In The Ongoing Saga of Woman Versus Machine...

Guess what's not working for me now.

My car.

Oh yeah, that's right. My fucking car doesn't work!

Arrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!

My car keeps overheating because some electrical switch isn't turning on.

It's not the tires that are giving me grief (though I was late to work Tuesday because one was flat, the little bastard). It's not the seatbelt or the hood or the left taillight cover (which, note to self, hasn't magically fixed itself and still needs to be replaced). What's broken is electrical. As in the little computer in my car is wonky and refused to work like its supposed to.

It's a goddamn technological conspiracy I tell ya!

To be honest, I don't exactly what's wrong with my car yet. All I know is this: Wednesday, while I was driving to school after work, during the most congested part of the freeway, smoke started pouring out from underneath the hood of my car and the temperature gauge jumped from cold to PULL OVER RIGHT NOW BEFORE YOU EXPLODE YOUR SO HOT!

And I was just one exit away from school too. If the freeway traffic wasn't so bad I could have made it to school and gone to class while the HB checked out my car. As it was I missed class, which, on top of my car dying, really bummed me out. I truly honestly hate missing class. It gives me a strong case of the anxiously jittery butterflies. I also missed class yesterday, which was Quiz Day, and bye-bye to that chunk of my grade because the quizzes can't be made up. Sigh.

I dropped the car off at Midas yesterday morning with the HB. Last night, when the HB was checking out the car, nothing seemed to be leaking, and we could see what had been smoking. The only thing he noticed was that the fan never turned on to cool the engine down. He figured it was some kind of thermal switch (or whatever its called.) When I called in sick to work (car sickness) I talked to my Desk Neighbor, told him the symptoms, and he said it sounded like the same problem. So of course, when we dropped the car off we said, 'hey its probably that therma-switchy-thingy.' Only the HB said it and said it in a more manly technical way.

I got a call later from the Midas guy, he said they ran some tests, found a couple things that were broken, and asked if I would like them to be fixed. I repeated the items to the HB and he didn't say, 'hey, that shouldn't be replaced" so I said sure, fix 'em. I was flustered at the time, because I was in the middle of signing paperwork for my car rental, and I know the things he mentioned had the word "thermal" in them, so I thought they were on the right track and... well, I'm dumb and didn't think to question it. Couple hours later I get another call saying the car is still over heating, and they're going to need to run more tests. Great! I called the HB (who had left town in the middle of the day due to Major Family Drama) and he said... well I can't remember what he said. But he mentioned something about how they should have replaced the therma-switchy-thingy. Oh yeah, the switch thingy. Now you remind me.

I called Midas Guy back, made sure he wasn't going to charge me for the tests ("Oh, of course not!") and then I said, "You know, I've mentioned the car's symptoms to a few people and they think its the therma-switchy-thingy and we mentioned that to you when we dropped the car off so have you by any chance checked to see if that's broken." To which Midas Guy replied: "That's what we're testing now. The switches."

"Gee, that's swell you little fuck nugget, but you could have tested that BEFORE you replaced a hundred dollars worth of parts!"

I didn't say that, but I wanted to. I guess its my own fault for being stupid and trusting that just because they're part of a chain of repair shops instead of Joe Blow's Ole Fix It Shoppe they wouldn't screw me over. Bastards. Now I'm wondering if the pump he said was ready to burst on me was really all that bad. I'm a girl, so I'm sure I look like a sucker to them, but that's why I brought a man with me, a man who wouldn't get a glazed blank look in his eyes when you mentioned something mechanical or car related to him.

So it's nine o'clock and still no phone call about whether or not it was the therma-switchy-thingy that needed to be replaced or not. Maybe it is. Maybe its not. I'll find out soon. I hope. In the mean time I've got a rental car to get me to and from work and school. It's costing money, sure, and I could just play hooky for another day, but it would drive me crazy to do so. So I'll be driving a rental instead. A rental, by the way, that looks a LOT fancier than my P.O.S. smurf mobile.

Sigh.

So who wants to take bets on what the next piece of technology will be that takes a crap all over my happy parade?