Oh, Let's Throw My Vacation Leave In The Toilet
8/24/1
So, all day yesterday, I had to drive Aisai�s car. Well, I didn�t drive it to the Kronos dealer, as I wasn�t in that car, I was in my Kronos.
So, I drive Aisai to her work and then I go to mine. I get a call around 9ish�Let me check exactly�9:56 is when I left. In any case, I get a call and the guy at the service department tells me they�ve finished my car, blah blah, it was the alternator.
When I dropped it off, I told him that since both the battery and alternator are under warranty, that once they find out the problem, just to tell me and I�d come by and pick up the old one and get them a new one from Autozone.
I get there and they want to charge me $30 for the inspection and they�ll pull my car around. It takes a while for me to figure out this isn�t with the plan but I catch up to him as he�s going and tell him what I thought I told him that morning. Now it�ll be $90 for them to remove the alternator and replace it. They�ll call me around 1 p.m. when they take it off.
I get back at work at 10:41.
Now, I had come in at around 8:30 since we dropped off the car and with that trip out, I used nearly three hours of my vacation leave. Heck, I only earn two hours a week.
I get a call at 11:44. I know this because I was actually walking out of the building while talking to the guy. I go there and pick up the old alternator.
As I�m driving Aisai�s car to the Autozone, at the first real braking point, the alternator rolls onto the floor. I pick it up, of course with my right hand, and it punctures me about � way up my thumb. Oouch. I wedge it in place with a shop rag with pieces of dead fern on it that I grabbed from the floorboard of the back seat.
When I finally get to the Autozone, and perhaps the one in Madison wasn�t the closest one, but that�s My Autozone, I reach for the alternator. I choose to grab it by this black plastic piece, which was a poor choice, since when I try to lift it I break the piece off. Hmm.
I take both pieces in. They exchange it. But when they find out it is the Kronos dealer; they check it just to see if I�m being ripped off. I also get to hear a story about how the Kronos dealer tried to get a lady to have a new engine installed because hers was �burning oil�. The variables in the story she was fed didn�t make sense and the guys checked her car and it was fine. Scary.
My alternator was crap. My Duralast Gold was replaced, free of charge, under warranty. I try to make sure that if I have to replace a part on my car, that I replace it with better than original parts. Hence the �Nice Battery� comment mentioned a few entries ago.
I get back to the service bay and drop off the alternator. I get back to work at 12:57. Great, nearly four hours gone. That�s two weeks of vacation earned. Grrr.
I pick up Aisai from her work on the way home and once we get on a street where it would be difficult to get to the Kronos dealer, I decide to call them and see if it�s ready. It is. Whoo, hoo. [Mild sarcasm there.] Now I get to drive through some of the worst intersections in the metro area.
Though I find the waiting of the Slaughter Road / US 72 intersection charming, you really can�t beat the sheer terror of the �surprise light� in front of the new Target. No one realizes it�s there so we all like to smash each other.
I get my car back, and it feels like they have changed the sensitivity of my gas pedal. Ha, no, it was because I logged four hours of driving Aisai�s lame old 1987 Camry. The Kronos has power to spare, but not much to spare. Damn, high-end torque!
I may have mentioned this [a billion times] before, but I�m a big fan of low end torque. All hail the Mazda 323�s B6E engine.
Last night we went grocery shopping. I bought two boxes of cereal, as is my normal, but I keep forgetting that I have uneaten cereal at home. I now have seven boxes of cereal. Ooh, and unfortunately I wasn�t able to eat at home this morning.
Special K Red Berries rules.