't really expecting any miracles at this point, and none were to be had, but Gustavo did manage, in our short time together, to both leave me happy and throw me into further turmoil.

The "happy" part came when I realized he didn't expect any money from me (That had been a BIG concern). I was so worried about that that I'd called the Better Business Bureau the day before (Am I the only one who didn't know they charge you for the call?).

The "further turmoil" came when he told me that--what DID he tell me?--he told me that my catalytic converter was all messed up and rusty and such, with the pipe leading to it pretty much shot (And when I looked under the car, the pipe was hanging off the underside of the car, almost touching the ground). He said that MIGHT be the cause of the problem I was having, but that he didn't DO catalytic converters. But he told me where I could go if I was interested, and they'd give me a break because he sent me.

Okay, here's the thing--If I've got this big old rusted-out pipe going on, if it's obvious my catalytic convertic isn't catalytically converting, how come TWO mechanics at TWO shops didn't NOTICE till now?

And what do I DO? Do I spend MORE money, maybe throwing it down a rabbit hole, or is this the fix that actually FIXES things? Do I have a car again, or am I just adding to my fiscal/vehicular pain and suffering?

Well, I put my bike in the car, and rode off to the muffler shop, sounding like I was revving up for the Indy 500.

And kids, I gotta tell ya, I was SCARED. I was scared the car was going to glitch and stall, and there I'd be, in South Central (I was just nervous DRIVING, for that matter).

But I got there, and about an hour later, I had a new muffler, pipe, and catalytic converter.

The muffler shop was kind of interesting...

There was two dogs. One was a medium sized brown mutt with one side of his face swollen up, just wondering around, while the other was a black-and-gray great dane, who was chained up and mostly dozed while I was there.

In the office, there was a bottle of tequila on top of a refridgerator (I was offered a drink while I was there. I declined).

When they were finished doing the work, I started to pull out a credit card, and I was told they didn't have a credit card machine--"Cash only".

It might have been nice to know that BEFORE we got started...

I didn't have ANY cash on me, so I was directed towards a nearby grocery store with an ATM, all the while not being at all sure I actually HAD $140 in my account, and not being happy about depleting my account if I did.

Well, that ATM was out of order, so Felix, the muffler guy, drove me to the nearby post office, and I successfully got $140 out of the machine there.

Then we drove back to the place, he gave me a receipt, and I drove off.

I don't know yet if I made a mistake or not. But the way I figure, I've already blown $1000 on this, and what's another $140 at this point? I can't buy a used car for $140, so if it's fixed, I'm a smart guy who did the right thing, and if it isn't, I'm out another $140.

Please think a positive thought for me with this. I desperately want this crap to be OVER, so I can move on to all the OTHER crap I have to deal with!

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