First Car Problem Ever

As boring as last week was, this week made up for it, so it’s a long post, sorry. First, I have never, EVER had a major issue with my car. I got it in November 2005 and it was already about two years old. It’s always run great and aside from regular maintenance I’ve never had to take it in to get it looked at. That changed this week.

Tuesday: When we left the house everything was great with the car. I dropped Ezra off on campus and I drove over to the library. When I parked at the library I pulled my parking break, as I do every time I park, and it wouldn’t lock into place. So I texted Matt, (my brother and the best mechanic I know) and Ezra to let them know what was up.

Wednesday: I called the dealership where I take my car for routine maintenance and made an appointment to get it looked at. They told me it would probably take half a day so I made the appointment for 9am the following day.

Thursday: Hello freezing rain! Thankfully I have a covered parking spot so the doors weren’t frozen shut. Ezra and I headed into town about 2.5 hours earlier than usual so that I could take my car to the dealership. We didn’t have any issues with the freezing rain until we made it to the dealership parking lot and I lost traction for a second. No damage done. They took my car into the shop and we sat down and started doing homework. Fifteen minutes later the guy comes out and says I need a new parking assembly. The nearest one is in Michigan. It would cost $450 not including tax or labor to install it. Great.

I texted Matt a lot more and asked him what he thought. At his suggestion, I didn’t order the part through the dealership and am looking into independent mechanics this week. I have an appointment to get my car seen again tomorrow (Jan 29th) so hopefully this guy (who had great ratings on Google and was recommended to me by a friend) will have something a bit more positive to say. I’m hoping for something like, “oh it’s just this small part and I can have that fixed right away.” I’d like the grand total to be under $200, but I think that might be wishful thinking. We’ll see.

Friday: First thing in the morning we went to donate blood. I love giving blood! Ezra didn’t have any problems but my iron was too low. Oh well, maybe next time. After that we went up to Salt Lake to meet a guy that bought something of Ezra’s on eBay. We met at the Salt Lake Public Library (first time I’d ever been there, it’s so huge!) and then once that was taken care of we visited Ezra’s mom and sister’s family who also live up there. We left around 5:30-6pm before the fog got really bad. I heard that by around 9pm it became so thick you couldn’t see the car in front of you.

The smog and light fog really darkened the sun in Salt Lake by 5:10pm.

Saturday: Work as usual. After work we went to a taping of the first episode of season 2 for Studio C! It was so much fun! I even got a t-shirt (which I’m wearing right now)! Definitely something we’ll try to sign up for again.

Sunday: A pretty normal Sunday. One exciting thing happened: I finally got my sewing machine out and started playing with it! I had some major frustrations for a little while with thread getting stuck in my bobbin case but Ezra fixed it for me. He’s amazing like that. :-) Maybe this week I’ll find some time to start working on my first sewing project, an apron.
 

My wonderful sewing machine!

The pattern I'm using for my first project. I'm doing the apron on the left.

So that was our week! Next week will hopefully be back to boring. The only major appointment we have is for me to get my car looked at.

After such a crazy and stressful week, here's some cuteness.

And some more cuteness. I feel better already.