Life's Ups and Downs

So things have gone up and around and there are times you want to just throw up your hands and say, "What next?"

So about a month ago I had my first crown.

Then recently we found out that our cat Felix (the miniature black panther) has a heart murmur.  Apparently three out of every six beats.  Apparently that doesn't reduce like a fraction, because those were the doctor's words.  Mom was encouraging and reminded me that one of our dogs had a heart murmur and lived a healthy life for eight years or so after being diagnosed.  We're just going to continue to love Felix and keep our home peaceful and happy.

Mother's Day (yes, that far back) was a fun visit for brunch at my parents.  Dad cooked, and I provided tech support including introducing Mom to an RSS reader.

I have been continuing to get to work in the office, so I really can't complain about that.  Being back on an 8-hour workday is pretty nice.  And when almost everyone else is in the field it's pretty quiet in the office.  And when the more senior people don't come in until 10 or 11, then I've got 3 to 4 hours alone to really get stuff done without distraction.

And then Tuesday, when I parked my car, my driver's side window refused to roll up.

Now, about 3 years ago, I was coming home from a long day of drilling: early start and late end.  I was driving on a residential road in late twilight, when I saw what looked like newspaper blowing across the road in front of a car going the opposite direction.  And then suddenly that newspaper was a deer running in front of my car.  I managed to slow down, but still hit the deer kind of hard.  It ran off the rest of the way, but I've got a dent in the corner of the bumper, and some minor crumpling of the fender and door.

I guess it's good that the window kept working this long.  Now I get to find out how much to fix it.

Frak

Yesterday I went out to the car while Jennifer and I were on a bike ride, and I discovered that one of the windows had been broken, and my stereo had been stolen. This morning I also realized that my sunglasses had been taken, but that’s not too big of a deal.

It looks like this is all going to eat up the deductible for the car as there is the window to repair, the stereo, and some pry marks on the door and dashboard from the theft.

The glass repair people are on their way today, and should do the work around lunchtime. This will be followed by a claims adjuster visit on Tuesday for the physical damage, and then stereo replacement following that.

I quote Bill Murray from “Stripes”: And then, depression set in.

Fail Blog

Today I took my car in for it's first smog certification.

And it failed.

There's a service engine light that's come on and the smog center gave me a print out of the error messages. They sound a lot like the error messages I was getting when some of the parts were recalled.

So I got an extension for the registration, and now I'm waiting for the consumer assistance program to help me out with getting it fixed.

The Gold Car Returns

Friday I had a message from the man in charge of the repairs on my car that it would be ready on Monday, and that if I wanted to go over the work with him, he would be around on Tuesday as he was off on Mondays.

I decided I didn't want to wait an extra day, so as soon as I got the call that the car would be ready at 3:30, I headed out.

There ended up being a lot of great things about Mike Rose's Auto Body. The main thing being that I didn't have to pay for any of the work, and it ended up being around $2,000. they also have a great relationship with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. I was able to go straight to the auto shop and get my car and leave the rental there. Now I didn't ask about this, I wanted to make sure the car was ready to my satisfaction before I left, and while I was there they asked about my rental car.

And it turned out that they guy who did the work on my car just happened to come ion to work for a little bit today.

Finally, another nice thing was that they had done an estimate for me on some additional work on the car. Now I chose not to have the work done because it was very expensive, but... There was a dent on the trunk and a big chip on the strut beside the windshield on the driver's side. He painted those with a brush while I was dealing with the rental car. And he had taken what he could of the dent out by hand without charging me. I don't know if I would go back without insurance, but they sure were friendly and helpful with the work that they did.

Auto Repairs

Today I dropped my car off at the auto repair shop. I'm still waiting for the estimate to come back, but once I get that, the work will hopefully go quickly.

Then I got my rental vehicle. So I'll be driving a Toyota Matrix until the work is completed.