Wheel-less

My car has no name. I tried to come up with a name that fits, but I was left flat every time. So it shall remain nameless.

I've had my share of issues with the car. Within the first 4 days of ownership, the dealer chewed up the center console installing an after market part. As mad as I was, they did the right thing and apologized profusely and corrected the problem. It took some time because it is difficult to find interior trim pieces on a brand new car.

I also had recurring issues relating to the gas cap. They kept telling me that I wasn't installing it correctly. Honestly, I have been driving for a number of years and never had that problem before. After repeated trips to the dealer, they finally determined the true issue and corrected the problem for good. For the record, it didn't have anything to do with the way I put the gas cap back on!

Within the last week or so, the engine started to make a funny noise. It was hard to describe. The noise was worst when starting. Mr. Monkeygirl said it sounded like a diesel engine. I thought it sounded like someone sticking a pencil into a cheap fan. However you describe it, it wasn't right. I could hear something when I would drive it. It was subtle, but it didn't sound healthy.

Since both Skaterboy and I rely on my car for transportation to and from work, I decided to have it checked out at a dealer close to work. I dropped it off on Wednesday morning. It is now late morning on Saturday and I still have no wheels. My pleas to the dealer about having no way to get home fell on deaf ears. Unless I call them they aren't very good about letting me know what is going on. I realize that I don't fully grasp the internal workings of a combustion engine, but they could tell me something. Anything would be better than what I am getting now.

What I do know is that the engine problem requires parts that had to be air freighted in. I know it is a complicated problem to fix. And it is technical, so "we won't bother you with the details". Whatever! Oh, and was I aware that I had a brake issue as well? No, but apparently I do. The brake rotors are warped and need to be replaced. The good news in all of this is that both of these repairs are covered under warranty.

Maybe since they are paying for the repairs, they are not in any hurry to get it done. Who knows, but in the mean time, I am sitting around without wheels of my own.

In an effort to maintain full disclosure, I am not completely stuck. My wonderful mother, Sewwhat?, was sweet enough to let me borrow her other car for the week. I've had offers of rides to and from work. One of my co-workers even offer me one of her 'spare' cars although she refused to let me borrow the 'vette!

Two hundred ninety-six and counting....

No, it is not my age nor is it anywhere close to my weight.  This is day 296 of me surviving without Mr. Monkeygirl's DSLR.  Last year we took a great trip to Las Vegas with some friends and when we got home and tried to clean off the memory card, our Nikon D70 would no longer read any card we put in the camera.  No matter what we tried, nothing worked.

Being that I happen to be one of the world's best procrastinators (and I work much better when I am totally up against a deadline), I didn't do anything with the camera for months.  Finally, it dawned on me that my stepson - SkaterBoy - was getting dangerously close to making a commitment to attend his senior prom.  Oh no, I have earned a reputation among his friends as the official event photographer and I don't have a camera to use!  I finally got my brain cells together enough to remember to put the camera in the car so I could run it up to the local camera shop for repair.

To make a long story short, Camera Store #1 told me that my camera was unrepairable.  What? Broken thing-y in the whatchamacallit (no one could explain the description on the repair form).  So broken that it was "uneconomical" - no wait - it just plain could not be repaired at any cost.  Discouraged, I went home with the poor broken, mangled camera body cradled safely in my front seat.  In an effort to provide full disclosure, I did drop my camera earlier in the year but it worked fine for months without any issues.  The only tragedy from hitting the pavement was a small nick on the corner of the camera body.

Mr. Monkeygirl didn't like the answers we got from CS #1 (uh, hello, do you think I liked that answer?) so we called them back to quiz them further on our options.  We were told we had no other options for repair and that there was absolutely no one in the metro area that did repair work on these cameras.  Defeated, we started to look at our options.  Buy the "really nice" used D70 that CS #1 happened to find for us?  Suck it up and buy a new D80 (yikes!)?  Give up and vow to never take another picture again?

On a whim, Mr. Monkeygirl took our poor broken baby to Camera Store #2 just to see what they had to say.  Well, they have good news and bad news for us.  The Bad News? The camera is broken but it is only a bent pin in the card reader.  The Good News?  They had really good luck fixing these in the store.  A few minutes later, they were back with - uhm - good news and bad news.  The Bad News?  They couldn't fix the bent pin in the store.  The Good News? They didn't break it completely off and they had the name of a local repair shop that could take care of the problem.

Mr. Monkeygirl was now on a mission.  Thankfully, his employer likes to mess around with his schedule weekly so he has a little bit of free time in the mornings.  He makes the supreme sacrifice to get up early and heads off to what will probably become my favorite repair shop in the whole world.  They took one look at the camera and declare - it is fixable and for a relatively small fee! Yipeeeeee!!  

So, today is day 296 without what I affectionately call my "big girl camera".  We should be getting our baby (sorry SkaterBoy - we really do love you too!) back soon and I can't wait to take a picture to send to CS#1 letting them know that they are "number one" in my book!