the down part of the day is that i had an appointment with the car dealership for my car friday morning. i had been arguing with them about the issue i was having. you see, i loathe my local dealership(LD). it is not my selling dealership(SD). their customer service is for shit. they always talk to me like i am stupid. they are horribly unaccommodating. rude. not sympathetic at all. just all around douchenuggets. i would much rather take my car to my selling dealership. they are so very nice. and everything else that the local is not. i wanted a loaner car while my car was in the shop. apparently no one does that anymore. and with my schedule heading to the selling dealership is not an option. they are an hour away. so i sucked it up after talking the both GM's of the dealerships and just made an appointment. it was at 9 in the morning. have i mentioned i am not a morning person? ok good. on the same page.
THE DEALERSHIP DEBACLE
i made it to the dealership a little early. which was fine. i just surfed the internet on my phone and visited with the BFF. i walked into the service department at 10 minutes till and went ahead and had them start pulling up my information. this was the beginning of the end. i go sit in the waiting area (because without a loaner i cannot leave) and grab a magazine. after about three minutes the guy comes out and tells me that my car is not under warranty. and shows me a paper that says my powertrain warranty had expired at 60,000 miles. which only happens if you buy your car used. which i did not. buying it new would earn you a 100,000 mile warranty. i tell him i bought it new. it had 87 miles on it. most of which i put on it test driving it. well the paper says what it says so there is nothing he can do. so i follow him to his desk. well how are you pulling up the car? pull it up by the VIN# and see how it comes up. well we do not do it that way. we pull it up by vin + name + mileage. ok fine. but try just under the vin. nope. not gonna happen. so i go outside and get on the phone with the selling dealership. according to pedro at the local, only the selling dealership can contact the corporation right out to have something fixed. the SD of course has never heard that. and are apologizing profusely for my troubles. the LD has had tons of complaints on them apparently. and the SD is very familiar with them. people drive the hour to get better service all the time. i head outside to talk on the phone and get everything straightened out. now...this is where my idea of customer service is horribly out of whack. in my opinion the right thing to do is to apologize for the trouble and offer to go on ahead and diagnose the car while i am trying to get everything straightened out. but do they? nope. not only do they not, they refuse to even touch the car until the find out if the powertrain is still covered. the SD offers to go ahead and diagnose it if i would like to drive out there. an hour. umm no. not today bucky. so i leave. while getting everything figured out i went ahead and brought my car to a local transmission shop. i thought that my trans was having trouble. my engine sounded like it was revving. not going into overdrive out of fourth gear. i am a woman. i have not worked on cars in a very long time. i am out of practice with car noises. give me some credit. while at the shop i found out that it was not my transmission after all. i had a bearing going out. great. so now not only is my car making a noise. it is actually unsafe to drive. yay. at this point the warranty issue is figured out. when the corporation entered my info they spelled my last name wrong. to which the woman responds that had they just looked it up by the vin, they would have seen my name sounded the same but was just mispelled. then we could have entered it in the wrong way and boom. things fixed. so i call pedro back and inform him that it is a bearing. ooooh he says. yeah. i know. i ask him can i just bring it back in today, nope. he can make me an appointment. for next tuesday. well that doesn't work for me. so next friday it is. which i am not happy about. because helloooooo my car is now a rolling death trap. whatever. i head home. to the BFF's house. where we decide to head to town to grab a few things. mostly minutes without five children running around.
THE RENTAL CAR
on our way to town we visited and she talked me down from all the car stress. we reveled in the fact that we were alone. no kids. and we giggled like only grown women who know how special having a best friend is can. while we were deciding where to head first i had slowed down coming up to a light that had turned from red to green. my foot was off the brake. but all of a sudden my car lurches. i look at her, did it just do that? well it did. but maybe i did have my foot on the brake. but i go ahead and turn right and head into a parking lot. that way if it was not me and my car really is missing up, i will not be on a road and get hit. after i get into the parking lot it does it again. great. so we go ahead and stop at the store we were heading for. go inside and get things handled. then head back out to the car. i decide we should try to make it one parking lot over to a local coffee shop. once inside i call my roadside assistance and get a tow truck coming. out of pocket on money. then i get a rental coming my way. out of pocket on money. normally this would not have been a problem as BFF and hubby have two cars. but one of theirs is down right now. so a rental is a must. then arrange everything to get the car to the dealership. i call pedro and let him know the car is coming. that my car was lurching and acting as if the wheel wanted to seize. he will work on it first thing monday a.m. well thanks pedro. how nice of you.
needless to say i am totally out of money. which is not cool. and my car note did not get paid because of having to pay for the rental and tow. but really what else should i expect? it is common knowledge i have a snafu'd world.
the day ended great though. the BFF and i had a great day together. even with the debacle. went for a wonderful sushi dinner and had tons of free time. Big'K even cooked for all the kidlets so by the time the bigs made it home the littles had eaten. awesome.
WHEN YOU RELEASE THE PAST
in the midst of all of this. it never occurred to me what day it was. i even had to say the date a few times. august 17th. yes august 17th. uh huh august 17th. why yes, yes it is august 17th. usually this is a day i count down to. for the last two decades i have counted down. starting usually in june. most definitely in july. and not really counting down as in 39, 38, 37...but more of an emotional countdown. an i know it is getting closer countdown. an i need to get prepared countdown. but this year not so much. last year, the 20 year mark hit me hard. harder than most of the ones before. and something clicked. or changed. or broke. or released. i am not sure. but it did happen. and for a while i have been wondering if it really made a difference. yes i have been able to let go of a lot of material things from my house. yes i have felt not as drug down. but this year it is almost as if i forgot. now do not get me wrong. i will never truly 'forget'. a motherless daughter does not forget that she has lost her mother. she never forgets that woman. her heart never forgets. her mind never forgets. but for lack of a better word, this year, i forgot. i forgot that TODAY was august 17th. emotionally i never felt it. so whatever happened last year, it really did make a difference. i took the time last night to remember. my Lil'Bro texted me. and we visited for a bit. he still remembers. with all of his emotions. maybe he needs to let something go. i feel like i let the rage and bitterness and anger go. and it changed me. inside at least. so i was able to remember. and not cry. just laugh. and reminisce. and it was nice. for the first time in more than half my life i was not sad on august 17th. i just was. and that is great.
I've done that before. At first I felt guilty. But then I realized that it's ok. There are so many memories for any day. Holding on to the hardest wasn't the only way to remember. I think your mama would be glad.