Always Crashing in the Same Car

Well, I have more crappy bad luck news to report, but actually, as much as it sucks, I'm okay with it. I guess it could always be worse, and it all turned out fine in the end. It felt nice to take something in stride for once, well, for the MOST part. There's just been a lot of shit to deal with lately, and like the saying goes, "When it rains, it pours." And yesterday, that was both literally and figuratively the case for me.

I talked before about the "nickel-and-dime me to death" antics of my old Honda Civic, and how recently the speedometer and dashboard had taken on a life of its own. I still haven't taken it in, since you don't really need much of a speedometer in Missoula (I rarely go above 3rd gear driving around from home to work to work) and now the headlights work. Of course, it's still in the back of my mind that "this needs to be fixed(!)," but with some other more pressing bills, it's gone down a few notches on the "Must Pay" list.

Yesterday, after leaving the university job, and during a fairly steady rain that had been going on all day, I was making my way through rush hour traffic to Shop-n-Smile. I had just turned onto one of the more busy roads when the radio started to stutter, dropping out sound every other syllable. I switched around to see if it was just that particular radio station. Nope.

Then, I noticed the dashboard was pulsating a little more emphatically than usual. Nervous, I pressed the electric button for the passenger window and watched as the window very.....slowly.....inched....downward. Sensing something was wrong, I quickly hit the button to "up" and watched the window painfully creak upwards until the window thankfully sealed. Uh oh, that's not good. Just seconds later, the entire dashboard went dark and the car stalled.

Just fucking great!

I tried to restart the car, but it was completely, 100%, out of commission. Behind me was the long line of restless rush hour maniacs. In a panic, I put the car in neutral, leaped out of the car, and began to push it to the side of the road. A nice man in an enormous pick-up behind me jumped out and helped me. Thankfully, the little car was pretty easy to push.

So there I was, on the side of a busy street, cars racing past me, rain pouring down (and my own window, rigidly stuck open an inch, was letting in water), and I'm going to be late to work. Plus, it was pretty damn chilly. I called Shop-n-Smile and told them my predicament and told them I'd get back to them. Then I called Beau to come and save my unlucky ass. Nothing. I called him like 3 times in quick succession so he would know it wasn't a social call. Still nothing.

Then I suddenly remembered I had emergency roadside through my Verizon Wireless phone! *CHEER* The world is bright and beautiful! There is hope!

When I had first purchased our Verizon phones from the University of Montana, the roadside service had been offered to me. I initially declined because just a few days later I was going to get car insurance, and I always get emergency roadside (I'm one of those people who seem to lock their keys in their car at least once a year). But then, the saleswoman at the Verizon counter told me how cheap it was -- about $3+ a month, (it WAS cheaper than my auto insurance company), -- and how it was connected to your phone, not the car, so that no matter WHOSE car you were in, you were covered. This sounded great! She then went on to tell me anecdotes on how her own boyfriend, with her phone in hand, had used it himself, twice in one month and how grateful she had been to have it. So, a few days later, I went in on my break, and as she tapped away with her long, manicured fingernails (how DO women type with those things??), she set it up.

"Is there anything else I need to do?" I asked.

"Nope, you're good to go!"

"Great," I said, and after asking her how to access the service if needed, I left the store.

Well, now sitting in the car, I couldn't for the life of me remember that access number, so after spending quite a bit of time punching through the lengthy menu on the phone trying to figure out how to contact Verizon (I finally just called information and got their customer service number), I got the number: #ROAD. Pretty straight forward.

After impatiently listening through their lengthy "options," I keyed in all the information asked, only to be told by the recording, "Our records indicate that you do NOT have this service."

HUH!?!?!

And after finally getting a human being on the line, was told, that in fact, I did NOT have the service, that there was no record of it, and they had viewed all activity on my phone, and there was nothing. I could sign up for it NOW, but it wouldn't go into effect for TWO days.

Oh. My. God.

The woman at Customer Service seemed sincerely sorry for what was going on, and I recognized it was not her fault (I hate people who yell at the waitress because they don't like how their food is cooked). I was still pretty pissed off. At first, they could not track down the # to the Verizon store at the UM campus. It was like it didn't exist. I happened to know they close at around 4:30pm anyway and wouldn't be there. Still, the woman wanted to try, and after calling another Verizon store in town, got the number, called it, and said, "Oh. well the number to the store appears to be the woman's cellphone number. I got her voicemail. Would you like it?"

Oh, yes I would.

So, after hanging up with her, I called up the woman who had "sold" me the service. I got her voicemail too and left my message. I was pretty proud of myself at its firmness and general pissed-off-ness since I tend to totally wimp out when confronting any kind of customer service/billing situation, even if completely justified. Plus, who wants to be a total asswipe anyhow? But I guess shivering in a cold car for a couple hours kind of releases some inhibitions, and I let her know just how disappointed I was. I still haven't received a call back.

So, finally, I called up Wally World, told them it was emergency and to get my husband on the phone pronto. It still took them about 15 minutes to locate him -- exactly where I told them he was working - the CASH REGISTER - idiots. And, like a knight in shining armour, Beau arrives 15 minutes later, where he immediately positions our other car and pulls out the jumpers. At first, nothing happened. I happened to turn around and look behind and me...and ho-lee shit.

RIGHT there, just about 100 feet from where I am on the side of the road is "Red's 24 Hour Towing." Hahahaha. So, I went in to talk to them about options. They were two really nice men, and they gave me some advice. At that point, I turned and looked out the window and saw that Beau had magically gotten the car to start, hooray! The two nice men gave me the business card to that Missoula Auto Electric place that was recommended to me in the first place, and after reassuring me that the guy who ran it was a good guy and not expensive, I ran back into the rain. We drove our respective cars home, and Beau, unbelievably to me, went back to finish his shift at Wally World ("I think they'll understand if you don't return to cashier for a few hours").

And I am hoping, REALLY hoping, it's just the battery that needs replacing.

Oh well, it could always be worse, right? RIGHT!?!?