rmd: (mini)
[personal profile] rmd
if i didn't know me and i wasn't actually living this life, this is about the point where i would begin to wonder if i wasn't reading some fictionalized manufactured faux drama designed to garner sympathy or gloat about how many annoyances i am afflicted with.

so, ants seem to have gone away. my plumbing works. i have a hole in my floor, but it's currently covered over and i am talking to my contractor about getting someone in to fix that bit of floor and the tenant's kitchen wall. difficult-to-solve work problems seem to be fixable and i have a full solution going into service tomorrow morning.

...

and i got a flat tire on the way to work today.

well, "flat tire" is something of a misnomer, as i have runflat tires. but the mini said "bing" and the flat tire light (which looks kind of like it should be the international symbol for buttcrack as you can see in this sample from some other car's control panel) went on. so i slowed down and finished my drive to work, mostly okay -- i could feel the car driving weird, but the runflats are supposed to be good for something like 25 miles at under 55mph after going flat. after i got to work i looked at the tires. it was pretty clear which the bad one was, and it was pretty beat up. i called the folks at direct tire and got an afternoon appointment for new tires.

went there this afternoon (driving extra slow because really the tire looked to be in crap shape), and when they tried to do an alignment on the car after mounting the tires, they noticed the front control rod bushings were pretty beat and one of them was starting to tear. so not only money for shiny new runflat replacements (i replaced them all because the one remaining rear tire was almost as beat as the other, and the front were in mediocre-at-best shape, so fuck that, new tires for all wheels), *BUT* additional fun with a later appt to get the bushing's fixed.

direct tire had wireless in their waiting area and i had my laptop out to do a bit of work while i was waiting, so when they gave me the news about the bushings, i was able to do a bit of googling and discover that this is a not-uncommon complaint about minis, that my 5+ year old mini did not seem out of spec to have this happening, and that the part is cheap but the labor to get the part in and out is a bit annoying, so yeah, not a totally cheap thing to replace. i love living in the future.

also, wtf, i don't have a userpic of my mini? i'll have to fix that some time soon. fixed that.

Date: 2009-07-16 10:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pale-chartreuse.livejournal.com
Clearly you are in a phase of money molt. This usually happens to me in February. But you now have your three (things happen in threes), so you should be done for a while.

And now I have phrase "international butt crack" running around in my head.

Date: 2009-07-16 10:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laurenpburka.livejournal.com
Sounds like you have a bad case of entropy.

Date: 2009-07-17 02:33 am (UTC)
muffyjo: (mini vroom)
From: [personal profile] muffyjo
Sounds like tire day. I had mine replaced today. Now I have treads. You know it's bad when EVERY mechanic from the gas station attendant to the guy replacing the tires gives you the fish eye and asks you why you waited so long.

My mini pic from when I was driving your car isn't quite your car, but you are welcome to gank it if it will work for you temporarily. :)

Date: 2009-07-17 05:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kjc.livejournal.com
BING! YOU HAVE BUTTCRACK! APPLY DUCT TAPE IMMEDIATELY!

Sorry, babe. Maybe you left some setting on ARGH by default?

Date: 2009-07-17 02:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com
One of the better investments that the owner of a car can make is a compressor that runs off your cigarette lighter. Very few "flats" are total blowouts -- most can be inflated and will maintain enough pressure to get you to a dealership without risking damage to your rims.

BTW, while I have no reason to believe that Direct Tire makes shit up re: service that needs to be done, and while their service is excellent, their prices are high. I love 'em, but that's just the truth. If you've got the right mechanic, which I do, you can get the same work done elsewhere for maybe 2/3 the price.

Date: 2009-07-17 02:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rmd.livejournal.com
yeah, one of the better car clues i ever learned was that most flats are at least temporarily recoverable with application of air.

that's the main purpose of those 'fix-a-flat' cans -- it gets air back into the tires. the foamy goop may or may not actually help.

Date: 2009-07-17 02:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lioritgioret.livejournal.com
Hmm. I left a comment earlier but I wasn't logged in so it came out anonymous. Anyway the main point is: International symbol for buttcrack is better than any other description I have heard for the mysterious glyph. I was thinking, "Your car is melting? You're out of windshield washer fluid? You need a bigger coffee cup?"
Sorry things are accumulating but at least you are solving them. Go you!

I had to snork

Date: 2009-07-17 03:21 pm (UTC)
drwex: (VNV)
From: [personal profile] drwex
at "The international symbol for buttcrack".

I'm sorry for the ongoing series of eits, though.

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