mercredi, septembre 06, 2006
with these broken wings I'm falling
I suppose there's nothing like a breakdown (of a vehicle) to help familiarize yourself with a new city.
We drove to Ikea tonight. It's about thirteen kilometres from the apartment. And wouldn't you know it, when we go to drive away, the car wouldn't start. So there we were, far from home, unfamiliar with any of the local garages, and well, screwed.
Luckily we had actually brought the yellow pages with us so we could look up furniture / mattress stores, so this turned into our resource for looking up garages instead. The first place I called recommended a towing service, so we called them and they sent somebody pretty quickly.
The dude gets there and gives us a boost. Apparently GM car batteries are a bit tricky and you have to fiddle with the placement of the clamps on the battery. Who knew, eh. Because we had actually already tried to boost it from a random lady in the parking lot with no luck.
We got as far as the local gas station on that charge. We were low on gas and the towing guy had recommended leaving the car running while we filled up. We complied, but when the tank reached the halfway point, the car just stalled. Devin tried to jumpstart it a few times in the parking lots (rolling forward into a parking stall), but no luck. All the gauges were going crazy - randomly flashing, radio coming on and off, etc. It seemed like more than a dead battery problem.
So towing guy comes back and takes Red and us to Gary's Automotive, where we left the keys under the back bumper (shh!) and my new furniture in the car. We walked down the road, caught a bus, and found our way home.
In total, the car shenanigans have cost me $116 already. Who knows how much these electrical issues are going to cost to repair. Man. I'm supposed to be a starving student!
I am rather grateful, however, that this did not happen anywhere in northern Ontario. We drove tremendously long distances up there without seeing much traffic or services of any kind. Also, that we didn't break down on the Queensway (it's the big highway through the city). Things could be worse, for sure. | ¶ 10:51 p.m.
We drove to Ikea tonight. It's about thirteen kilometres from the apartment. And wouldn't you know it, when we go to drive away, the car wouldn't start. So there we were, far from home, unfamiliar with any of the local garages, and well, screwed.
Luckily we had actually brought the yellow pages with us so we could look up furniture / mattress stores, so this turned into our resource for looking up garages instead. The first place I called recommended a towing service, so we called them and they sent somebody pretty quickly.
The dude gets there and gives us a boost. Apparently GM car batteries are a bit tricky and you have to fiddle with the placement of the clamps on the battery. Who knew, eh. Because we had actually already tried to boost it from a random lady in the parking lot with no luck.
We got as far as the local gas station on that charge. We were low on gas and the towing guy had recommended leaving the car running while we filled up. We complied, but when the tank reached the halfway point, the car just stalled. Devin tried to jumpstart it a few times in the parking lots (rolling forward into a parking stall), but no luck. All the gauges were going crazy - randomly flashing, radio coming on and off, etc. It seemed like more than a dead battery problem.So towing guy comes back and takes Red and us to Gary's Automotive, where we left the keys under the back bumper (shh!) and my new furniture in the car. We walked down the road, caught a bus, and found our way home.
In total, the car shenanigans have cost me $116 already. Who knows how much these electrical issues are going to cost to repair. Man. I'm supposed to be a starving student!
I am rather grateful, however, that this did not happen anywhere in northern Ontario. We drove tremendously long distances up there without seeing much traffic or services of any kind. Also, that we didn't break down on the Queensway (it's the big highway through the city). Things could be worse, for sure. | ¶ 10:51 p.m.
