Car rants, life and craziness, some humor and a great movie.

Good evening!

Let me tell you about yesterday and today.

First of all – because I just need to vent and get it all off my chest, and 2nd – because you love me and you want to hear what’s going on, right? ha. Just kidding about that last one, but seriously – I need to just vent, and maybe make you laugh a little.

My car – (You all know Maggie, right?) – decided it was going to start giving me big headaches a few months ago.

I took it to a shop a few blocks from my house – because the guy and his wife are new to the area and need business, and I’m all for supporting small businesses. So, I tried them when my car was acting up months ago.

The husband said he loves working on these cars because in his country – that’s all they drive out there, and he has a lot of experience fixing them. Passat’s, BMW’s, Lexus, etc. – he enjoys the foreign cars. So, when I took mine to him, his wife said he was excited and more than happy to work on it.

He told me it was a bad Spark plug making it do what it was doing, and he changed it for me.

A simple $100 fix.

Although – it wasn’t that.

A few days later – it kept doing what it had been doing, and I was a bit irritated, but everyone makes mistakes and I decided not to hold it against him. I did let him know that it was still doing the same thing, and he asked me to bring it by again.

I went back in and heard it was the Timing chain and something about Cam Shaft Bank 1, as well as a Sensor.

Why he didn’t mention that in the first place – no idea, but maybe he didn’t dig deep into the engine part of it like he did the 2nd time I went back. Maybe the Timing chain and the other things weren’t an issue the first time. Who knows?!

Life got busy and I just forgot about all of it – because it wasn’t acting up all of the time. Here and there. It was easy to forget about it since it wasn’t consistent.

A few weeks ago, it started acting up again and dashboard lights start going on – lighting up like a Christmas tree, but again – not all of the time. Still, it was aggravating and when the dashboard lights lit up – my car would violently shake, and I had to slow down, and it would stop. If the EPC light wasn’t on and the engine light wasn’t flashing – it wasn’t shaking “that bad”, but it was still shaking. Sometimes, I’d get a smooth ride, but for the most part – it shook.

I called this guy’s wife the day before last night and asked her if I could come in the first thing in the morning and since they already quoted me a price, I just told her to have her husband order the parts and let’s get this done. She told me, “Yes! Come in tomorrow morning and he will work on it”. I was told he needed all day with my car to completely fix it, so I was going to sit there with my laptop, watch movies, and just wait for as long as he needed me to.

His shop is cozy, he and his wife are lovely people, so I didn’t mind.

However – when I went in, he had no idea what I was talking about, and I guess his wife didn’t mention anything to him. He was working on another car and told me he can definitely take care of my car next week. I told him it wasn’t going to wait until next week, and that it’s violently shaking now – anytime I drive it – instead of once-in-a-while. He told me he can’t do the Timing chain or sensor that day, but he did say if I come back at 2 PM, he’ll figure out why it’s shaking and see if he can at least take care of that for me.

Being irritated and wanting to drive this car onto the middle of the lake and leave it there – I told him I’d be back at 2 PM, and I did just that. I drove it right onto the lake and left it there.

I walked right back onto the solid land and prayed the ice would melt and take my car down, so I’d never have to see it again.

No, I didn’t do that.

I’m just joking of course – but – that’s not a bad idea. 😁

Instead, I agreed to come back to him at 2 PM to have the violent shaking checked out.

I got impatient though, it was -30 outside and felt like -53 here in Minnesota, and once I went into the house, I knew I wouldn’t want to come back out. So, I called a shop further away and asked if they could check it out. I was thrilled when they told me to bring it in and they’d figure it out for me. I asked how much and I was told “free”.

Many shops charge a fee to figure things out, so when they said they’d do it for free – I should have known it was too good to be true!

I get there and the guy I talked to on the phone said he didn’t understand what I was asking over the phone, and that he’s sorry, but for them to put it on the code scanner and figure out what the problem is pointing to – it would be $65.

Me: You’ve got to be kidding! $65 to give me some codes that pop up and figure out what it could be based on the codes?

THEY DO THAT FOR FREE AT AUTO ZONE DUDE!!!!!!!!

He said they do a deep dive into it based on the codes, and I laughed and told him I was NOT paying $65 for something Auto Zone does for free. Really free. I walked out.

I went and got Starbucks because when I need to figure shit out – it requires a good cup of Coffee. lol.

I sat in the mall parking lot yesterday and called so many different shops at 9 AM.

Some were closed due to the cold weather and weren’t opening until Monday. Some were so booked, they couldn’t get me in until next week, and the one who told me to come in, and he’d be happy to check the car out for me – was just a muffler shop and said he could put in on the scanner for free and pull codes to at least give me an idea of what it could be. Again – Auto Zone was right by me and I could do that there, but I already have codes from another shop weeks ago that did that.

Are you getting a headache just reading my dilemma? I had a headache going through it.

I was talking to my aunt, and she asked if I could take an UBER or LYFT to work just for one day if I couldn’t get anyone to look at my car.

That would be great – IF WE HAD ANY OUT HERE!!! We literally live in the middle of nowhere and there’s barely any taxis that come to our area or we have to pay over $100 for those. She calmed me down. She really did calm me down, because I was ready to call my car company and just tell them to get this car out of my sight. Keep it. Take it away and keep it. I’ll pay whatever I owe on it still – as long as I don’t have to look at it anymore. I was done with repairs and issues, etc.

After many calls – I finally got ahold of one shop, and the guy was such a sweetheart. He heard my issues going on with the car, the annoyance in my voice, and giggled – telling me, “Come on in. I got you!”. I thanked him a few times and told him I’d be there within 20 minutes – shaking all the way there.

Tony’s shop was a huge garage with an added-on spot for the mechanics and their desks.

Tony saved my life, and he was honest, respectful, and amazing at making sure my car was safe.

He did hook it up to the scanner and came up with a few different codes that pointed to a Sensor needing to be replaced, as well as something to do with the Timing chain, so at least I know the shop by my house is right this time. Tony couldn’t change the Timing chain because he didn’t want to mess with my car when it came to deep repairs, but he was more than happy to show me I totally needed an oil change, absolutely needed a new filter, something about a coil I believe it was, and he let me know that my car rims / tires and underneath – was fully packed with snow and ice.

He said that could be causing the violent shaking, and nothing major. So, he did all those minor repairs, changed the oil, and thawed out my car’s undercarriage, as well as getting all the ice and snow from around the tires, etc. He looked under the car to make sure everything was good, nothing needed to be replaced under there and told me it looks great. He did say if I wanted him to – he would send me up to another area to get the Timing chain taken care of by his good buddy who loves working on foreign cars, but I told him I have someone I’m supposed to have fix it – this week coming up. (The guy from the shop a few blocks down from where I live).

I had a lot of shops telling me they don’t work on foreign cars because a lot of these cars are so complicated to fix, and parts are hard to find sometimes, so I ran into that issue as well. Not a lot of mechanics out here want to mess with this damn car. I called car dealerships and none of them wanted to mess with it, and the closest dealer that specializes in cars like mine – is hours away, so I was thankful Tony came through for me yesterday and took time out to get me in.

I froze my ass off sitting in his garage because again – it’s just a garage. Barely any heat, and for three 1/2 hours, I tried to ignore that fact that the heat was almost zero. It was ice cold in the shop, and he apologized for it. Part of me wanted to say he should move the computer desks and all the stuff into the bigger garage and use the add-on as a customer waiting area with tons of heat and Coffee, but I kept my suggestions to myself.

At one point, one guy was sitting in the office with me – by his desk – and the lights in this add-on garage went off.

When another mechanic came in and asked if we wanted him to hold the door open for light, I was the first one to yell out, “hell no!”. They laughed. I told him I don’t mind being in the dark waiting for my car, but he better not open that door.

When my car was done, Tony test drove it and he came back into the garage flying. I wanted to joke and tell him, “That’s a little fast whipping into the garage in someone else’s car like that”, but I left it alone. 😁 He fixed the shaking issue, and it was something so simple. I drove home happy, NOT SHAKING and grateful for him. It hasn’t done that shaking stuff since, and I’m hoping once I get the Timing chain, Cam shaft junk, and sensor changed – the lights on the dashboard will go away and the car will drive right again.

If you’re still here reading me vent – THANK YOU! ha.

Love you all.

So today, – I was up early for work and my little guy spilled water on the floor.

No problem – because he got a towel fast and cleaned it up. I didn’t get mad. I stayed calm. I continued to get ready for work.

He then went to throw the towel in the dirty clothes, missed the hamper and somehow managed to get the towel into his bedroom where it landed, and he knocked over his cat’s food. DEEP BREATHS! DEEP BREATHS!

I decided I wasn’t going to say anything to him, but I grabbed the vacuum and cleaned it up myself.

I had to get to work, and upsetting myself that early was not going to help. Me saying something to him and getting him all upset – was not going to help. It was an accident and we had a small talk about NOT throwing things.

Work went by fast and everything was fine.

I came home and realized I didn’t pay my car insurance, so I had to take care of that.

My older son wanted cupcakes, so after making dinner – I whipped up a batch of Oreo Cupcakes – that – by the way – I made an hour ago and he still hasn’t touched. 😶

I finally had a few minutes after dinner and cupcakes – to say hello to Simba (my little dude’s cat) and realized he was half-closing one of his eyes. All I saw in my mind – was dollar signs because now – I’d have to take him to the vet if that didn’t go away. I am pretty sure he got something stuck in his eye or he scratched it – either one.

After the day I had yesterday and the morning I had today, I had cupcakes untouched on the stove cooling off, I had a cat with an eye issue, paperwork that needs to be filled out for something, my daughter asking me when we’re going dress shopping for her Winter formal dance in a few weeks, and I work early again tomorrow morning.

I am exhausted!!!!

I keep forgetting to pick up bins to start packing because I’m pretty hopeful that we’re moving this summer, and I’m just ready for bed.

It’s currently 8 PM and I think after I put my little guy down in his room for bed, I’m going to watch a movie until I knock out.

And – if you’re still here reading all of this, GOD BLESS YOU – because I don’t even know who I’m talking to right now – or if anyone just clicked out of this post the first 20 lines – but if you made it all the way to the end – YOU MEAN THE WORLD TO ME!!!!

I’m sure many of you can relate to the everyday hustles and bustles of mom life, mom/work life balance, pet issues, car issues, bills, things forgotten, errands that didn’t make the cut today, things not picked up, uneaten cupcakes that were begged for (lol), and the craziness of just life in general. And if so – big hugs to you because you’re not alone, but I always say – if you can find the humor in anything and everything wild and crazy that happens in your life – you’re amazing.

Humor makes everything better and easier to deal with! So, I like to use it to make myself feel better and to realize that at the end of the day when my kids are in bed and I have a glass of wine in my hand – listening to silence – I can smile and Thank God for another successful, crazy, blessed day. 🤗💕 And – for helping me keep my sanity through it! lol.

One more thing before I get out of here……………………………and thank you for letting me vent……………………….

My younger son asked if I wanted to watch a movie the other day, and we did.

He picked it.

We watched 👇

It was the cutest movie, and I would absolutely watch it again!

I recommend it, and hope you check it out with your kids, or even by yourself one night if you’re looking for something to watch.

Little Stevie is a girl who has it all. Great loving parents who also love each other. A big house. A little brother who drives her crazy, but she loves dearly, and so many other wonderful things.

And then – she finds out her parents aren’t truly happy with each other anymore, and she has to figure out how to keep them together.

Her little brother finds a book about the Sandman, and they realize if they can just dream long enough to get to the Sandman – they can possibly make Stevie’s wish of “the perfect family” come true forever.

They go through all these scary, funny, crazy, wild dreams and adventures to find him.

Some parts of the movie are hilarious. Some are sad, and I admit – I cried. I cried like a baby, and I laughed when my little dude told me, “Mom! It’s just a movie!”.

Stevie has to eventually make a choice between the dream world and the perfect family with her parents together and happy again, but a life without her little brother, or living in reality.

I don’t want to say anything else about it but do go check it out!

Let me know if you do! 🤗

Goodnight.

💕Shel💕