The Neurotic Fishbowl Archives: December 10, 2006

Yay For Responsibility!

Saturday night, Sarah made dinner for about twenty of us at Shelly's house - a yummy, Italian dinner. Ben and I got over there a little late after running errands all day Saturday (and we got to have breakfast at Waffle House, which was delicious and my first time to eat there, unbelievably). We were kind of tired, so bowed out early to go home and watch Babe since I watch it every Christmas and I've really been in the mood to see it again. After watching it (and crying at about fourteen different points in the movie), I headed home.

I had some work done on my car Tuesday since the brake rotors were out and it was suggested that I get a coolant flush as well. I was already spending over $400 and didn't want to spend the other $90, but I figured I might as well since I was getting a bunch of work done already. Even though they said it would only take about an hour and a half, NTB ended up keeping my car for three hours. Annoying, but Foxy came and picked me up and we got some shopping done, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Anyway, so I'm driving home, about at Greenspoint, singing along to my newly installed radio (it went out sometime while I was in Europe), when I notice that my car is running hot - hot, like all the way past the H in the gauge. I'm starting to freak out, wondering if maybe the gauge is broken, and if I should try and make it the last ten miles or so home or if I should stop somewhere and see if it will cool off. It's about that time I'm coming up on Richey Road, so I decided to go ahead and get off the freeway and find somewhere to stop.

Just as I'm making this decision, the check engine light comes on. I start getting over and trying to take the exit when the car starts making this pinging sound. I make it off the freeway, come to the Richey Road intersection thinking over and over "please don't make me catch the light, I need to get through and find somewhere to park," and - of course - catch the damn light. I stop, the car stalls, and smoke starts pouring out of the hood in copious amounts, so much so that I thought that there must be a fire under the hood.

I get out - mind you that I am in my pajama bottoms, a t-shirt, and a hoodie - and start trying to get my phone to work, but it was out of battery power, something that never happens. I'm trying to get my phone to power up when a little red car pulls up next to me with two young boys in it. The driver puts down his window and is all like, "Ma'am, ma'ma, do you need help? Ma'am, you should get out of the car. Ma'am, let us help you."

I go over to their car and ask them for a cell phone. They back up and park behind me and Alan, the driver, gives me his phone so I can call my parents. I call and tell my mom a quick message about how my car is on fire, I'm at Richey and I-45, and to come as quick as they can.

The next fifteen minutes or so I spend in a panic waiting on my mom and dad to get there. Alan and his friend Alex, are absolute angels. They spend the entire time telling me it's going to be okay, not to worry about anything, and asking passing motorists if they have any water that they can put in the car. Alan gets some from one motorists and puts it in the car despite my protests about opening the hood since I was scared that there would be a fire under there and I would kill the nice kid (he was sixteen) that stopped to help me. We even moved my stuff out of my car in case it was going to really burn.

Eventually my parents showed up and we got the car pushed off to the side. We took my dad back home, finally got through to a towing service, and went back to wait for the wrecker. He got there not too long after we did and put my tiny little car onto his big ass flatbed trailer. It's now about 4:15, so by the time we get to the house, wait for the car to be taken off of the trailer, wash my face, and then get to bed, it's almost 5:30.

The next day my mom calls NTB and explains that I had my coolant system flushed on Tuesday and, after driving only about a hundred miles in the meantime, the car overheated and will no longer start. They immediately offer to tow the car to the nearest NTB and take a look at it to see what needs to be done. A few hours later, we talk to a guy and he's tentatively saying it's their fault - it looked like there was something up with the coolant and that most of it had drained away causing the engine to completely lock up. In other words, my car's never going to start again without rebuilding the engine.

Today NTB called and they have accepted full responsibility for my car. Not only will they fix my car, but they're also going to get me a rental car. I'm also hoping that they are going to refund the money I spent on the tow truck and on the coolant flush - the thing that started this whole problem in the first place. I hope that they also refund all the money that I spent on the brake job to help make up for things like being stranded on the side of the road in the early morning hours while thinking that your car is going to explode any minute.

So, all in all, I'm glad that NTB has stepped up and that this isn't going to cost me a ton of money, like I had worried about. It's damn inconvenient, but shit happens and as long as you try to make it right, that's what really counts.

.: 1067 words at 12:00 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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