2022-07-28 — Worst Car Week Ever? 🙃

Could be amnesia, but this week feels like perhaps the worst week of my auto Mechanic career.

I spent much of the morning trying to get the Ford Focus debacle taken care of, getting it towed over to Miguel’s shop, having him look at it, etc.

I also spent a little time trying to help him with one of the cars he had to reciprocate a little for the kindness of getting me to the top of his list.

But I also had to be back home by 10:45 to have hill sister Liz available to take me to the airport, which she graciously did.

Found out on my way to the airport that the timeline for when I need to have another place to live like like about Spring.

I’ll try to have it figured out much earlier than that. 🤞

Anyway, the diagnosis from Miguel with the Focus was blown PCM, which likely means a four-digit bite out of the wallet for me.

At the same time that I was trying to get the Ford Focus stuff figured out, I got a message from the Honda CR-V tranny fluid job from yesterday. I left them with a running, driving car that they test drove and was driving just as before the leak, according to them.

Then this morning I get a text saying the vehicle won’t shift at all.

Lovely.

They had it towed to a shop, and I spoke with the owner, confirming my top-off procedure, which I’d followed step by step from the Honda Service Manual.

But now I have another that looks bad for me and a customer with an issue that apparently was bigger than just an easy top off. I guess they could have damaged it driving low on fluid. Or perhaps whatever caused the sensor to be so loose damaged something else.

At least I left it with them running fine, but gosh… really?!?! Two in one day that are continuations and potentially large issues?!?!

Good gravy.

As if that weren’t all enough, the motorhome guy who resurfaced a free days ago and was accusing me of ripping him off five months ago, threatening awful reviews but who then paid me after I proved going back out there to show him that I wasn’t lying and everything was exactly as I’d said.

Well, today he was accusing me of shoddy work saying that I didn’t clean the oil off his engine even I changed the starter out and that not doing that was causing a ground issue.

First of all, oil on an engine between parts won’t cause a ground issue.

Second of all, I’m OCD to a fault making sure threads are clean and dry when bolting things together, so… no. I can guarantee I did that job right, but he clearly seemed to be looking for any excuse to treat me like a dishonest, sloppy mechanic.

That got my blood a good bit hot there squatted in the airport. I bust my butt to do exceptional work. He also accused me of lying, saying his son said he overheard me saying I wished I had a wire brush.

Gosh. I don’t know what he heard that he thought sounded like that, but I’m a mobile mechanic: I have an entire bag of wire brushes and the like. I’m certainly not lacking those.

Anyway, so… In an effort to just be done with that kind of unreasonable, unpleasable customer, I just refunded him a bunch of money and suggested he find someone else. So…

It’s been a rough week in some ways. I never would have come back to Arkansas had I known the applicants who seemed so promising were actually nearly complete beginners. That’s been a big stressor. And for the first time in my life. I’m noticing what seems to be a faster heartbeat than applies to the physical exertion performed. Guessing it’s the stress.

So much going on in this 🧠.

Funny. I’m both stressed and… calm? Or maybe I’m just resigned? I’m not freaking out over the mechanic issues anymore. I’m just kind of like, “whatever. I’ll deal with whatever.”

Anyway, I’m now sitting in my plane bound for Salt Lake City after a… nearly 8-hour layover in Denver?

Anyone wanna go to Costa Rica with me? I’m toying with going again. 🙃 The deal popped up again. It’d be even cheaper this time with no Covid stuff to deal with.

Gonna be good to see my Aunt tomorrow. She’s getting close to passing, I think, or at least getting to the uncommunicative stage–just slowly deteriorating.

Non sequitors.

Looking forward to my little canyons, mini canyons and plethora of waterfalls. Don’t know what it is about mountains, real mountains. They’re home to me.

Can I own a mountain canyon, please?

And can I build myself a Hobbit home in the side by the snow-melt/spring fed creek?

(sigh)

Well. Plane is rolling. Gonna try and catch some shut eye. I’m way behind on sleep right now.

Love and hugs.

Lift the World

~ stephen