Thursday, January 9, 2014

A Looooooong Week (and it's not over yet!)

It has been a looooooong week for me.
Starting on Monday with 40 below windshields.
My van refusing to start.
My sister's car battery dead too
and my niece Maggie's car, dead
and my niece Lily, who works with me, her car dead too.
And both of my nieces boyfriends cars dead
and my brother-in-law driving back home from business out of town
hitting black ice and sliding into a guard rail. 
Fortunately he was fine but he totaled his rental car and was stranded.
My friend, who lives way out in the country, down a long snow covered gravel road
fired up her big diesel truck and came into town and jumped my car.
We left it running while we headed for Lily's house
so that we could try to get her car going,
No luck.
Then we came back to find mine dead again.
So my friend got her jumper cables out again and got it going.
I spent the evening going out every hour and running the van.
I even set my alarm so I could get up during the night
and I was covering it with a blanket to block the wind.

Tuesday morning, it started!
I drove to work, over the bridge into Iowa
and my van died in the parking lot.

Oh, and I forgot about the phones.
I had been on a cell phone family plan but as of the first of the year, we all went and got our own phones.
In an effort to save money (as always) I got a Tracfone but my number wouldn't transfer over.
They had to send me a new SIM card and it still wouldn't work,
So through all this ordeal, I was without a phone.
I had to communicate with family, friends and work via Facebook.
I now love Facebook.

So Tuesday, work friends jumped my van several times but it kept dying.
My sister dropped off Lily to work and took me home.

The next morning, Wednesday, my sister ran me back to work and we tried to start it again.
No luck, so my friend, a co-worker jumped it again.
Success! 
I drove it out of the driveway and started up the hill and it died.
My sister and I went and bought a new battery.
When we got back to work, Doc came outside and installed it for me.
I was so happy.
As I drove across the BIG bridge,
the battery light came on.
But it was running.

Then today, Thursday, the light was on again.
Everyone said it had to be the Alternator.
I felt sick.
I had lost a full day and then a half day of work hours.
No pay. 
And now this.
I called around, it was going to be expensive and then I called the dealership where I had bought it.
It was still under warranty minus the deductible!
I drove it to the Service Dept and they shuttled me back to work.
It spent the day there and they found NOTHING.
and they said the light was OFF.
At the end of the day, they came and got me and to my surprise charged me nothing!
I was so happy. 
I stopped at the Dollar Store and picked up a few things
and happily drove home.
As I turned onto my street, the light came back on.

I'm choosing to ignore it. 
It's been a long week.
I've been very stressed and 
YES! I ate chocolate.
But I'm lucky to have some good people in my life,
people willing to lend a helping hand so that I don't feel so alone
and helpless.
...especially when I'm forced to leave my Co-pilot at home.
I really missed having my Blue with me.

7 comments:

lynn said...

Wow that is a lot of stuff going on at once. This cold weather has caused a lot of problems. I live in South Dakota and have had -26's but a warm up is coming. Hang in there girl!

Anonymous said...

when it rains, it pours. chin up, buttercup!

An Urban Cottage said...

I can't imagine what the cold has cost everyone. Cars not starting, furnaces dying, pipes bursting, etc.

Hopefully that's over, but, geez, we have two months of winter to go.

Anonymous said...

I've followed Your awful week on Fb and I felt so sorry for You! I hate it when my car does things like that when it is winter and cold. It doesn't bother me much in the summer though, I always enjoy some days off in summer time :-) :-)

I think it is the alternator or a ground fault somewhere in Your car. The alternator can behave like that when it breaks down. You'll know later on I'm afraid. Good thing you still are under warranty though,

Have a grat day despite it all!
Christer.

tammy j said...

OMG.
there is not enough chocolate for what i just read!
when we lived in minnesota for 4 years everybody told us to get one of those LONG orange extension cords. then you connect a light bulb somehow to the end of the thing and leave it inside the engine area burning all night.
I was just a teenager at the time so don't know the details. a garage there would know how.
but at 40 below zero that's the only way our car would start.
there's got to be an end to it soon!!!
and... that drawing of beloved blue is priceless. it makes me happy.
his 'always sad' little face! xo

regreta said...

you too!?!!! i thought it was just me!!!!!!! except mine was not as cold!!!!! but in the same range.. damn cars! if it ain't the bill, the pets or rent, its the car shuffle.... this week sucked!!!!!!!!

i like sarah's response, just breathe.....

leslie said...

um. yikes. wow. i don't even know what to say because all that cold stuff is so out of my frame of reference.

but i can relate to having a rough week.