Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2013-10-11 10:22 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2013-10-11 10:22 pm
Entry tags:
Car update:
OUR STORY SO FAR: Vash's engine has never been perfectly smooth, but he has better and worse days. I am attuned to the sound and feel of this. After the family reunion trip, he started running worse in a way that I was reluctant to venture far afield with; I turned around on Monday because I didn't trust him 30 miles to work, hoping that an oil change would do him some good.
The oil change did him enough good that I was willing to take him to work Thursday, even though the mechanics were unable to duplicate the problematic behavior. Thursday evening he failed to start after work. I returned home on the bus, alternately cursing and praying that a jumpstart would either fix all that was wrong or at least get him back to the mechanics without a truly painful towing fee. (I didn't remember about my chintzy towing plan until much later.)
A jumpstart got him going, reluctantly. 1.3v is not a good voltage for a car battery to be carrying. I am 5 9s of certain that I turned off my lights, because it is a thing that I always do and I do it automatically.
When I got out on the road I tried to speed up (as one does), debating whether it would be better to take surface streets (easy availability of service shops, easy availability of places for me to physically push him) or 280. The chugging when I accelerated answered that for me. I was going to be cruising along El Camino Real in a logically northward direction, hoping he didn't die (for I likely wouldn't be able to start him again without another jump) and hoping I could get him far enough that the towing fee wouldn't be 30 whole miles of outrageous.
30 miles of stop-and-go slow traffic with a dodgy vehicle gives you some time to reflect on things. It took two hours. I learned that the chugging definitely happens when the automatic transmission is trying to change gears. I can control it somewhat by either speeding up, or slowing down, depending. I cannot successfully speed up when going up a significant enough hill. I learned that I am really damn good at being a human cruise control when vitally necessary.
A few hysterical self-expressions later, and all the determination in the world staving off multiple smaller and larger panic attacks, and a call tonorabombay, I made it to the mechanic's. They were long closed, but I learned how to operate the out-of-hours key drop. (While juggling the key drop form, my cane which had just blown its tip, the call to Nora, the fact that I was having trouble condensing the problem with the car into a few terse words to fill the space provided, and the fact that I didn't know how long I had before the Last Bus would arrive, I got off the phone with Nora in a panic because OH MY GOD WHAT IS MULTITASKING. Multitasking is in fact for when you're not already stressed the fuck out, and there isn't one time-sensitive thing to do.)
Then I started marching to the bus stop while waiting for my phone to load the web page, checked the bus arrival time, determined I had enough time for hot chocolate and the bathroom, demanded these things of the nearby Starbucks, and arrived at the bus stop with 10 minutes to spare. A little bit later, some young man who seemed a lot more like a twelve-year-old than someone who looked old enough to vote generally is stopped at the bus stop, and we had a brief and functional conversation about the bus schedule. He either left his phone and some other box for me to watch while he ran off to put the empty water jug somewhere sensible, or sort of forgot them. He came back, said hi again, and called his mom, who came to pick him up. He told me his mom was going to pick him up. I felt the materteral urge to share some of my candy with him, but resisted on the grounds that grown-ass adult ladies giving candy to unrelated small children is generally only done with parental permission.
I made it home in one piece. I discovered that I am very close to hitting 150% of my step goal for the rolling month if I keep up what I've been up to this past week. That is a previously un-heard-of event, and is small solace in the face of looming car-WTF-ery.
I'll call the mechanics in the morning, or something like that. For now, I'm home and fed.
The oil change did him enough good that I was willing to take him to work Thursday, even though the mechanics were unable to duplicate the problematic behavior. Thursday evening he failed to start after work. I returned home on the bus, alternately cursing and praying that a jumpstart would either fix all that was wrong or at least get him back to the mechanics without a truly painful towing fee. (I didn't remember about my chintzy towing plan until much later.)
A jumpstart got him going, reluctantly. 1.3v is not a good voltage for a car battery to be carrying. I am 5 9s of certain that I turned off my lights, because it is a thing that I always do and I do it automatically.
When I got out on the road I tried to speed up (as one does), debating whether it would be better to take surface streets (easy availability of service shops, easy availability of places for me to physically push him) or 280. The chugging when I accelerated answered that for me. I was going to be cruising along El Camino Real in a logically northward direction, hoping he didn't die (for I likely wouldn't be able to start him again without another jump) and hoping I could get him far enough that the towing fee wouldn't be 30 whole miles of outrageous.
30 miles of stop-and-go slow traffic with a dodgy vehicle gives you some time to reflect on things. It took two hours. I learned that the chugging definitely happens when the automatic transmission is trying to change gears. I can control it somewhat by either speeding up, or slowing down, depending. I cannot successfully speed up when going up a significant enough hill. I learned that I am really damn good at being a human cruise control when vitally necessary.
A few hysterical self-expressions later, and all the determination in the world staving off multiple smaller and larger panic attacks, and a call to
norabombay, I made it to the mechanic's. They were long closed, but I learned how to operate the out-of-hours key drop. (While juggling the key drop form, my cane which had just blown its tip, the call to Nora, the fact that I was having trouble condensing the problem with the car into a few terse words to fill the space provided, and the fact that I didn't know how long I had before the Last Bus would arrive, I got off the phone with Nora in a panic because OH MY GOD WHAT IS MULTITASKING. Multitasking is in fact for when you're not already stressed the fuck out, and there isn't one time-sensitive thing to do.) Then I started marching to the bus stop while waiting for my phone to load the web page, checked the bus arrival time, determined I had enough time for hot chocolate and the bathroom, demanded these things of the nearby Starbucks, and arrived at the bus stop with 10 minutes to spare. A little bit later, some young man who seemed a lot more like a twelve-year-old than someone who looked old enough to vote generally is stopped at the bus stop, and we had a brief and functional conversation about the bus schedule. He either left his phone and some other box for me to watch while he ran off to put the empty water jug somewhere sensible, or sort of forgot them. He came back, said hi again, and called his mom, who came to pick him up. He told me his mom was going to pick him up. I felt the materteral urge to share some of my candy with him, but resisted on the grounds that grown-ass adult ladies giving candy to unrelated small children is generally only done with parental permission.
I made it home in one piece. I discovered that I am very close to hitting 150% of my step goal for the rolling month if I keep up what I've been up to this past week. That is a previously un-heard-of event, and is small solace in the face of looming car-WTF-ery.
I'll call the mechanics in the morning, or something like that. For now, I'm home and fed.