oh hai

[aesc]

I haven't had much to say for myself lately, and I... still don't have much to say, except that I am alive. Although, if you ask the mechanic currently working on my car, that is a miracle.

Good news
-sgabigbang art is done and submitted! \o/ I did art for cathalin's most awesome story, and you can read the preview for it here.

Bad news
-on Monday, I have to go back to the place I normally live :(
-see comment above re: car and mechanic. If I tried to drive my car home on Wednesday, I would have died by careening over a cliff when my brake lines snapped, being flattened by the 18-wheeler tailgating me on I90 when the compressor goes and makes the rest of the car freeze up, or in a fireball when the gas leak meets a smoldering cigarette in a rest stop. The hell of it is, the only thing I noticed was the brakes sticking. Jeeezus.
-I have to spend my last few days here with distant relatives and their kids. I do not find children restful.

I am not seeing a lot of silver lining here. Being alive does not count.

Comments

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Probably no way to get a second opinion on your car, huh? Sounds like somebody taking advantage to me. Especially when he knows you're from out of town.

Been there, done that. Thank God for a mechanically-minded brother-in-law.

[aesc.livejournal.com]

I managed to get some perspective on the situation by asking the guy not to exaggerate, and to keep in mind I am a sorely money-strapped graduate student (and also that I have my dad's cell phone number; I hate playing the "talk to my father/other male relative/boyfriend/friend who's a boy" card, but...), and finally got him to admit that the brake lines are a bit rusty, the fuel leak is small (they can't even find it, and I haven't noticed any appreciable variation in my mileage), and that the only thing that must be fixed is the compressor clutch.

So now I will be going back to the place I normally live in a reasonable amount of time. This is both good and bad, because I really don't want to go back, but yet, there are things to do :D

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it's not nearly as bad as earlier described. Even the GOOD shops are all pushing transmission and radiator flushes these days. And they wanted to charge me $850 for shocks and struts the other day. I've been a car owner for 30 years now and I've never changed a strut in my life! (Shocks, yeah, struts, no.) So I've gotten very suspicious of all of them.

Mind you, the $660 brake job I did earlier this year apparently HAD to be done--two different shops quoted the same thing for the same reasons. Sigh. I would have readily played the brother-in-law card on that one, if I thought it would have worked. (g)

Sorry you have to go back to the place you normally live, but hey, big bang tomorrow!