You CAN'T Be Serious

"We're a single car family."

This is quickly becoming The ParkHopper Family Motto. And it sucks.

On the way to babysit yesterday, I stopped at a 4-way stop. When it was my turn to go, I hit the gas (because, you know, that's supposed to make the car go) and the engine revved a lot, then went ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk while hopping and giving me whiplash, and then finally caught and started going again.

The car got me to babysit, and then got me to work (although I rolled through every stop sign inbetween). And then Scott drove me home.

Because of my lack of car and the fact that Scott had to drive me home, I missed out on 4 hours of OT last night, and both of us have had to change schedules tonight so that we can carpool.

Angry is an understatement. Furious and scared to drive my own car? Yes. So upset that I was sobbing in front of two of my managers and another co-worker? That's right!

So I called the transmission guys just now (I've been up for about an hour, but decided to do some relaxing deep breathing before calling). I talked to Mike, who put me on hold, and then I talked to Eric, who couldn't have sounded less happy to hear from me. He said there were three other people in his face and that he'd call me back within a half hour. He's got until noon, and then I'm going to put my hair in a ponytail, steal Scott's car, and go yell in person. So here's what I'm thinking:

• I didn't call the BBB when I got my car back and the center console was all messed up and they were unable to fix the damage that they had done.
• I didn't make a police report about the stolen CDs and the vandalism to the inside of my car.
• I have paid a total of $1902 for repairs that have kept me on the road for about 60 days. That's $31/day. I think I could've gotten a long-term rental for less.
• I will give them one more chance to fix whatever it is that's wrong with my transmission. If the car gives me any more trouble, they need to give me that money back so that I can put it towards a new transmission from the dealership or towards a new car. That $1902 was paid to fix a problem that obviously hasn't been fixed, I consider that breach of contract and I want my money back.

I'm fairly confident that right now Eric is having some kind of "what do we do now?" conference with the bosses. Hopefully we'll all come to the same conclusion so that we can get on with our lives quickly and never have to see eachother again.