My Stupid Car

So you are not the only one with car issues...I'll start at the beginning...

I had Tony's TV and PlayStation 3 in the back of my car one day, I had to work, and so I was going to take it to the post office when Bayani went down for her nap. I locked my car obviously, and when 1:30-2:00 came around, and I walked out to my car to hit the post office, I forgot I locked my car and I went and torqued on my door to open it. Realizing within half a second I had locked it, it started "honking" at me...I thought "oh, it has an alarm? Hhhmmm..." and I got my key out and unlocked my doors...the beeping didn't shut off. Eventually it just shut off, it sounded random, like a wire wasn't quite connected all the way, so sometimes it would be a constant sound, and sometimes it would just sputter...very annoying.

But it stopped, and didn't do it again for a little while.

Skip forward to about a week and a half ago; I was driving to Will and Rebecca's house because Will said he finally got me a passenger side window motor that my car hasn't had for the entire time I've owned the car. I was almost there and it started beeping again, I felt awful, as I was pulling up to a stop sign and somebody was in front of me. It continued to do it for about a block, and then it just stopped. I got there, and the motor he got ended up not being the correct motor. Bummer. But, since I was there, I was going to stay to at least Rebecca could spend time with Bayani. I got in my car to go drive to get myself something to eat. I got about 3 houses down and it started beeping again. I turned around and pulled in Will's driveway and just sat there for a second. He came out right before it stopped and he thought, "hey, maybe it's just your horn malfunctioning. I'll unplug your horn." And he did. It didn't do it for a week until Monday, where at 8am I woke up to somebody honking outside. Go figure, it took me a minute, but it was my car.

I ignored it. There wasn't anything I could do about it, I can walk out there and kick the car all I want, it won't do any good. It shut off, and that was all it did for the day. I called Will and told him what happened, but he probably didn't listen to his voice mail, because he never does, so he never returned my phone call. But it hadn't done it again since Monday, until today...

I first heard it about 9:30, right before mom came over to pick up Trixie to go to work. I rolled my eyes and turned on the TV. But it didn't just sputter and turn off. It would beep for a couple seconds, then shut off. Then beep again for a few seconds, then sputter, then shut off. It was going on and off literally all day today. After Bayani went down for her nap I went out there, as it was going off, AGAIN, to see if I could isolate where in the car it was located...I think I have it narrowed down to driver side-center, towards the bumper...but of course, once I got out there, it stopped. And for the 15-20 minutes I was out there, total silence. Some dude who said he was painting the newly empty apartment below mine , who was sitting in his van eating his lunch, came over and started poking around. He said something along the lines of how he's been hearing it going off all day, I said I was sorry, and that I didn't know what to do about it. He gave up, and I gave up, but first I called Will, and he said you just need to find it and cut a stupid wire. But I just have to find it first. I called dad, he said he'd look at it today, then I called Elsa, my landlady, and warned her that my car is being stupid and if anybody calls and complains about my stupid car being stupid loud and I stupid can't stupid fix it. She said it was OK. (As long as I hurried up and got it fixed soon.)

So I get here to work, it continues to go off after I get here. At 4 mom was going to leave to take mini-kitty to the vet, and she walks back in and says, "Miranda, your car is going off again..." And of course, because I am so frustrated, I say "If kicking it would fix it, I would have already broken my toes! " So I walked out there with her and I see dad running up to it, which excited me, as it was constantly beeping. Dad crawled under it, and I ran up and popped the hooded and Dad started poking around, as it blared quite loudly at us, he pushed on something, which made the sound fluctuate. He had found the box!!! This literally happened in the middle of me typing this blog, by the way. He pried the metal box open and pulled a wire and poof. Silence. I'm excited. I really hope that is what we supposed to pull, I'll be sad if my car doesn't start when I go to leave today...

My Rude Day At Work

SO I was working today, like I do just about every day, I was in the middle of pricing and putting away from stuff from SBS and Giant, nothing out of the ordinary. The phone rings...
Then it starts...
The guy, who didn't really give his name, proceeds to tell me his son bought a bike from us "not to long ago" which, later, we found out was on 6/25/09, and he saw in the paper that for this week and next week, we were having a sale for 10% all bikes (Giant and Redline) in stock. He then asked if his son could get the 10% difference back. I said "Um, no, probably not..." and he SNAPS "Well, IT'S STATE LAW..." he didn't say it nicely, he like bit my head off. I said "well, i've never been asked this question, so let me go ask the manager..." (My mom) which, mom had no clue. I told the guy to call back when dad got there.
SO I called dad, told him the story, and asked what I should do. He suggested looking up the law, which I did. I first found a phone number to the State Law Library. I called, talked to what sounded like a college punk, he said he'd never heard of the law, but I might want to call the Attorny General Fraud Division, and gave me the number.
I call said Attorny General Fraud Division. I was put on hold for like 10 seconds and talked to a lady, who also said she had never heard of the law, and was sure it wasn't true. "Some business CAN do that, as a policy, but it isn't a law."
Jim made the comment that "we aren't ABC Warehouse. HAHAHAHA..."
A little later, at about 5pm, this guy and his young teenage kid come walking in with the kid's bike. Says something about his kid's crank fell off, turns out he was missing a bolt, whatever...then mentioned to mom about how he wants the 10% back, mom continues to say "well, we actually got ahold of the attorney general, and they said there is no such law..."

"Well, I am going to call the Attorney General," the guy says. He paid for his bolt we put in for him and then he left. I later said (and so did dad) that we should have just gave him the number, but we didn't. What a jerk. I hope he does call the A.G. and they tell him he's an idiot too.

The Attorney General chick I talked to actually told me that if the guy had a problem with what we told him that he should just call a lawyer. It makes me so mad that he is just a jerk. But it makes me laugh that he's such an idiot.

Crazy, crazy times.

OK So just to get it out there, TODAY, being Tuesday, June 9th, Tony left to go spend the night at "Porter's" house (a.k.a. Chuck Norris...whatever...) and they are going to get shawasted, then tomorrow night must report in Grayling with all of their stuff, and there they must stay....Thursday night Rebecca, Grace, Bayani and I will be driving up there, Friday afternoon is the big BBQ cook out ( I have been informed to bring a desert...tomorrow (wed) I will be making a double batch of cookies ) and that night will be Tony's last night...well, to spend with me...THEN SATURDAY...a ceremony, tears, then they leave for Flint to jump on a plane and go to Wisconsin....WOO! WISCONSIN!!! Not really...there they will spend 25 days, making sure all paperwork is done and dealt with. If they do not do/get done whatever they are supposed to do within those 25 days, they stay until they get it done. But if they get it done, and I'm sure they will, they will then fly to some town I currently can't think of the name, then they will drive the rest of the way to Baghdad...Baghdad is a "no-fly-zone" apparently...whatever....there he will spend (word-for-word from his orders:) "no less than 400 days" in Baghdad.

OH, and he didn't tell me this until last month, because he couldn't, but he has been selected from his 250 +/- to be part of a 16 man group that will be doing special missions that do not involve the rest of the platoon. I don't know what else he will be doing in said group, just that it's more dangerous. It's nice, he loves to make me worry.

So yeah. There's my current life. I feel like eating chocolate until I die. I'm kinda stressed out.

Time

It kind of sucks, time is going by so fast, when I know I don't want it to. I do and i don't, but in the wrong places. I want time to slow down, Bayani is getting SO big so fast, she's a little chunker...fat rolls on her wrists, it's so cute :) But she is still growing up fast. Tony left on March 6th to go play in the desert until March 29th for Military training. On April 2nd we will be leaving for California for a week to see his family, none of them but one has seen Bayani, and all of them obviously want to see Tony before he leaves....in late May/June 1st. His paper work says June 1st, but I am sure they will want him to report to where ever a week before or more. That is another reason why I want time to slow down. After he gets back, I literally have 7 weeks or less to spend with him before he goes to Baghdad.

12 months is a very long time. Time. It's always about time. EVERYTHING is about Time. You are either waiting for time to go by, wanting time to faster, wishing time would slow down, or stop. It's always about time.

And sadly, I wish time would speed up, too. I want Tony to hear Bayani say "dada". I would LOVE for to tell him "I love you daddy" but I know we have a long time before that happens. But for her to say 'dada' before he leaves. A girl can dream, I guess ~