2003.07.05

Trifecta

Comments

I guess trouble always comes in threes. At least, I hope so! I’m not quite ready for more just yet.

On the heels of the recent plumbing adventures came word that B.’s computer had just up and died on her. Apparently the power connector worked its way loose from its home on the motherboard and Compaq’s only remedy for this is to replace it wholesale. Since it’s out of warranty, well, time to start looking for new computers.

I’m still going to try and see if we can’t get it fixed, but timing-wise, this was really unfortunate. B.’s classes start on Monday and life will be pretty difficult without computer access. Sigh!

As if that weren’t enough, my lovely little Altima decided that it had had enough of America’s political landscape and chose to die just over the Canadian border. And I do mean just — we were still twenty feet or so before the Customs booths when the engine suddenly went silent. I’m wondering what went through the guard’s mind as we wheeled the car through the lane on foot. Maybe that’s a common sight for her. Who knows?

It was late afternoon, so things were looking pretty grim. At best, we could have gotten it towed and looked at the next morning. That meant an unplanned night in Vancouver; not a terrible prospect, but given circumstances, still irritating. That my conclusion after spending a good half hour repeating yellow pages exercises of a couple nights before, except this time with garages and towing companies. Definitely not looking forward to seeing the roaming charges on my next phone bill!

However, things start to get happier at this point. The tow truck driver brought some diagnostic equipment and determined that the main problem was that the battery wasn’t charging in idle (yay for long border waits!) but was getting juice just fine when I was moving. That meant that, with care, we could go ahead with our plans in Vancouver (minus a couple hours) and head back home to get serviced somewhere much closer to home. Yay for silver linings!

Now, you’d think based on my history that Canada has it in for me, but I have to say that everyone was super-helpful to me today, which made me feel better about an otherwise horrible situation. Special kudos to Rav, who made her way down from the city to come pick us up when things were looking especially bad.

That out of the way, the rest of the evening was great: dinner at Tojo’s, lucking into a signed Delerium poster, and ice cream — never forget the ice cream! — though given the choice, I certainly don’t plan on choosing curry-flavor again. And doing it all with friends: well, as they say at Mastercard, that’s priceless.

On our return through the border I just shifted into neutral and opened the throttle every once in awhile. My neighbors in line probably thought I was crazy, if they noticed at all. I was just happy to be able to drive home!

As far as trouble goes, that’s three. I hope the world is keeping count!


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