I reluctantly brought my car into my mechanic yesterday. For quite a while it had inconsistently been making a high-pitched consistent rattling noise from the front of the car and on Wednesday it was louder than ever so I decided it was time. When Steve, the guy behind the desk at Ryan Imported (they work on domestic cars too, not sure if my Chevy Prizm is foreign or domestic since it's a Toyota engine but definitely a Chevy paint job), called me to tell me what was making the noise I felt very much like the dog in the comic strip where the dog's owner is reprimanding the dog and all the dog hears is "Blah, blah, blah, Fluffy, blah, blah, Blah. Fluffy.... blah... blah... Fluffy!" I was on the other end of the phone hearing "blah... blah... serpentine belt...blah...A/C compressor... blah...blah....blah...$398....blah....blah....and if you decide to do that....$678 additional..... call you later." I opted for only one repair since I'm not working and couldn't really even afford the one repair. That's what credit cards are for, right?
So, since I was home for the day without a car, I decided to call someone to come look at our washing machine which has also been making a funny noise for quite a while. Wouldn't you know it? The appliance repair person wanted me to describe the noise! Well, I'm not very good at that and wasn't expecting him to diagnose the problem over the phone so he came over around 10:30. I thought I was talking to my mechanic again! He kept talking about brakes and clutches and belts! Were we really talking about a washing machine? My head was spinning!
Once again I was feeling like that dog in the comic strip, "blah...clutch...blah...brake....blah...basket...blah...belt....$150".
Then Mr. Gauger (never did get his first name) starts telling way too much information about Kenmore appliances! Did you know that Whirpool makes them? (do I care? not really) And my model is basically the same thing they've been making since 1985... fascinating...only a few knobs are different. They're all the same inside! But if you go into Sears today to buy a new machine they're all fancy schmancy. While Mr Gauger was waxing poetically about washers I was thinking to myself how happy I was for him that he loves his job... He'll be back on Tuesday to actually fix the machine. Can't wait!
1 comment:
Don't you hate that car thing? My car got a ticket the other day just sitting outside my house because it had a bad inspection sticker...I didn't realize it expired in September because I haven't been driving it....I've been taking the bus to school. So I went to start it to bring it to get it inspected and it wouldn't start. After Jon replaced the distributor cap, rotor and all the spark plugs it still wouldn't start so he's still trying to figure out what's wrong with it....
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