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robotech_masterWell, I took my car in to the local Firestone while I was at work today...figured they could tell me what was wrong with the power steering. Was hopeful that it would be something minor...y'know, this or that seal, that could be replaced for fifty or sixty bucks...painful, but doable.
What I didn't expect, when I called them on my lunchbreak, was for them to ask me, "Uh, did you know your alternator light was on?" I went, "Huh?" because no, I hadn't noticed...and then they told me that the alternator belt was essentially gone...just a few pieces of it left. Which meant the alternator wasn't turning, and my battery wasn't getting recharged. Which meant that it was darned lucky I brought the car in there when I did, or I could have ended up with a dead battery somewhere on the road and no idea what was causing it.
But not so lucky as I had hoped. The alternator belt was going to cost about $70 to fix...and the power steering, well, I had a sinking feeling when I heard the Firestone fellow say it was going to run to "big bucks" to fix. Given that Firestone isn't exactly known for its pricing moderacy and all...apparently the rack and pinion was where the leak was, and they estimated costs of $480.
I called Dad, then, and asked him to call his local garage and see what kind of estimate they could give him. For the alternator belt, due to the nature of the part, they said it would be about the same, so it would be just as well to get it done here. So I did. The power steering, they estimated might be done a couple hundred cheaper, so I'll drive down there tomorrow and let them at it.
It's really annoying...I paid for the alternator belt out of money from the savings account withdrawal--money I had been planning to put toward my (overdue) electricity bill. The parents are going to have to loan me the money for the power steering fix, and it provides them more ammunition to use against me in their "get a job" nagging. I wish it were so simple...
In other news of the annoying, my watch picked today (well, yesterday, actually) to die. We tried a new battery in it this morning, but it didn't work. So I went to pick out a cheap watch in the jewelry department after work today. I looked at the $5 to $15 analog and digital models, and finally went with a fairly decent looking $10 analogue one. My preference would have been something digital, but all the cheap digital watches just looked so garish. Gone are the days of the simple LCD display with a couple of push buttons; these things had enough molded plastic on them to do any action figure proud. They screamed "tacky".
The funny thing is, back in the early days, when I wanted to get a digital watch, my Dad claimed that they weren't all that great, that people ended up mentally converting the digital time back to analog in their heads anyway. Well, it's funny, but I'll be darned if I haven't found myself doing exactly the other way around now...looking at my analogue wristwatch and converting it to digital in my head.
Anyway, the watch is decent. It'll tell the time, it has glow in the dark hands...no day and date function, but then, I have my cell phone and my PDA with me, too...at this point, all the watch needs to do is provide the time at a glance. When I get a job, then I'll see about something more costly.
What I didn't expect, when I called them on my lunchbreak, was for them to ask me, "Uh, did you know your alternator light was on?" I went, "Huh?" because no, I hadn't noticed...and then they told me that the alternator belt was essentially gone...just a few pieces of it left. Which meant the alternator wasn't turning, and my battery wasn't getting recharged. Which meant that it was darned lucky I brought the car in there when I did, or I could have ended up with a dead battery somewhere on the road and no idea what was causing it.
But not so lucky as I had hoped. The alternator belt was going to cost about $70 to fix...and the power steering, well, I had a sinking feeling when I heard the Firestone fellow say it was going to run to "big bucks" to fix. Given that Firestone isn't exactly known for its pricing moderacy and all...apparently the rack and pinion was where the leak was, and they estimated costs of $480.
I called Dad, then, and asked him to call his local garage and see what kind of estimate they could give him. For the alternator belt, due to the nature of the part, they said it would be about the same, so it would be just as well to get it done here. So I did. The power steering, they estimated might be done a couple hundred cheaper, so I'll drive down there tomorrow and let them at it.
It's really annoying...I paid for the alternator belt out of money from the savings account withdrawal--money I had been planning to put toward my (overdue) electricity bill. The parents are going to have to loan me the money for the power steering fix, and it provides them more ammunition to use against me in their "get a job" nagging. I wish it were so simple...
In other news of the annoying, my watch picked today (well, yesterday, actually) to die. We tried a new battery in it this morning, but it didn't work. So I went to pick out a cheap watch in the jewelry department after work today. I looked at the $5 to $15 analog and digital models, and finally went with a fairly decent looking $10 analogue one. My preference would have been something digital, but all the cheap digital watches just looked so garish. Gone are the days of the simple LCD display with a couple of push buttons; these things had enough molded plastic on them to do any action figure proud. They screamed "tacky".
The funny thing is, back in the early days, when I wanted to get a digital watch, my Dad claimed that they weren't all that great, that people ended up mentally converting the digital time back to analog in their heads anyway. Well, it's funny, but I'll be darned if I haven't found myself doing exactly the other way around now...looking at my analogue wristwatch and converting it to digital in my head.
Anyway, the watch is decent. It'll tell the time, it has glow in the dark hands...no day and date function, but then, I have my cell phone and my PDA with me, too...at this point, all the watch needs to do is provide the time at a glance. When I get a job, then I'll see about something more costly.