Pardon me in advance if my mood in future articles feels a bit terse, irked or just generally angrier than it should (my goal is this place should be about positive and cool things to point out). My car decided to freak out on the way to work. The engine died a horrible death on the bottleneck intersection of Thermal and Wells Branch. Yes, I was that guy with the dead car flashing its blinkers, in the rain. Cell phone to the rescue to wake up Somara to come get me, escort my car (it did start again, then conked out twice more) as it hobbled down to my mechanic’s place. Toby may be able to see what’s eating it today. Theories vary from water getting up into areas it shouldn’t (Somara’s), belts slipping which explains the burning smell (Toby) and a dirty distributor cap (co-worker Tony, who knows his cars too).
Meanwhile, I’m stuck spending $40/day on a rental car since I can’t take time off from work for this nor do I want to affect my wife’s mobility. She normally doesn’t work on Wednesdays but it wouldn’t be fair to strand her when there may be an appointment she’d want to keep. What is the rental car? Some blue GM Aveo. I guess it’s a successor to their horrible Aspire or Alero vehicles. My VW blew them away on mileage and horsepower. I think a ride-on mower could beat those cars. The Aveo is better yet it has the same problem I have with all rental cars, the seat is too high. I feel like Herman Munster as the top of my head is about to bust through the ceiling.
Update, Oct. 11, 2006: Got off the phone this afternoon with my mechanic Toby. So far it’s running just fine which seems to validate Tony’s distributor-cap theory. Well, at least Toby can tackle the airbag situation.
Update, Oct. 13, 2006: Well, Toby had a family emergency as of Thursday, thus the car is in the shop until Monday at best. I get to keep renting the blue Aveo at $40/day. Seems like I’ll be volunteering to drive as much as possible.