A Bad Day Post Script

After posting my blow by blow breakdown of last Friday's Day from Hell, I sat back totally spent, but pleased I had purged myself of the infuriating moments I had suffered through. It was a wasted day of 11 hours and over 100 miles my truck and I will never get back.

History is not just about moments from our past. History is what the Present and the following Future are built on. Without a Past, there would be no Present and certainly no Future. Our path it seems, needs all of them to cleanly move us from cradle to grave.

As much as I wanted to forget last Friday ever happened, I could not get it out of my mind. It didn't help that Saturday, I decided to begin deleting the 5000 emails I had cluttering the storage capacity of the In Box. Like clockwork, once every couple of years I attack the back log.

I was surprised that the last email I received was from the Toyota dealer who had tortured me for 4 hours last Friday. The email contained a breakdown of what my $75 dollars (1/2 hour) worth of analytics had found. There were several things they tagged as "Needs Immediate Attention"; including $330 bucks for more diagnostic time. The total for everything listed would set me back, $1675.82.  And the problem I took the truck in for initially remained unfixed.

The truck only has 8300 miles on it. It is the only vehicle I have ever purchased new for myself. Gotta say, not very impressed with Toyota Service at the moment.

Okay, okay, reading the email was causing my blood pressure to spike again, so I set diagnostic report down and tried to forget it. I could not forget it. Goddamned Car Dealerships. I have never had one treat me right. I think that is one of the founding rules found in the latest copy of "Car Dealerships for Dummies". 

Sunday, I re-read the email. One of the problems the diagnostic mentioned was "AC blower motor full of mice mess". I googled the problem and punched up a DIY video. One of the first things the tech in the video said, "This is an easy fix- good for beginners."

He proceeded to show where the blower was, how to access it and then what I should find. Of course he was using an empty blower cavity without a filter in it. He emphasized twice, not to turn on the blower while fingers were in it.

It looked simple. It was simple. But it took forever to clean out the "Mice Mess". I left the filter in as I cleaned it to mitigate the amount of mice mess that might fall into the blower motor if the the filter was not there. Leaving the filter in cut back on the space to stuff my stubby fingers into, but eventually I think I got most of it. I filled a bucket 3/4 full.

I wondered, like I always do, how do critters from the neighborhood manage to find their way into any of my vehicles. This time was no different until I looked closely at the cover, I noticed chunks of it were missing from both ends.. The little bastards had chewed their way in. The next question is how did they pack in some of the debris I pulled out. There were several sticks over six inches long. Yeah, I wondered long enough to realize it didn't matter how they did any of it. So I stopped worrying and moved on with my life.

Besides the filter, I am going to have to also replace the cover. This means it will cost me twice as much for parts, yet still be cheaper than the cost of buying the just the filter from the dealer. And I saved the $155 labor rip off, the dealership over on the coast was going to tag me with.

Parts should be here soon. Maybe by Wednesday. It doesn't matter. Just knowing I was able to fix it empowered me a tad and my anger at Toyota has disappeared. Now I am just disgusted. Some might call that a step forward.

Keep it 'tween the ditches .................................................

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Just what kind of tune would dovetail into a post about "Mice Mess in the Blower"? I am pretty sure that particular problem has never inspired any song writer anywhere, at any time. So I let my ears take a walk and listen to covers of  "Fat Bottom Girls" originally by Queen. It is one of my all time favorite tunes.

I listened to quite a few versions, finally settling on a cover by who I thought were going to be the "Red Hot Chili Peppers". Imagine my surprise when the first sounds I heard were bag pipes. I didn't know the Red Hot Chili Peppers had done a bagpipe tune. But then it was an instrumental and the only people featured were kids and men in kilts. It was not until I had listened to it twice when I noticed that band name on one of the drums was "Red Hot Chilli Pipers", not Peppers.

Anyway, enjoy this Scottish version of a great song. I included the original also because it deserves a spot. Loud and proud is where its at.