Bad, bad, and worse timing

So on Thursday we went down to the condo, and I believe I mentioned that we had some car troubles. It does indeed look like the transmission is out of commission. Luckily, the car's under warranty. Unluckily, the dealership looks like it's going to be a big pain about the technicalities. Just for a better idea, here is a timeline of the day:

• Driving down to Federal Way
• I say, "Hey, the car's at 60,012 miles. We should get that oil changed and the service done."
• Mike sez, "OK, I'll check out the service place by our house when we get home today."*
• We do the condo thing.
• We start driving back.
• Transmission starts to slip.
• Get towed to the dealer.
• The odometer reads 60,074.

Here's the crappy thing. The transmission is supposed to be serviced every 30,000 miles. The dealership sez, "Since the car is at 60,000 miles, you need to show a record of TWO transmission services for the warranty to cover it." As noted earlier, we were making plans on that day to get that second service done.

Now, I want to make something perfectly clear. We may not be the world's most perfect and responsible people, but we have always always taken that car in for it's routine service. We have the little sticker on the windshield and when the odometer rolls over, we roll it in to Grease Monkey and get it done. Whenever Grease Monkey says, "Hey, it's optional to do this thing, but blah, blah, blah," we say, "Go ahead and do it."

We might not love the car (Mike outright hates it for some reason unfathomable to myself), but we've taken care of all the components that make it go. As for being clean, that's another story, and one that's not germane to the discussion at hand.

And if you know anyone who gets their service done before or at the very second the tenth-of-a-mile indicator shows the big 0, I will stab myself in the jaw. Seriously.

. . .

So I'm pretty worried about it, yeah. Number 1) if it's not covered, we're screwed. We don't have the liquidity to get another car nor enough employment between the two of us to secure a loan, I don't think. And B) while we're floating around, waiting for the executioner to either swing or announce a stay, we don't have a car.

So I will be walking and/or biking to work this week. I'm very very glad we live only a mile away.

However, it still means we can't do a lot of things. Between the people that frequent this house the most (myself, Mike, Wil, and Lucas) we have a coupe. A two-seater. There are groceries to be bought (don't forget the nihilist!), and things to be transported, and we just can't do that.

We can't even drive up to the Super Bowl party on Sunday at Rich and Julie's place! Argh!

Sigh.

I'm sure that by this time next week, things will be all resolved (I hope so, anyway), but I'm worried right now.

. . .

Last night I slept the sleep of the dead. It was deep, mostly dreamless (and what dreams I do remember were fairly innocuous), and pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered. I haven't had one of those nights all week and I remember worrying that I wouldn't sleep well (because of the other worries, you see) but sometimes what the body needs is exactly what the body takes.

. . .
* We needed to check out and find a new place to get service because we moved in October. You might say that's pushing the three months/3,000 miles, but we were still regularly running down to Federal Way in November, and I do believe we had an oil change/etc. done down there that month. Also, for some bizarre reason, the owner's manual claims you only need to change the oil every 5,000 miles. We still do it every 3k.