good thing it's my day off

[ljgeoff]

I've been having trouble with my car for the last week. I though it was a bad contact in the fusible link module, so I took them out and cleaned them, but then we traced it to the battery. So I put a different battery in and it ran fine. Two hours later the alternator/water pump belt broke. So this morning I put in a new belt, and now it's acting like there's an ignition short; it stalls while running, like it suddenly lost power, but if I'm moving I can pop the clutch and it'll start up again. I spent about two hours this morning working on it this morning 'cause I couldn't get the alternator bolt back in (finally had to jury rig it), then went grocery shopping. It stalled out in the market's parking lot and wouldn't start, so I pushed it in a space, went in and got my groceries and when I got out, it started right up. It stalled out four times on the way home, but I was able to jump start it by popping the clutch.

It makes me so frustrated, because I don't have any options other than taking my car to work. My jobs are night jobs, and there is no bus at night. There's no bus at all that lets off within 5 miles of my home aide job. There's no one that I can car pool with and hitchhiking takes hours. I could probably bike it in about 2 hours time, but again, the bike on the shoulder of the highway at night doesn't thrill me. And it'd be impossible in the winter.

So. I've got another Festiva in the driveway that belongs to Carl (he gets his license in April) and it needs a bolt in the lower ball joint assembly, and it's good to go. Well, it needs insurance and plates. And it's under about four feet of snow. So, shovel it out, get the bolt put in (I have to go buy the bolt -- hopefully the local guy will have it), and then run to the library to print out the insurance, and then go get the plate.

I've got one more hour to veg. And eat lunch. Then I start shoveling. Here's a pic that epi_lj posted on Facebook that made me laugh.