Basic Car Maintenance is Worth The Time to Learn

For weeks now I have been asking James to take a look at my car. It was being rather picky about wanting to provide heat and here in the Midwest that's not really an optional function. Heat and AC are absolute requirements if you want to avoid things like pneumonia and/or heat stroke. For someone who used to be a mechanic, he sure hates working on any car but his own. When his car wasn't working right over the summer you bet your bottom dollar the moment he got home he was under the hood tinkering with it. When my AC wouldn't work and I needed him to recharge it, he waited through 2 months of my non-stop nagging before he took the whole 10 minutes to do it.

When the colder temperatures started creeping in a few weeks back (keep in mind I'm always freezing when it's below 75 out) I noticed that it would take longer for my heat to kick in even after having warmed up my car. I knew based on the whole AC fiasco that I better bring it up now so that maybe, just maybe, he might look at it before the first snow. No such luck!

We got our first dusting of our inevitable winter wonderland a few days ago and still he's not so much as opened my hood. Instead he saw fit to joke about how great it is to have remote start now (his old car didn't make it past July) and that he'd look at it this weekend for sure. Meanwhile, I've been scrapping frost off my window all week, shivering and shaking like a Parkinson patient, and swearing profusely while beating the hell out of my dashboard trying to will my heat telepathically to work.

Last night at 2:30am my sister called and needed a ride back from a party she was at. She was completely hammered and the person who was supposed to be the DD for her group had not held up her end of the bargain. First, let me say, I'm incredibly proud that my sister is smart enough, even when drunk, to not get in the car with some idiot and to call me instead. Getting up and rescuing her did not bother me one bit, the fact that it was below 30 and my heat didn't come on at all in that hour and a half span that I was in the car however made me furious! I decided right then and there at 3am that I was not going to wait around to see if James will maybe look at my car this weekend between our upcoming Thanksgiving/Birthday dinner on Saturday with his family and the Museum of Science and Industry trip we have planned on Sunday to see the Disney Archives exhibit.

Since today is my late day in due to the monthly sales meeting, I dropped Lena off at school and went over to the mechanic shop that I've been using in town for the past 3 years. (Yes, I work at an auto place and my boss would probably be terribly disappointed that I take my car somewhere else.) When I arrived I explained what had been going on with the car and he said it sounded like my blower control valve could possibly be sticking, but before he ordered any parts he wanted to just double check. He pulled my car into the garage and less than 10 minutes later he had my heat working and I was good to go. Want to know what was wrong? My coolant was empty! That's it! It cost me all of $8 to have him fill it up again for me and my heat is working like a brand new sauna.

I'm thrilled my heat is back, but I'm a little perturbed at both James and at my guys at work. For starters, I just got an oil change not all that long ago from work and they're supposed to top up all my fluids when doing so. Washer fluid, coolant, etc. None of which was done. I will be having some words when I get into work today to let him know that the general service guys are half assing the oil changes. Second, if James had ever bothered to so much as open the hood of my car like I've been asking, he would have spotted it right away and it could have been fixed already!

Ladies, never assume a man will take care of that kind of thing for you. If it doesn't effect them directly, it will end up on the back burner. Educate yourselves on basic things like coolant levels and you can avoid making the mistake of freezing unnecessarily like I just did!