Thursday, July 21, 2005

Faith in humanity.

Hello all. Glad to be back in the blogger's seat. Had some bad things happen, and some great things happen. Here goes...

Madmom and I have dealt with Suburban issues of one form or another since we bought the beastie from our uncle-in-law. Not really his fault, nor ours, it just wasn't up to what we wanted to do with it. So finally, in a fit of exasperation, I took my little blue Topaz and traded it in on a 87 Suburban. Had lots of goodies, power door locks, 4 speed auto trans, a fuel injected 350, 4wd (which is important given the type of work that I do - during disasters, I must be available at a moments notice to go wherever I have to. It doesn't matter if it's raining, sleeting, snowing, or dropping giant frogs from space... I gotta go...) air conditioning, etc. And I got it at a good price.

So, off we set out, the day after buying it, with trailer in tow to go spend a week at the beach. Kids were off to summer camp, so it was just Madmom and the Doc. There is no better bliss than a week with one's spouse.... alone. We got 30 miles outside of town, and the transmission dies. So, we limp home, grateful that it came with a warranty. However, I should have read the warranty more closely. It covers 50% parts and labor, and then only at one specific garage. The garage of choice was 110% of taking it to a regular transmission shop and getting it repaired. In other words, it was simply cheaper for me to repair it myself.

This in mind, I had just taken all of my savings plus my good running beep beep, and used it to get the Suburban I just bought. Needless to say, we were in a pickle. We decided to pull the trailer with our mini-van, which it will do albeit under protest. We took the kids to camp, had 3 fun filled days at the coast, won 150 bucks playing bingo at the Indian run casino in Lincoln City, and came home yesterday to figure out what we are going to do next. It was galling at best to just look at my "new" car and know that I wouldn't have the money to fix it for a month.

So now to the title of my story... I was describing my problem to a mechanic friend of mine... and he said we'll figure something out. Well, what he figured out was that his uncle owns a transmission shop, so we took it today to get it fixed. I assumed it was on an account, and I'd have no problem making it up to him prior to his bill. I assumed wrong. He is going to just pay for it, and tells me we'll sort it out later. I was shocked ... remember we are talking a thousand bucks here. He ain't rich either. But he just said these things happen, and we'll sort it out.

As I'm typing this, I am almost in tears... but they are tears of joy, not sadness or anger. The fellow helping us is a good friend, but not one of long term... we've only known him a year or so. I guarantee we'll do something nice for him and his missus... on top of repaying him... out to dinner at Ruth's Criss or Morton's of Chicago comes to mind. I also re-learned faith... both in friends, family and my God. I can assure you that this guy would never think of himself as an "angel" at any level.

But he is, just the same. Thanks my friend.... and I am listening for the bells that tell me you got your wings.

Until our next.....

4 comments:

Sharon said...

Wow. That is a wonderful friend you have there.

I don't buy warranties on my cars anymore. They're not worth the paper they're written on, at least in my experience.

I'm so happy you were able to find a workable solution.

PCDoc said...

Yes he is Sharon. I don't either, it came with the car as an "added bonus" - I am certain there is an oxymoron there somewhere. I am glad you are home safe, and that you had a good time!!!

Suzanne said...

it's always great to get out alone once in a while without the fighting, whining, and insessant "stop touching me" noises that come from the back seat ..isn't it?
Then it's always great to be back home and see them again!

PCDoc said...

Amen to that Ms. Suzanne!!!!! Best to all of you in the great city of Savannah!