After that? Things went south fast. And I mean fast. I got the in the car and started her up. No problem. I'm driving over to his place, which is literally five minutes away, and the car seems to be riding rough. Not just a little rough, but rough. And then out of no where the check engine light comes on with a loud beep and I'm staring down at it like what the fuck?!
Thankfully I wasn't far from his house so I pulled up, parked, and turned the car off. He gets in the car and says something I can't believe... "Wow. Your car is quiet."
I think I stared at him blankly for a good five seconds before I told him that the car was off. He of course asked me why and I told him what had happened. He asked me if he thought we could still make it to work. I said most likely not, no. It wasn't just the check engine light had come on. It's how the car was acting right before it went off.
So, he asked me if we could at least try. I said I would go a very short distance to see whether or not I felt comfortable. It took me less than four blocks to say no. I'm not going in today. I apologized to him and he said he understood, it's car troubles, etc. and so on. What floored me though was that while I was very carefully driving him back to his house he is on the phone with someone else to find a ride and in less than five minutes had found one.
Back when a different person was doing all the driving for the carpool there were of course times when she would at the last minute say no, she isn't going in. Well, it would almost always happen to be when I could either not take the car or did not have access to the car. So I would call him and ask him to let me know if he finds a way to work because I had no way of getting out there. He would say sure and then the next day I would find out that he just so happened to get a ride out there and back and just didn't tell me about it. That would piss me off. I took him on in my tiny carpool just because of the price of gas and it helps me with the gas costs. Other wise I would just go out there and back by myself. Aside from money, there is no joy in me taking him to and from work. He's not an asshole but shit like that just floors me and pisses me off.
Anyway, I again very carefully drive the car home and park her. I get back into the apartment and look up what time my mechanic opens. He didn't open until 8am, so I had to wait with knots in my stomach. I call as soon as the clock turns to 8am and the soonest they could get me in was noon. Fuck. But, I was lucky they could squeeze me in at all, so I was disappointed, anxious, and thankful all at the same time.
Master woke up about an hour after I got off the phone. He is on an almost entirely different schedule as me, so He wakes up later obviously. I didn't see the sense in waking Him up right away because there was nothing to do right then and there.
I tell Him everything and He gets knots in His stomach as well. Nothing but this sense of anxiety and dread all rolled into one. Finally it came time for me to leave and take the car to the mechanic. Master stayed home as we didn't both have to be there and I know more about cars than He does. So He prefers that I handle it. Makes sense and I agree with it.
I get down there and my car is throwing three codes. All of them involving my transmission. Oh joy. They referred me to a transmission specialist that they highly recommended. I was nervous enough driving the car from home to the mechanic's shop and now I have to drive her further? *sigh* So I do. I didn't speed up at all. I was slow as fuck actually.
Finally I get there and she couldn't fit me in until 2pm. Again, thankful that she could fit me in at all but I got there at 1pm so I still wouldn't know what was what for a while yet. I call Master to update Him and then I played the waiting game.
The verdict comes back. There was rather high minimum amount for what needs to be done. And to find out if one of the problems is what they think it is they have to take apart the transmission to get to it. So they needed a down payment on it right then and there. I did not have the money that kind of money right then and there. I asked if it would be safe for me to drive the car home and come back once I had scraped the money together. She said that unfortunately that would be very risky. I could blow the whole damn transmission. Fuck! I am so glad I didn't push to go to work. I would have been stranded on the interstate or stuck in the parking lot at work. I don't even want to think about how much that tow truck ride would have cost.
I asked if I could keep the car there overnight. She said yes and that there would be no charge for it. Well thank fuck for that. Now my only problem was finding a way home. We only have that one car so Master couldn't come get me. I called our friend at least three times. He didn't answer. So I called his wife about three times as well. No answer. I call one of our neighbors that is a friend three times and no answer. Finally our friend's wife called me back and asked what was up. I told her and unfortunately because her job is so new she couldn't leave early and her husband was at work and couldn't be reached. I had no cash for a bus and no ATM near by. I called a taxi service and the prices they wanted were astronomical. I have never used a taxi in my life and now I see why. Based on that cost alone I figured that would be my last ditch effort. I was sitting there, slightly frantic, trying to think of who else I could call. And then, suddenly, my phone rang and it was our neighbor. She had turned off her cell phone and had forgotten to turn it back on.
She was more than happy to come pick me up. Master met her in the parking lot for the apartment complex and they picked me up. Yay! Master had already explained what was going on so I didn't have to go through all that. She did tell me that if I needed a ride at all for the next couple of days to just let her know because she had nothing going on. She is so sweet.
I got home around 5pm. It has been a long and hellish day.
After a lot of talking and brain storming we have the amount of money it should cost to fix the car. So tomorrow I'm going to call the shop and ask if they can take the down payment over the phone with the card. Hopefully they say yes because then I don't have to sit there the whole time and they can start on it as soon as possible. If not, well then I guess I'm just going to have to ask my neighbor to get me out there as soon as she could and then sit there until it's all done. Either way I'm nervous about it and hoping that the amount they quoted me for what they think is wrong is correct. I have some cushion but still... Fingers crossed.
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