Well, first of all, my computer broke. The one in the library.
Several nights ago, Av was up working late and at about 11:30pm he heard the UPS going off, and when he looked at it, it was running a code for “overload”. Not good. And then he said there was that nasty burning plastic smell. The computer in there is pretty much toast.
Av is trying to salvage the harddrive, but I’m telling you all this so you’ll know that if you sent me an email and I never emailed you back…that’s why. Promise it’s not me!!
So *then*, Friday we are in town right in front of the Piggly Wiggly. For those of y’all who don’t live around a Piggly Wiggly, it’s a grocery store. And once you live here in the South, you can tell people that you spent all afternoon and all your money at “The Pig” and nobody even blinks because they know exactly where you’ve been.
Well anyway, we were at a stoplight over in front of The Pig, all three of us in the Volvo. Av is driving and the check engine light comes on along with some strange up-arrow light. What? The car is running fine. Except when the light turns green and…uuuuuhhhhh…it feels like the transmission is in some weird gear, almost like neutral although it would go forward, about 5mph tops. We found a park nearby, got rescued by family, then had AAA tow it to the dealer.
I’m thinking it is one of two things: either the transmission has suddenly welded itself together and it’s going to cost thousands to fix, or it’s one of those $30 sensors that the dealer installs for $300.
It’s the sensor (thank goodness). Except this time it’s $400. Oh, and my air conditioning (I love to drive with icicles hanging off every surface of the interior) hasn’t been blowing quite as cold as it should when we go on long trips – even starts to blow not hot but not cold – and so the dealer checked it and the whatever-you-call-its in the compressor are worn and now we’re getting a compressor for another $900. Well, you know.
We aren’t car people. We have friends who get new cars every year or two and that’s just not us. I love my Volvo and will probably keep it until it really isn’t reliable any more. I mean, I really just love that car! There isn’t anything I’d rather have.
…although…did anyone watch the Glenn Close show on FX called “Damages”? Somehow it made me want a Cadillac CTS. Sort of. But not more than my Volvo. Close though.
—But— Av is getting a new car! Maybe this week! Okay remember how I said we weren’t the get-a-new-car-every-two-years people? Well Av has had the same car (that I have hated ever since our first date, when it was only three days old or something) for ten years now. It has over 200k miles on it. And it is a terrible shade of blue. A terrible shade of blue. And a kind-of dent-y thing on one side where someone hit it while we were parked at a Lebanese food festival and they didn’t even leave a note on the car to say “we’re sorry”or “hope you enjoyed your kibbee” or anything.
Ah, I am not going to miss that terrible blue, slightly dented on one side car one bit.
Guess what we are probably getting? A GMC Acadia! Love that. Yay!