Well. If ever there was a week that made me want to pour myself a (very) stiff drink, this past week would be it!
On Sunday (a week ago) mom, Mitchell, and I came home from Vermont after a very lovely two week vacation with lots of family.
My troubles started Monday morning when I tried to start the Buick. It didn't (start that is). So I got my mom to come jump it. I thought nothing of it and went to work. A couple hours later, however, when I was done work and I tried to start my car nothing happened. I tried to jump it. Nothing.
Finally, my brother got it started, took it to the shop, and was told it probs just needed a new battery. So we went to an auto parts store where the idiot old man told me and my brother that we had somehow managed to switch the polarity of the battery by jumping it with the positive clamp on the negative battery part and vice versa, and that we should try going somewhere else. Now, even I know that if you tried to do something as silly as that it will not switch the polarity, rather it would spark a ton and possibly blow up. Meanwhile, I tried to restart my car, and in the five minutes it had been off, the battery had died again. So, rather than try to jump it again, we got a second opinion and he gave me a new battery. The car started right up and all was fine.
On Tuesday morning I got in my car, turned it on (quite successfully), and started to drive to work. Then I noticed something. My breaks were barely working. Needless to say, I went straight to the shop this time, dropped off my car, and trekked through the very very hilly downtown region (in the hot and humid Virginia summer heat) to work. Yuck.
Well, this time I was kind of concerned because I was planning on driving to Ocean City, NJ the next morning and I was pretty sure that driving a car with little to no breaking ability would be rather inadvisable.
A little more than several hours later, I got a call from the mechanic telling me that my car needed a new master cylinder (to fix the break problem), two new tires (apparently mine weren't safe anymore), new break pads, and new rotors. Great. When I picked up my car that afternoon I was happy to find that my breaks offered resistance when I attempted to stop my car.
Ocean City, here I come!
Wednesday started out fine, but then, about 2 hours into my trip I noticed that it was a little warm in my car. I turned up the A/C and nothing happened. So I'm thinking, great, my A/C is on the fritz. But at least nothing catastrophic has happened... I can deal with a little humidity.
Then, just outside of Towson, MD, I noticed the heat sensor light up. It stayed on for about 2 minutes, turned off for about 45 seconds, and then came on again. I called mom and she said that my fluids were probably low and I should pull off at the next exit. The road I got off on happened to house a Merchants Tire and Auto, so I pulled in there, figuring that they'd be able to tell me what was going on with my car. They told me it will be about an hour and fifteen minutes before they can look at my car, so I went to the nearby Towson Town Center, a gargantuan four story mall to chill out.
I was a little frazzled by the whole affair and super bummed by this unexpected delay to my sunbathing plans, but I can chill in a random city with the best of them. When I got back to the shop, the Merchant's guy quite calmly told me that I would certainly not be driving to Jersey anytime soon in my car and that I was basically lucky that I (by which I mean my car and its engine) hadn't blown up yet. Then he (still quite calmly) told me that it would take a day and about $1,200 to fix the broken upper intake valve on my engine that was apparently leaking antifreeze all over... or something to that effect.
Well as you can imagine, a twelve hundred dollar car repair, and the fact that I was three hours from home, sort of frayed my usually cool, calm, and collected exterior, but to make an already way too long story short, my parents decided that the Merchants guys were silly and that I should take the Buick to a dealer because it would at the very least be cheaper. So I drove down the street and around the corner to Jerry's.
When I got there I noticed that some kind of liquid was pouring out of my car. Like literally pouring. Great. So, when the Jerry's guy came out, I told him what the Merchant's guys said and he said that they were full of crap. He looked under the Buick's hood and saw, basically right away, that the problem was a broken water pump, which would cost a heck of a lot less to fix than that gasket thingy. Perfect.
The only problem was that by this time it was about 5:45 and they closed up shop at 6, so I wasn't going to be going anywhere in the Buick that night. Fortunately, my genius papa suggested I rent a car to get me the final three hours I had to the beach. So I had Enterprise fix me up with a little economy rental and I was back on the road after, you know, a short little side trip. No big deal.
But the beach was amazing and totally worth it! I got to see KT and Jason and meet all of KT's family. At times I must admit I was a little overwhelmed by the Italianness of them all but I loved every minute of it! My car got fixed on Thursday, I picked it up on Saturday, and now, Sunday, so far so good... hopefully I didn't just jinx myself...
My little Hyundai Accent rental... it's so cute isn't it!
KT, Jason, and Me on the boardwalk at Ocean City
We are so lame.
On Sunday, Mik had to get up super early (by which I mean 7) to go to a soccer game, so Jenny and I slept in... love doing that! We were going to head to the beach, but when we realized that it was going to be about 75 degrees and that good ol' Earl was still slightly wreaking havoc on the ocean, meaning that there were still crazy riptides and currents and stuff, we decided to nix that idea. Instead we ended up going into DC to get cultured.
Then Mik went home to start on his homework... lame... and Jenny and I headed up to the Mall to get cultured. Thanks to summer hours, we were able to check out the new evolution exhibit at the Museum of Natural History and then finish up the evening with the National Air and Space Museum, which neither of us had been to in a while. It was kinda neat, and sad, to see how they've sort of removed Pluto from the planets exhibit.
As we were leaving to get on the Metro, we noticed a huge crowd moving towards the Capitol building so, being the nosy people we are, we decided to check it out. A friendly police man informed us that the National Symphony Orchestra was giving a concert in about 15 minutes, so we decided to stay and listen for a while. It was really neat. We had to go through metal detectors to get in, but then we got to sit on the lawn of the Capitol and listen to the NSO. They played a few famous, yet obscure pieces, and then in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, they played a medley of music from the film Apollo 13. I was excited because that is one of my favorite scores of all time! Then, they played the march from Raiders of the Lost Arc, which made Jenny happy because that's one of her favorites!
On Monday, we were going to just make pancakes in the apartment for breakfast, but when Jenny decided that Bisquick pancakes weren't going to cut it, we decided to go to the restaurant Eggspectations. Boy was I glad we did... that place is amazing! Best french toast ever. Period. Then, on my way home, I decided to check out a new (to me) outlet mall and try to find some good Labor Day discounts... It worked! I managed to get a bathing suit for only $4. Perfect.
The Capitol is really pretty at night
