Car Trouble

Why is it that just when things seem to be moving along smoothly, karma kicks you right in the balls? It’s as if God wakes up one day and say, “Wait a second! Things are going waaaay too well for you right now. We’ll fix that!”

The other morning, Eric went out to start his car. “Whr Whr Whr.” Nothing. He tried three more times, and then I tried. Nothing. So, we woke up and packed up the kids, gave them Pop Tarts to eat in the car, and we took daddy to work. Then I came back home and called AAA. I told them that I really thought it was the battery. Actually, I crossed my fingers, weaved some baskets and prayed to God that it was just the battery.

About an hour later, a red-headed kid with glasses showed up at my door. I handed him the keys, and then started thinking I should probably request ID before I had the car keys to every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes to the door. But I digress. He came back about five minutes later and said, “Um, I’m not sure what’s wrong. But it’s not the battery.” Of freaking course it’s not because THAT would have been way too easy.

Opie said we were going to have to have it towed somewhere. He, of course, did not have a tow truck, so I had to wait another hour for a tow truck to show up. That guy seemed nice, and tried to tell me that maybe it was still just the battery. He could have been an axe murderer, but he called me sweetheart, so I handed him the car keys, too. Dude! He was flirting with me. I didn’t even have make-up on. He probably does that with all the frazzled housewives to make their car issues seem a little less bad. Screw feminism. I liked it. He wanted me.

Anyway, he loaded the car up, much to the children’s entertainment who were watching in awe from the window.

About three hours later, Eric called Honda to see if they had looked at it. They said, “Well, it started right up for us.” WTF?!! Are you freaking kidding me?! Eric tried to start the damn thing, I tried, and two different AAA guys tried, and it wouldn’t start. But all of a sudden, Honda tries and boom. Grrrrrr!

They still had to look at the damn car, and we didn’t hear back from them until the next morning when I was taking Eric to work again. I knew it was bad news because I swear to God, I heard a drum roll right before his cell phone rang. As I was driving, Eric was talking to them and writing several figures down on a piece of paper. When I looked over at the figures, I thought I was going to hyperventilate.

When Eric got off the phone, he informed me that he needed a new radiator, a new fan, and he had an oil leak (which we knew about already) that had apparently gotten bigger. The grand total? $1100. I burst into tears.

I thought I had enough money where I could finally buy myself a laptop for my birthday. At this rate, I will be lucky to get a Hallmark card. Yes, I’m feeling sorry for myself. Sue me. Everyone deserves to have a bad day. And I want to strike karma down with a damn Taser.