Car Problems Part III - Will it Never End?

It's Sunday morning and I'm waiting for the phone call from Canadian Tire to let me know my car is ready to pick up. The person at the service desk I talked to the day before said it should be ready by 10:00 or 11:00 a.m.

Well, 10:00 or 11:00 has come and gone and no phone call. I wait until around 1:00 p.m. and give them a call. The fellow who answers the phone tells me my car is ready. (Thanks for the phone call to let me know when to pick it up!)

Now I've already missed church in the morning, but I figure if I can walk over to Canadian Tire quick enough I should have enough time to get to the boarding home by around 2:30 p.m. It's our day to volunteer there.

It's a wet, slushy day. Instead of wearing my boots I sacrifice wetness protection for speed and wear my running shoes. I get to Laird and Eglinton pretty quickly. But, no one has bothered to shovel the sidewalks in front of their homes along the way so my feet are quite wet.

I go to the Service Department and plunk down my credit card for the $177.40 bill. The battery is only around $110, but they charge about $50 for installation. Even though I believe it's easy to install I don't want to take a chance of anything going wrong and pay for them to do it.

My car starts easily enough with the new battery. But, I find when I slow down for red lights my car starts to shudder, the idle speed drops to near zero. At first I wonder if it's because there's some humidity in the air and that might be affecting the engine.

It's not long after I realize it's the same problem I had before where my engine just dies whenever I slow down and/or stop. I can't believe this is happening to me. Again. Why? Why, why, why? Every day, another problem.

On my way home I weigh my options. My first stop, though, is the Shell gas station at Eglinton and Bayview. My car has been running on fumes for the past few days. But I was too scared to stop for gas because I worried I wouldn't be able to start it again because of the weak battery.

After filling up I had to think about step number 2. I returned to my condo and parked on level 1 and got out of my car to debate my options. The only solution I could come up with was to take my car straight to the dealership (Courtesy Chevrolet) right away and leave it there.

I checked an old receipt at home and saw that they were closed Sundays. Greaaat. Today was the only day I could go. I would just leave the car in their service lot with a note on the windshield. I also left them a phone message stating the problem.

I took the TTC home. I hope I don't have to rely on it too much over the next few days. My parents offered to let me stay over at their place and said they would drop me off at work in the morning which is helpful. They live close by. I just have to round up all my stuff and bring it over there tonight.

All these problems with my car make me want to drive it to a cliff and push it over. Sigh.