Another of Scott's Homes on the Web

So, the plan was:

1. Drop off Ziggy at the vet to get his teeth cleaned


2. Pick up arkuat


3. Go to work


4. Leave work early to get a filling replaced


5. Pick up Ziggy at the vet

1 & 2 went according to plan. 3? Not so much. About half-way to work the car started having power problems - in neutral, the engine would rev just fine, in gear, sometimes there was no power to the wheels. I pulled off to the side of the freeway about three-quarters of the way to work, turned off the car, and opened the hood. Nothing obviously wrong, all the fluids were good. Tried to start the car, and it went tick-tick-tick-tick very rapidly - and didn't start. And then the power windows failed. And then the four-way flashers failed!

arkuat called in to work - one of our colleagues came and got him.

I called my mechanic, and got the phone number for their favorite towing company. Called the towing company, got my car taken to my mechanic. Got a loaner car - I was still going to have to get to the dentist!

Got home, got my work computer plugged in, did some work from home.

About 11:30, I got a phone call from the vet. Ziggy's resting heart rate was 36 - normal would be 70-120. They'd gotten him to do some exercise, to try to get it up - normal then would be up to 130. It stayed at 36. Had we noticed any change in behavior - more tired, lack of appetite, seizures? Nope. Teeth cleaning was canceled - they didn't want to put him under anesthesia with such a slow heart rate! They suspect it might be something called Addison's, which is a low cortisol level. They took blood for tests, we should hear back on that tomorrow. If it's not that, we get to go to a doggy cardiologist. I went and picked him up about 12:15pm.

As of 2:30, the car wasn't fixed, so I took the loaner off to the dentist.

Where I discovered that the appointment I had made last week for half-hour slot at 3pm today wasn't on the books.

They got me set up for a 4pm appointment with one of the other dentists. They actually called me in at 3:51, and were done with me by 4:03.

Then it was off to the mechanic. The car was done - the alternator had died. They had just replaced the alternator last November. They get their alternators from a company that just does alternators, and their experience was that said company had a very high reliability. The new alternator was free - we just had to pay for the tow.

Then I came home and cooked up CSA veggies for dinner. Now we need to take out garbage and recycling, and then I'll get to call it a night.

It was one of those days where the choices were laugh, cry, or curse the universe. I ended up laughing.

Friday morning on the way to work I didn't make the last curve on the way to work. I ended up thoroughly in the snowbank - I needed a tow to get out. I didn't see any problems after the plow got me out, and didn't feel any problems driving the half-block to work. However, on the way home Friday night, there was a very distinct wobble at freeway speeds!

On Saturday morning, we took the car to Firestone - it has the advantage of being open on Saturday. Three hours, four tires, a new tie rod, labor and $1000 later, the wobble was gone.

iraunink just called. The car started making a noise that concerned her when she was off to the youngest grand-daughter's birthday party on Saturday. She took it in for the mechanic to look at it this morning.

The engine is dead.

A new car was not in the budget for at least a couple of years. IIRC, this one isn't actually paid off until December 2011.

I have no idea how we're going to deal with this.

For my fellow Twin Citians - is it raining where you are?

As some of you know, we had a run-in with a guard-rail on our way home from Christmas with iraunink's mother last night. Mad dash across three lanes of highway, both front & back bumpers hit the guard-rail. No deployment of air-bags, a small bump on my wife's head, a broken finger-nail on my part. Just a single car accident - we were in a traffic gap. We've been watching for signs of concussion, haven't seen any.

We decided we really didn't want to leave the house today. Which was a problem, as we really need to go grocery shopping, so there wasn't much to eat. Fortunately, we found a Chinese restaurant that was delivering (Star Moon, near 48th & Chicago).

About 5pm, I declared that on second thought, I really wanted to move the car today. By Minneapolis Snow Emergency Rules, I'm not allowed to park in front of my house starting at 8am tomorrow, until either 8pm or the street is plowed "to the curb". Which means 8pm, because there's no way they're getting to the curb again this winter, which means I'm not going to be able to tell when. (OK, if it's a work-day, I'll park in front of my house when I get home about 7:30pm - but that's not tomorrow.) The plow did go down our street today - leaving about a two-foot wall of snow between my car and the street. Very wet snow. And the overnight forecast calls for lows in the mid- to low- 20's. That wall is going to turn rock-solid. So, I went out and moved it. Fortunately, the plow didn't leave a wall on the other side of the street!

We do need to make it out tomorrow in time to get the dogs to their hair-cuts at 10am.

I did manage to get my quota of Dragon Cave holiday specials today. Yay!

The brakes had been making a noise that I associate with 'the wear bars have gotten exposed'. Also, there had been an increase in road noise since the trip to gryphons_lair's for her birthday. So, iraunink took the car in to our mechanic today.

It needed:

• brake pads and rotors all around


• new wheel bearings (which are hub assemblies)


• rotate tires


• align tires front and back


• new serpentine belt


• new fluids

We knew the serpentine belt was coming - at the last oil change, we were told it was showing significant wear. The brakes were ... worse than I expected. The bearings, etc.? OK, I can see how the road noise came from that - but I was expecting quite that big a problem. All told, it was about $2k of car work.

It's a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix 2-door, silver, black cloth interior, with practically power everything. Remote lock/unlock/flash lights/open truck. Power side-view mirror adjust. Power windows. Power locks. Separate driver & passenger heating/cooling controls. Cruise control. Delay wiper. Auto-dimming interior rear-view mirror with compass & external temperature. AM/FM/CD Player. Controls for the AM/FM/CD on the steering wheel. Estimated remaining range, gallons of gas consumed, two other things I've forgotten. Power seat up/down, tilt, and forward/back.

I'm impressed - the only things I can think of that it's missing are heated seats, saved personalized power seat settings, and remote start.

( small picture hiding under the cut )

{edited to correct year of car}