HSMITH Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Monday I show up for work, teaching a class. A technical class I haven't taught for 8 or 9 months, no prep time, snowing and traffic is a bear so I show up with about 10 minutes left to prep. The IS weenies won't let me manage my PC, so it goes into update overdrive and won't play nice at all for the first half of the day. Wasted ALL my prep time, and half of the first day of classes. Pissed me RIGHT off...... Tuesday, things come back a bit and the day goes OK. Pull out onto the main road from the office in a BLIZZARD and my truck jumps, bangs and shakes. Pull right over and get out (dressed to teach classes) and the front driveline is hanging, the front U-joint failed. Pull it back into the shop, have a co-worker bring me a U-joint, put it in and get home about 9pm cold, wet, dirty and PISSED. Wednesday, have a good morning, get out of the house early because the traffic is going to be a problem. Get about 15 miles from home, roads are getting worse and traffic sucks, pull the truck into 4 wheel drive and BANG hop jump. Bad sounds, was only going 15 mph or so so how bad could it be? Get out, dressed to teach class, front driveline is hanging. Damn, get a strap out to tie it up, will head to work in 2wd and worry about it later. Get a strap, figure out how to tie up the driveline without bathing in salt and mud, go to do it and see oil. uh-oh. Transfer case is leaking, has a hole in the case, no, scratch that, the case is broken bad. 7:15am. Call my wife, she is waiting to put the kids on the bus, gives me a tow truck number. Call them, no problem, they can pick it up shortly and take it to the house. Wife is going to pick me up and get me to work. Bus is late, so wife is late, get to work late and the class is there waiting on ME. PISSED me off!!! Get over it, class goes OK. get a voicemail about 4pm from the tow company, "we went to get your truck and it wasn't there, we called the sheriff and it has been impounded since it was left on the road all day". Pissed isn't the word, words can't describe it really. Call the impound lot, $153 to come and get it out of impound right now, plus $10 per day if you leave it. Now my truck is not only broken it is in jail and needs to be bailed out. Impound lot has certain hours that I can't meet because I am teaching class all week. Thursday goes OK, but the residual pissed off lingers...... Today, I get done with the class and try to schedule a tow truck to meet me at the impound lot. The company that screwed me by not picking it up for over 8 hours wants $150 to go get it, won't set a time that they can be there, and won't give me a break of any kind. FY, and I will tell EVERYONE that will listen about the service you have given me. Call around some more and find one that will schedule the tow. Set a time, go pay the bail to get my truck out of jail and an hour later the tow still isn't there. Call them and the lady said the driver is lost, must have been the detours.... Detours? No detours between here and there, where is he? Wrong end of the city. Nice.... Gave the dispatcher my cell, had the driver call me, talked him into where he needed to be. He loads my truck and needs directions to the next one he is picking up so he can go get it before he takes mine home. Turn around and drive off. He shows up at my house 3 and a half HOURS later, only 20 miles mind you, and can't land it in the garage. Nice. Dumbasses that impounded it didn't bother to turn the flashers off so my dual Optima batteries are DEAD, even better. Hope they didn't freeze in the cold overnight last night and get ruined. Repairs are going to cost almost $2000 doing the work myself, and I won't have enough parts to do it until mid week next week. This week was just a great big shit sandwich, wake up and take a bite, chew on it all day and wait for the next bite tomorrow. Scheduled to be out of town all week next week so the heavy parts are going to sit outside in the weather until I come home. Nice..... I hate cars, trucks, vans, transportation in general. Hope next week goes a little smoother... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JThompson Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 (edited) Monday I show up for work, teaching a class. A technical class I haven't taught for 8 or 9 months, no prep time, snowing and traffic is a bear so I show up with about 10 minutes left to prep. The IS weenies won't let me manage my PC, so it goes into update overdrive and won't play nice at all for the first half of the day. Wasted ALL my prep time, and half of the first day of classes. Pissed me RIGHT off......Tuesday, things come back a bit and the day goes OK. Pull out onto the main road from the office in a BLIZZARD and my truck jumps, bangs and shakes. Pull right over and get out (dressed to teach classes) and the front driveline is hanging, the front U-joint failed. Pull it back into the shop, have a co-worker bring me a U-joint, put it in and get home about 9pm cold, wet, dirty and PISSED. Wednesday, have a good morning, get out of the house early because the traffic is going to be a problem. Get about 15 miles from home, roads are getting worse and traffic sucks, pull the truck into 4 wheel drive and BANG hop jump. Bad sounds, was only going 15 mph or so so how bad could it be? Get out, dressed to teach class, front driveline is hanging. Damn, get a strap out to tie it up, will head to work in 2wd and worry about it later. Get a strap, figure out how to tie up the driveline without bathing in salt and mud, go to do it and see oil. uh-oh. Transfer case is leaking, has a hole in the case, no, scratch that, the case is broken bad. 7:15am. Call my wife, she is waiting to put the kids on the bus, gives me a tow truck number. Call them, no problem, they can pick it up shortly and take it to the house. Wife is going to pick me up and get me to work. Bus is late, so wife is late, get to work late and the class is there waiting on ME. PISSED me off!!! Get over it, class goes OK. get a voicemail about 4pm from the tow company, "we went to get your truck and it wasn't there, we called the sheriff and it has been impounded since it was left on the road all day". Pissed isn't the word, words can't describe it really. Call the impound lot, $153 to come and get it out of impound right now, plus $10 per day if you leave it. Now my truck is not only broken it is in jail and needs to be bailed out. Impound lot has certain hours that I can't meet because I am teaching class all week. Thursday goes OK, but the residual pissed off lingers...... Today, I get done with the class and try to schedule a tow truck to meet me at the impound lot. The company that screwed me by not picking it up for over 8 hours wants $150 to go get it, won't set a time that they can be there, and won't give me a break of any kind. FY, and I will tell EVERYONE that will listen about the service you have given me. Call around some more and find one that will schedule the tow. Set a time, go pay the bail to get my truck out of jail and an hour later the tow still isn't there. Call them and the lady said the driver is lost, must have been the detours.... Detours? No detours between here and there, where is he? Wrong end of the city. Nice.... Gave the dispatcher my cell, had the driver call me, talked him into where he needed to be. He loads my truck and needs directions to the next one he is picking up so he can go get it before he takes mine home. Turn around and drive off. He shows up at my house 3 and a half HOURS later, only 20 miles mind you, and can't land it in the garage. Nice. Dumbasses that impounded it didn't bother to turn the flashers off so my dual Optima batteries are DEAD, even better. Hope they didn't freeze in the cold overnight last night and get ruined. Repairs are going to cost almost $2000 doing the work myself, and I won't have enough parts to do it until mid week next week. This week was just a great big shit sandwich, wake up and take a bite, chew on it all day and wait for the next bite tomorrow. Scheduled to be out of town all week next week so the heavy parts are going to sit outside in the weather until I come home. Nice..... I hate cars, trucks, vans, transportation in general. Hope next week goes a little smoother... Damn Howard. I thought I was having a shit week with the flu. I lost some money from missing work, but I'd say you def had the worse week. Sorry to hear about your troubles... Edited February 16, 2008 by JThompson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 And through all of that you still managed to ship me my new, super-cool Holy Grail, Ultra mag...not sure how you did it, but damn man, you deserve a vacation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 HSMITH, I hope like heck things get better for you. I WILL PRAY THEY DO! I may not be all that religious, but I figure, hey you need it! Good luck and may God have mercy on you. JZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhunter Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Just think, as long as you are looking DOWN at the flowers, it is ALL good!!! Sorry you had a crappy week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boz1911 Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Damn Howard, I'm sorry for your week, surely it can only get better from here on. Keep the ole head high! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Howard, just go polish the Bling Bling Pimped out 6in....If that cant bring you out of the funk then tell your wife you need a backrub or something....... I hope you have better results than I usually do.... hang in there, DougC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajarrel Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Mr. Smith, I sure hope next week is better for you dj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 I'll admit I had a mildly stressful week, and about half-way thru it I got rational and decided to calm down a little... then I read this post and realized my week was business-as-usual compared to the action in Wisconsin this week!!!!! Forgive me, God, for even a MOMENT of self-pity compared to Howard's Dante's Inferno plight this week. You have my profoundest sympathy. Truly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyinBlue Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Howard, I am so sorry that you had such a crappy week and sorry to hear about your vehicle going out of commision. Did you ever notice that whenever something breaks underneath your car it's always in the rain or the snow. Seems like you never get to crawl under a broken vehicle on a warm sunny day. Makes my waiting for that UPS package seem like a minor little inconvenience. I wish I could send Jim over to help you...he's good with the car stuff. ~Nanci~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Sounds like Howard needs a Calgon bath .............. or maybe just a liquor one would do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulW Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 The ONLY thing I have found to go good with shit sandwich's is BEER! Well you have to think it's gonna get better from here right. Keep your chin up Howard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cheely Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Ouch. You sure seem to get the best things all happening at once Howard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted February 16, 2008 Author Share Posted February 16, 2008 Thanks for the support!!!! More or less, I am used to it. I seems I can run a while on cruise control with things generally going just fine, but it seems that when things go bad they go bad in batches for me. As I get older and calmer things like this week are a bit easier to take, my temper isn't what it used to be.... Oh well, it is what it is and I can't change what happened, I always come through it, get everything fixed somehow, and keep plugging away. Sometimes I just need a good rant to get over the pissed off and get back on the path to taking care of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckbradley Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Howard, when I get to feeling this way I stop & think about actually how good things are and how insignificant some of those inconveniences are. And I think it was somebody here on the forum that said problems in life are part of what makes it life and without the bad we would not appreciate the good. Granted I take too long to remember this most of the time myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Places like forums are good, though, because we find that 1.) we're not alone, 2.) we're not the only ones who experience occasional batches of hell that got loose, and 3.) we're able to de-fuse our horrid experiences by chatting about them, airing them and viewing them differently as a result. Not that the experience in question becomes any less horrid, but de-fusing our subjective implosion about it with friends can really be helpful. <insert group hug emoticon here> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhunter Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 OK, being we are getting philosophical here.... Since my first trip to Delhi, India in 1985, anytime things got bad, I just remembered what it was like in Delhi and that put things in perspective. Being I was in Delhi again last week for the first time since 1985, I can tell you with clarity, unless a friend/family member or you is dying, things can be a LOT worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket35 Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Damn bro- I thought I had bad luck with cars! Sounds like the worst is over now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Bell Posted February 18, 2008 Share Posted February 18, 2008 Damn that sure is a run of bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 When my life goes like this I put my head down and wait for the real trouble to start. Sorry man, hang in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Gundry Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 My condolences on the week - I know how shitty weeks go - check out my 'school' thread. Some info for you: Optima (or any gel-cell for that matter) batteries don't freeze - at least not in the temps we see around here most of the time - similar to a 9V battery, the medium inside is a paste (kinda like a wet sponge) - so they should be fine. Towing service - were you paying cash? If is was AAA or on the insurance company - they do to towing companies what Walmart does to the supply chain, only worse. For an example, I'm a mechanic in a small town. Our shop labor rate is $76/hour. In-town towing costs $65. AAA only wants to pay $25 for the same tow. GE Financial (and other underwriters) pay ~$35. Needless to say, that's business we don't really appreciate, and are only willing to do it if we are COMPLETELY dead in the shop. That info aside - that is some horrible service you received - hope you have better luck next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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