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Finally got around this evening to moving my Mac Mini from a folding table next to my PC Desk to a regular wooden desk we had sitting on the garage just full of crap.
I took the time to re-arrange all of the stuff that hangs off the back of the Mini and now it's all situated in a good place, well within reach.
Good stuff.
So.
This afternoon, as soon as I got home from work, I called the AAA and requested that a tow truck be dispatched to my house so I could get my Corvette over to Champion Chevrolet to have them looked at the latest electrical short nightmare detailed here.
The tow truck was there in short order (a flatbed. Nice!) and the rather scary looking Hispanic tow truck driver immediately went to work on getting the 'Vette mounted on to his truck. That took about 10 minutes while we pushed it out of the driveway and moved aside for people and trash trucks to get by.
Eventually, I made it over to Champion Chevrolet in Hawthorne and spoke with my service rep Vanessa Martinez, the very nice young lady who helped me the last time I was here. After getting the car situated in the back parking lot and getting the tow truck driver on his way, I walked back to the office with Vanessa to do the work order on the car.
Here is a list of what I stated to her was wrong with the car:
That was the list regarding the electrical problems the car displayed that morning. While she was writing it up, I noted to her that the instrument panel on the driver's side door is STILL DEAD and WENT DEAD just a few days after Champion stated they had fixed it the last time they had my car.
While there, I asked her to please replace the Air Dam underneath the Corvette, since it is hanging or broken off on the right side of the car. Vanessa took all of this information down and stated to me that she would be calling me tomorrow afternoon around 1330, with an 'update' on the status of their investigation into what is wrong with my Corvette.
We'll see in what new and creative ways they decide to rape me this time. This is going to be TERRIBLY EXPENSIVE, I suspect. Bert is on the record as having NO HOPE WHATSOEVER that this dealership is going to fix the car. He thinks they are going to just mess around and leave it so that I have to continue bringing it back over and over again.
What an absolute fucking nightmare. God.
In anticipation of needing a Tow Truck this afternoon to get my '02 Corvette over to Champion Chevrolet in Hawthorne, my wife went over to the local AAA office in Torrance and got herself, our son and me brand-new, spiffy "Plus" level AAA cards.
So now, for $166, we are *plus* members of the AAA.
A service, of course, that I will be taking immediate advantage of as soon as I get home. The Corvette back at the Dealer. Anyone willing to wager on how much the bill is going to come to THIS TIME?
I pray they show me a little mercy.
During a visit to see my mom for a little while, she started in on me with a MASSIVE GUILT TRIP about my sister and the recent loss of some email folders that were deleted when AOL crapped out on her for the nth time.
My mom took the drama to such an extent that I logged on remotely to my sister's computer via logmein.com from my mom's computer and attempted to fix the problem right then and there. My sister was told by AOL that all of her info was in a folder on her desktop called AOL Saved Info.
Sure enough, the folder was there and I could see a file called "saraisabel" that was about 218 MB, so clearly that was the file that contained the email folders I needed to restore. A little bit of Googling for a solution and I was able to determine what files from that folder on the desktop needed to be moved where.
However, a little more noodling was in order because Windows XP would NOT let me move the files due to the old "this file is open or in use by someone or something else on this system" error.
Easy enough to fix:
Voila! Folders restored and order is restored to the Universe once again. call up my sister and have her check her AOL Mail. Folders there, much rejoicing is heard throughout the land.
Drama over. For now. Until next time. I'll be here to douse water on the next mini fire that flares up. We're family after all, right?
So.
Go outside, go to wife's truck, start it up, set the temperature, close door. Walk to my car. Keyfob non-functional. Oh-oh.
But. Door unlocked. With much trepidation, insert key in ignition. Turn key. "Clack, clack, clack'.
DEAD.
Will NOT start. Much BUZZING. Many lights on dashboard lit up. Stereo wigging out, displaying "Err" i n a ghostly blue light. Much more shorting noise, lights flickering, buzzing in the driver side door, buzzing in the passenger-side foot well that my wife could hear OUTSIDE the car.
Pressing the buttons on the Keyfob causes much more shorting "click, click" noises in the driver side door, but the LOCKS DO FIRE on both doors. Instrument panel DOES light up on the driver side door, which is weird, because said instrument panel has been DEAD for weeks now.
Get out of car, walk with wife over to her truck, driver her to work and drive to work in wife's car.
I believe things have come ot a head with this car, once and for all. 5 years of absolute misery, angst, stress and frustration with a car that has a horrible electrical short in it will now have to be addressed once and for all.
The electrical short issues documented countless times on this blog and on my LiveJournal have now escalated past the point of "coat hanger wire and gum" fixes. The ROOT CAUSE of the problem needs to be identified and dealt with.
Either that, or get rid of it once and for all. Somehow, the latter does not seem very likely, so finding someone who will get to the bottom of the problem will probably consume the rest of 2008 for me.
Hawsome. Just Awesome. DAMMIT.
Nothing to report other than:
Not much to report...
My dad came by in the morning and dropped of a spare office chair that he had lying around. After that, I drove over to Piggies and had breakfast. I then later met my son at home with some breakfast for him also.
The rest of the afternoon and evening has passed by with some wind and sporadic showers with me in my office catching up on podcasts and reading my RSS feeds.
Around 8:30 or so, my son arrived home from work and we took off to have a little dinner at the near-by Denny's.
As I'm typing this, my son left to go to his girlfriend's house and I have caught up on all of the important news items of the day and am getting close to calling it a day and hitting the sack.
Another day wiled away without addressing a single solitary item on my to-do list. Sigh.
Late start, but got stuff done anyways. :=>)
Right headlight and turn signal repaired on Corvette
Because of the threatening rain forecast, I needed to get the burnt out right headlight on my Corvette replaced. So I drove the car over to my local Pep Boys shop to see if they could help.
While there, I had them also replace the right turn signal that was malfunctioning also. It took about an hour to get done, but for $45.00 I now have full headlights and working turn signals. A luxury in the current condition my car is in.
After Pep Boys, I came home and waited for my dad and sister to stop by and drop off an office chair my father no longer had use for. The rest of the afternoon I spent in my office, waiting for 1800 to roll around to go have dinner at my Scrabble partner's parent's house.
Dinner was OK, and the mood at the table was pretty OK.
Bert ruins Scrabble session
Bert and I drove up to PV ourselves and by the time we got up to his house it was starting to rain. Scrabble was not very friendly and I ended up losing 2 our of 3 games. Towards the end of the first game, Bert erupted in a fit of "bad sport, sore loser' and made an angry, snide remark about me only talking when I am ahead.
I clammed up after that and the rest of the evening was entirely colorized by that little ugly outburst of his. Bert is in a real bad place. and the tough thing about it is, he hardly ever recognizes or admits to being wrong. I am the only person on the face of the planet that stomachs this guy.
Big Rain Storm
After 9:00 PM or so, the rain and winds really, REALLY picked up and we spent the rest of the evening dealing with the racket of the wind and the rain lashing the sliding glass door and windows around the kitchen table.
Patty stranded AGAIN in Lawndale with no car keys
The evening was notable also because Bert brought up the keys to Patty's truck and left her stranded in Lawndale. That entailed Patty driving up to PV with Bert's dad to get the keys and then driving back to Lawndale to pick up her car and then drive back to Palos Verdes.
Uneventful Friday, with a nice dinner at Benihana that was slightly marred by the fact that my wife ended up getting there 25 minutes late and as a result of it, we had to wait to be seated a little while.
Bert didn't like that very much, of course.
Once we sat down to eat, the food was just OK, since the cook put an excessive amount of ground pepper on the food and then we got a waitress who up and disappeared from the table ofter one or two visits and as such got about a 5% tip.
Scrabble at Bert's was very competitive and fun, and I managed to pull out 2 out of the 3 games. I am currently playing the best Scrabble of my life, bar none. I really hope to keep this up the rest of this year.
Still not very much going on other than the continued cold, rain and wind hovering over Southern California this past week.
Early this morning I ordered a "PedEgg" from a TV ad I saw recently on the Hallmark Channel while at my mom's house watching TV. I am curious to see if this product works as advertised.
Minor "head scar" drama with son
So, this evening I am in my office minding my own business, when I get a rather terse and slightly alarmed phone call from my son, asking me to come ot his room. I run over there and he hits me with the news that his head is "bleeding".
After the very minor reaction on my part, he clarifies that his scar has "dried blood" on it and that they were just a little concerned becuase they had never noticed it before.
I calmed the situation down by explaining to him that the scab could have been picked in a myriad of situations and as such, is really no big deal. Once I explained to him that it would be very difficult for him to "bleed to death" from that wound, he immediately regained his composure and everything returned to normal.
Kids, these days. I tell ya...
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