Deja-Vu

As I drove in to work this morning my mind hearkened back exactly one year to January 2, 2008. What was I doing on that day? How was I feeling?

I was Frickin' Pissed Off at my Car, that's how I was feeling. Jen and I had not moved in together yet but I was spending the holiday at her place in Salem, NH. I was on call for New Year's Eve so we just stayed in and let the kids stay up until midnight with us. At 12:30 we were heading to bed (I am a lightweight) when the phone rang. There was a work issue I had to take care of. Unfortunately I could not connect to the customer's system and was of no use to anyone. Some one did something to calm the customer down and put off the trouble until the next day.

The next day I still couldn't connect from Jen's. It was an issue with the client on her machine so I went to my house and tried it on my computer. Nothing. I went to my father's office and tried it on his computer. Nothing. I called my boss to ask for help and he couldn't connect. I called his boss and she couldn't connect. So the issue that was important enough to bring in the on call staff was left unhandled until January 2nd when we could all get back into the office and connect from there.

That wasn't what pissed me off one year ago today though. That pissed me off one year and one day ago today.

January 2, 2008 came and I got up early to go to work. That day may have been the first day that I went to work from Jen's place. Normally I would have gone home the night before as home was a little closer to work, even though it was still really far from work. That night, however, I stayed at Jen's. If it wasn't the first time it was one of the first times, and within a couple of months I was pretty much living there full time anyway. But I've gone off subject... what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, my car.

So on January 1, 2008 my car had a tough time starting. On January 2, 2008 my car just plain didn't start. My family has been using one garage for all of our car repair needs for as long as I can remember. A&B Auto in Tewksbury. So when my car was sitting there dead on the road in Salem I did what I always do. I called AAA and had the car towed to Tewksbury. Normally in cases such as this my father would meet me there and loan me one of his cars for the day so I could get to work. That didn't happen that day and I'm not sure why. I ended up calling in sick. I am stretching my memory a bit here, but I think I actually was pretty sick that day anyway. That's it. I called in sick from the garage and told the supervisor I spoke to that I tried coming in, had lots of car trouble, but as the morning had rolled on I felt worse and worse and just went home sick. That's it.

All of that piled up and made me one pissed off red head that day. I wanted to throw my car off a bridge and go live in a log cabin on top of a mountain like Ted Kazinski. I'm overstating my feelings a tiny bit here for dramatic affect. Just in case you didn't notice.

So what is it about January 2, 2009 that makes me think back so nostalgicly to January 2, 2008?

My Frickin car, of course.

This time it's all my fault. One of my tires has had a slow leak for a while. I fill it up once a month or so and it's fine. When it gets low I just fill it up again. Today when I went outside to go to work it wasn't low... it was almost flat. It was Loooow. So I drove a couple of blocks to the gas station I normally go to to fill the tires and dropped my $0.75 into the machine and pulled the hose over to my tire... and that was when I saw that some chimp posing as a human had snapped the end off the nozzle. Thanks a ton you douchebag.

So I drive another couple of blocks to another gas station. This time a full service garage. They have their air pump all set up for use. I pull up to it and the one attendent tells me it doesn't work. Thanks a ton. If it doesn't work please take the frickin' hose off so that chumps like me don't get their hopes up. Thanks. So, this being an actual garage. A "service station" as it were, I ask if they can fix a tire. I am told that they can't because no one is there. Thanks again.

There are a few more gas stations in the general area that I could have gone to to fill up my tire, or at least tried to go to... but by this point the clock was ticking and there was no guarantee that I would be able to complete my automotive task. So I bit the proverbial bullet and changed the tire myself. I have had a ton of tire changing experience over the past year. I had a normal blow out, I slid on ice into a curb and broke a rim, and on (I think) two occasions just walked out to the car and had a flat. I have become one of the Planet Earth's fastest car tire changers. I have a future in Nascar kids, I am not lying. I have a donut spare tire and the cheapest little jack you could ever imagine, and I jacked up my car, popped off the flat, put on the donut, lowered the car, and hit the road in record time.

Straight to A&B Auto in Tewksbury. I wanted to bring the car in there anyway for a couple of checkup type things, but the car just said to me that I was doing it today. My father met me there, I drove him home, and then took his car to work. I had planned to leave home around 7:15 and get to work so early that it was just plain silly. As it turned out I left my parent's house at 8:25. The normal drive to work is about 75-80 minutes. Today (thanks to it being both Friday and the day after a holiday) I punched in at 9:03. 38 minutes. Not a record (that would be 37 minutes on a Friday in August) but close.

Even though there is nothing wrong with the car itself, this is another little thing on top of a series of other little things that make us think that the time to buy a new car has arrived. I'll keep you posted, oh loyal readers (both of you).

2008 started off in a very frustrating fashion and ended up being one of the best years of my life. 2009 is bound to end up the same way... only 2009 will be better than 2008, 2007... and every other year.

Happy New Year.
Happy New Tire.