A Monday on a Wednesday

Last night I went to get something out of my car in the parking lot, and noticed I had a flat tire on my driver's side. I can change a tire, but preferred not to simply because it was pretty chilly and wet from yesterday's rainstorms. I bribed a few of the guys here at work to change it for me, and figured I would just get up in the morning and go to the tire store to have it repaired.

Got up this morning, showered, dressed, got my stuff together. Got in the car to drive down the driveway and I heard bumpbumpbumpbump. I climb out and find that the spare that is in my tire's place is also flat. Great! No one else is home, so I call dad and ask where his air compressor is. "In my truck" he says. Great...he's IN his truck. I'm already mad and cold and frustrated, so I ask him what am I supposed to do. He tells me that he had gotten us air compressors for Christmas, and to go get one to use and just leave it in my car. So, I get it out and its the kind that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Crank the engine, pump up the tire, and all is well. I realized I forgot something inside, so I kill the engine and go back in to get it. Come back out, get in the car, crank it....and nothing happens. I start laughing and said to myself "seriously?!" Then I call dad again.

Long story short, my uncle ended up coming by and jumped the car off and I drove on to the tire store. I figured it was my battery and I could get a new one while I got the tire replaced. I sit up there and wait. And wait. Finally they come in and tell me that it's my alternator that's gone out. Great!! They quote me around $700. Ouch.

Then I realize that I have the extended warranty on the car, it's only 2 years old anyway. I call dad and he confirms that he thinks so too. I tell the little mechanic dude thanks but no thanks, got just my tire repaired, and drove over to the car dealership to have them work on it since it's under warranty. Dad meets me up there because it's time to go to work at this point. I pitch a fit to the guy up there because he absolutely refuses to give me a rental car. Not 2 or 3 months ago when I had a brake light switch go out, they gave me an SUV to drive for the weekend. What had changed?

Anyway, dad brought me to work. I was here for about 15 minutes and the dealership called. They told me the alternator was hooked up and charging the battery, and that the only thing they could see wrong was a bad cell in the battery. I told them to go ahead and replace it, so they did. I also made them write on my ticket that I took it up there for the alternator to be replaced and they didn't. I can just see a few months down the road, when I AM out of warranty, it going out and them charging me out the wazoo for it. Not gonna happen.

So I have my car back. All is right with the world. At least for tonight. But for the first few hours today, I could have sworn it was a Monday.