Random Thoughts

[mooby]

I didn't really know what to name this thread, so I decided on that. This particular thread isn't about an inquiry I have, it's more just something I felt like talking about, so feel free to ignore or add your own completely random thoughts at will. I was just thinking about this because I've had a rough couple days off from work.

Yesterday I was driving down Route 1 past the entrance to Quantico, and I was going up this hill when all of a sudden my gas pedal just completely quit working. I'd been having acceleration problems for the previous 4 days before it quit working, like whenever the car was stopped and then I hit the gas it would stutter and the car would shake and it would sound like the engine was coughing for about 3-4 seconds and then the car would start accelerating, albeit at a very slow pace. Then yesterday it got worse, it would start accelerating very slowly if I was going faster than 30 mph, at a rate of about 2-3 mph almost every 10 seconds, which is horrible. Then finally the car quit on me as I was on my way to a junkyard to see if I could pick up a couple parts for my car that I needed.

Well needless to say when the gas pedal quit trying I turned on my blinkers and pulled over on the side of the right hand lane. I had a couple friends with me in the car and one of them knew a little something about cars so he looked at it and we couldn't figure anything out, so I had to call a tow truck since my car wouldn't start after that. Well the tow truck ride set me back about 85 bucks. Once the car got to my house my dad (who learned a lot about cars from our old neighbor who was a mechanic at Nissan before becoming manager of the parts dpt.) started looking at it, and today my friend and I went to the junkyard as well as Advance Auto and I ended up shelling out about 100 bucks for all these various little parts, and then on top of that when I started working on the car tonight with my dad it turns out there's a bad spark plug in there too and the distributor cap is failing as well, so now I'm going to be set back even more after I get paid this Friday. My ex-neighbor who still works at Nissan called my dad and his initial guess was that the Mass Air Flow sensor was bad, so me and my dad cleaned it out and I'm hoping that's not it because if it is than the cheapest one from AAP (Advance Auto Parts) is like 150.

This all sucks because not only is it setting me back for all these parts my car may or may not need, but I'm going to have to take the bus to work tomorrow as well as Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too (in the event my dad can't fix it tomorrow).

I work at a retail store right now, about 3 miles away from my house on the other side of 395, and just doing the math right now after checking the bus schedule it looks like I have to leave my house at 1:50 p.m. if I expect to make it to work at 4 p.m., which is ridiculous. It takes me about 20-25 minutes just to walk to the bus stop, and since Omnilink doesn't provide bus times except for the transit center I have to guestimate (effin hard considering the busses in my area NEVER run according to schedule) and hope I get there before the bus does. And then I have to consider the fact that the closest bus stop to my job is about a mile away and I would have to cross Prince William Parkway (3 lanes in both directions, not to mention it will be close to rush hour when I need to cross) so I need to put in additional walking time for that as well.

And then I have to figure out how I'm going to get home. My schedule says I work from 4-11, but I've been working there almost a month now and on average I work anywhere from 4-12:30 to 4-2:30 in the morning. The bus definitely won't be running then, so I'm going to have to pull strings and hope I can get a ride from someone, whether it be family, friends, or coworkers. Luckily for me this should be the easiest part, I know plenty of people that drive but most of them I'm uncertain about whether they would pick me up after midnight to give me a ride home.

It's just stupifying to think that all these is the result of having a few bad car parts. Plus I gotta think about how to get to the Redskins game on Saturday, my neighbor was nice enough to give me a couple tickets for free and since me and my friend's cars aren't working we need another way to get there (he totaled his in Pennsylvania last week).

On the bright side though, there are other people out there that have it worse than me. Today when I was out in the car with my friend I witnessed an accident just ahead of us, a lady driving a Pathfinder in the left hand lane had stopped about half a mile from an extremely busy intersection because traffic turning left was extremely backed up, and the car behind her failed to slow down in time, so that car swerved to the right and this guy driving a 2008/09 Toyota Yaris (I think that's the name of it) failed to stop in time and ended up rear ending the lady in the Pathfinder, needless to say it totaled the Yaris and the guy was extremely dazed and confused, so me and my friend stopped until the fire dpt./paramedics/cops arrived and we stayed to give the cop an account of the story and help out since I witnessed the entire thing just ahead of us. It was the first time I witnessed a car crash in person and honestly I was amazed, I mean the Pathfinder had some scratches and bumps on the back bumper but the Yaris' engine was totally destroyed. The guy driving the Yaris is gonna be screwed, he's going to have to pay off the rest of that car which was pretty damn new and the lady is probably going to make him pay damages to her car as well.