meetFred.com

3 Tows in One Week. No car. Feeling cranky.

Posted 31st May 2007, mid-afternoon

I drive junk. My current van is held together with band stickers, duct tape and zip-ties. I've had 9 or 10 junky Dodge or Plymouth mini-vans since I gave my last Toyota van away. I bet the old Toyota is still running. It had 260,000 miles on it with no signs of slowing down when I said, "good-bye" to it.
I'd still have it except my children were all born with legs and those legs were growing. Toyota vans don't have a place for legs.
So, it died 30+ minutes from home three times between Saturday, May 19 to Saturday, May 25. Twice I had to call a tow truck and the third time my good buddy Gordon towed me with his truck, a nylon strap, and a zip-tie. (Don't leave home without duct tape and zip-ties.)
Every time it's fixed, it's not really fixed. I have parked it in the drive-way and given it a vote of no confidence. I tried to start it yesterday. It actually started. It was taunting me. It died after 30 seconds.
Did I mention that the week before the aforementioned vehicle croaked it managed to get me within the jurisdiction of the Greene County Sheriff's Department where one of those fine officers pulled me over and wrote me a ticket for expired tags? I thought when the lady at the BMV place said, in December 2006, that I was good 'til next year she meant IN A YEAR. What she really meant was that I was good until my birthday, 2 months later, in February, 2007. Yes, I realize I could have looked at the date on the sticker but that would have been exercising a reasonable level of personal responsibility.
Anyway, that was on May 12. I paid $40 for a new little sticker (date noted) on May 14th. I sent the fine employees of the Greene County Sheriff's Department a check for $95 on May 18th. The following day the mechanical death spiral began.
My mortgage is due and I spent a hefty chunk of my mortgage money on a ticket and tags. I have nothing to drive. Cornerstone is less than a month away. Non-refundable tickets are paid for. I'm not feeling the joy.
Oh, and the mail carrier dropped by a few minutes ago. My love gift to the Greene County Sheriff's Department was returned for insufficient postage. How did I miss a flipping postal increase? Anyway, The fine was due by the 21st so I guess they just take my driver's license or something now. What the hey. You only live once. Might as well do it on foot.

7 Comments

Posted by CrazyMattyH, 7 hours, 5 minutes after the fact (Report user)

dang, that really sux. that lady at the BMV needs to get talked to so that that doesn't happen to anybody else.

Posted by BlazinBands, 8 hours, 28 minutes after the fact (Report user)

Leemo Loves You :)

Blazin sent a bulletin, asking for a van that seats, like, a bajillion and one people.

~Leemo

Posted by ray, 15 hours, 49 minutes after the fact (Report user)

Despite the Shakespearean nature of all of the above, that was one hell of a well-written blog.

Posted by happydaisy, 16 hours, 26 minutes after the fact (Report user)

that's crazy. I hope everything starts working out better for you. Sounds like you need to have a heart to heart talk with the van. Tell it you need to get your act together or your getting kick to the curb.

Posted by Pure-Metal-Cindy, 1 day, 9 hours after the fact (Report user)

I learned 20+ years ago that cars, vans, mini-vans and Honda and Kawasaki motorcycles all have very sensitive egos. Positive reinforcement is the most effective tool to avoid scarring their fragile self-image.
A threat, even one which will certainly be carried out, is likely to leave the vehicle cowering, uselessly, at the curb.
You'll get more mileage (pardon the pun) by looking for opportunities to praise your vehicle. For example, if my mini-van made the desired choice when I turned the ignition key (actually started the engine), I would casually pat the dashboard and tell her (all passenger vehicles are female), "Good job! Let's see if we can do that again when it's time to leave the grocery store parking lot."
I could go on and on but it's late and the kids could care less how late I was up. Somebody's got to wake the rooster so he can do his thing and my children have taken that burdensome task upon themselves.
Just one thing I guess I should warn you about. None of the above applies to Harley Davidson Motorcycles. Harleys are just so bad to the piston rod that one will run like the devil himself is on their tailpipe until you tick it off. (I have no clue whether Harley's are male or female.) Once it's fed up with you, that's it. It'll flip you the invisible Harley bird (You can't see it but it's there) and sit there and rust before it ever performs for you again.

Posted by heislockwood, 3 days, 16 hours after the fact (Report user)

Haha, oh wow. Sorry to hear about your crap luck with vehicles. Vans take a beating real quick. It's messed up how a truck from the early 80's will run perfectly, but a van you bought 2 weeks ago will fall apart. Hopefully with all of your community connections and good will someone can hook you up with a good deal.

Posted by GatheringGrounds, 3 days, 22 hours after the fact (Report user)

Thanks for caring! I love Fred!
Wish I could get by with hauling the kids around, strapped down with bungies, in the back of a pick-up. Wouldn't have to deal with the Happy Meal boxes in the cab. And that's just ONE plus.

I WON! I have the Best Mess!

Posted 31st January 2008, mid-afternoon

I submitted a photo of my studio to the Dayton Daily News Best Mess contest. They chose the 8 best messes from all the entries & ran a poll to determine the winner. I WON! I get a whole house cleaning...

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