Post-Holiday Blog

You know, there's a thing about holidays. I don't know exactly what that thing is, but I'm sure there's some sort of a thing.

I think the current thing is that the holidays have given me a little time to, well, not to put too fine a point on it, loaf.

No acro means no acrowinners, which means no Tuesday blog leading to the acrowinners, which means...well, you know what it means.

Plus, as you may have guessed, I seem to be under a little stress. Steering Wheel Cleanup has not gone as smoothly as I was expecting. And to be frank, I wasn't expecting it to be very smooth.

But I got a little energetic last night and cleaned around the Poderosa, changed my bed linens, did some laundry, made some tuna salad, looked at my pictures from July 4th, and tried to be fairly productive. And get ready for today, aka my afternoon off, when I'd be having to deal with SWC in earnest.

Here's what's happened since I last left you to loaf. Good ol' Dave, at the dealership, called me to tell me why I, at 65mph, suddenly had the astounding ability to lift my steering wheel over my head. Seems there's something called "a nut" (I'm getting technical here, so bear with me) that holds my steering wheel on. And for some reason, that nut decided to back itself off the rod that kept my steering wheel where it's supposed to be, a good 12 or so inches below my head.

On that first phone call, Dave tried to tell me that the nut (again, hope I'm not being too technical) came off because it had once been taken off and replaced and not replaced very well. I had trouble with this explanation right off the bat because 1) I've never had any work done on my steering before, and 2) it just felt a little "passing the buck"ish to me. But I left it at that because as we all know, I'm a weenie and just couldn't bring myself to argue.

Enter Dad.

Today Dear Old Dad went with me to the dealership to help me get more stuff out the podmobile, talk to Dave face-to-face, and look at new podmobiles. When I went to get the keys from Dave, the real Dave (my dad) decided he was going to discuss this further.

And so the two Daves had a talk, and this time the story changed a bit. This time it wasn't a done deal that the nut (it's called a nut, you know) was replaced badly, it could have come from the factory like that. That seemed even a little more "passing the buck"ish to me, or at least more "I'm talking to you face-to-face now, so I need to do some fancy footwork here since you know your steering hasn't been worked on and if it was we're the ones who did the work"ish. And so I left one Dave, with another in tow, not knowing what to think or feel.

Real Dave and I then went over and looked at podmobiles and other cars too, and the prices were, well, in a word, outrageous. And I decided then and there that no podmobile of mine would be coming from that dealership. So I told my dad, "Hell, let's go home, call Original Dealership (where the podmobile was actually purchased), tell them our sad tale, and see what happens."

And that's just what we did. And we got a really nice Darrin on the phone (or was it Durwood. or Drebbin. or Darwin.). He told us about podmobiles in stock, price ranges (a good - get this - $8000 cheaper than what we were looking at - and these were 2006s instead of the 2005s we'd seen earlier), and what was the best route to go via the not-completely-dead-but-definitely-limping original podmobile.

So the decision was made. Saturday I'll be schlepping it to C'burg to get a new podmobile. We're going to have the original fixed and use it as a paltry (but anything's better than nothing - and remember that thought for later) trade-in.

In the meantime, today I phoned up my new friend Hope at Podmobile Inc. I wanted to make a last-ditch effort to see if anything could be done via the hell that my June 28th became.

Hope told me what the dealership told her, and that they basically had no idea why my steering wheel went gonzo on me. She said there'd been no prior reports of this happening, which could have been because anyone else it happened to was dead and couldn't make the call, but I didn't say that out loud. She said she took the case to her manager and he said the same thing. There was an uncomfortable silence, and since I didn't know what else to say, I told her I was trading the vehicle off, and had been toying with the idea of trading it off even before I went drifting into a guardrail with tractor trailers flying at me.

She then asked me if I was going with Inc. for my new vehicle, and I told her yes. (And please don't ask me why - I can't help it, other than the fact that I almost died in it, my Inc. vehicle has been the easiest-to-own and best vehicle I've ever had.) So my new friend Hope told me that if I did indeed buy a new vehicle from Inc., she'd make sure I got a check for $500 for my trouble. Which will just about cover the repair on the original podmobile.

So I guess if anyone asks you out there what a human life's worth, $500 should be the answer you give. But to be honest, I feel like I've scored a small victory, because to be honest again, ever since that first Dave phone call I've been expecting a big fat nothing as far as any kind of "goodwill gesture" is concerned. (Hope even used that term yet again for me, "goodwill gesture." I think I'm going to start incorporating it into my vernacular at TheCompanyIWorkFor.) So once again, I guess anything is better than nothing.

And that's where things stand right now. Stay tuned for any new announcements. $8000 cheaper for a vehicle a year newer. Wow. And I'll be poor for the next four years, but I've been preparing for that, so I'll try not to whine about it.

Oh, and tomorrow's Friday. This is one week I'll be happy to see the end of.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* On July 4 as I was loafing when I should have been getting ready to go to B'burg, I caught an episode of everyone's favorite tear-fest, "Little House on the Prairie." Normally, I give this show a very wide berth, but who should I see immediately after turning it on but Chuck McCann. Chuck played Antonapoulos in "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter," that wonderful movie starring none other than Mr Arkin (that's Mr F Arkin to you). Mr Antonapoulos was a deaf-mute. And in this episode of "Little House," Mr McCann was playing - a deaf-mute! Was it an homage? Is it all Chuck can play? Is he really a deaf mute? (No, I know he's not.) Anyway, the town was up in arms over having a bell for their church, and everyone was fighting everyone else over it, so Mr Antonapoulos on the Prairie, who just happened to be a tinker, went away while everyone was fighting and dammit, he made them a bell. And everyone cried.
* Oh, and speaking of Mr F, he's supposed to be on "Will and Grace" tonight. I can't believe I'll have to watch that show, but I'll be there, baby.