When you get up at 7AM, you get a lot done...
Saturday morning started at 7AM for me. I normally don't get up until around 830-900AM on weekends, but I had to get up earlier than usual on Saturday. I had an appointment at the Honda dealership to get something fixed under warranty on my car. This is the first time in 2 years that I've had to take that Honda in for anything. It's been a great car. I've never had any problems with it, up until now. Even the problem I had was a fairly minor, but weird problem.
Last weekend I was opening the driver's side door of my car, when I heard a snap and then saw some things falling to the ground from the hinge of the door. My first thought was 'Uh oh! What's that?'. I looked on the floor to find several thin pieces of plastic lying there. I'd actually found similar pieces of plastic like this before in my car, but never knew what they were. Since it happened right in front of me this time, I was able to figure it out. Turns out that there is a piece of metal inbetween the door and the car that is used to hold the door open and keep it from swinging out too far. The guy at the dealership called it the door striker. Basically, it's a metal bar that slides in and out of the door as the door opens and closes. Wrapped around this metal bar is a sheath of plastic. It was this plastic sheath that had somehow broken off. As a result, it looked like the metal inside was starting to wear badly and it was making a horrible screech as I opened the door. I called the dealership this past Monday and made an appointment for 830 Saturday morning to get it fixed.
I show up at the dealership promptly at 830 and drop my car off, no problem. The service guy was very friendly and helpful. I had no complaints there. Despite that it was a minor repair, I knew my car was going to be sitting there all day. I had arranged for my brother to come pick me up from the dealership. He came and picked me up. We left, had some breakfast, ran various errands over the next few hours and then by around 3pm I called the dealership to find out my car was done. So we headed back.
We got there around 330pm. I showed up and got them to bring my finished car around. I checked out the repair and it looked fine. I was all happy and ready to go. I then noticed an odd problem. The stereo on the car had 'locked' itself and the time was wrong on the stereo. Oddly enough the radio station settings were still there. After some help from the service guy, we got the radio unlocked. I then noticed that my iPod adapter, that was plugged into the stereo was screwed up... It was just sitting there showing an error code, even with no iPod connected and the car completely shut off!
I got angry because the iPod adapter was working when I arrived. They had apparently disconnected the battery and it had somehow screwed up the iPod adapter. I talked to the guy who actually fixed my car. He claimed he never disconnected the battery, and yet it appeared the battery had been disconnected. We called the service manager over who investigated and couldn't find any sign the battery had been disconnected or how to fix the iPod adapter. Finally, the service manager suggested we disconnect and then reconnect the battery, to reset the stereo. We did that and the stereo and iPod adapter both reset and started working perfectly. I just kind of shrugged it off and thought, "OK. Everything is fine now." So the service manager left, my brother left, and I got in the car to leave. I turned the key and nothing happened! The car wouldn't start! So now my stereo works, but the car doesn't (and it was driving a few moments ago). What the hell?
So I go *back* and get the service manager again and tell him that now the stereo works, but my car won't start! He checks it and determines that my car's battery was dead! It was the original battery that I got with the car 2 years ago... I guess if your battery is going to die, having it die at the dealership is the best possible place for it to happen. So the service manager just suggests we swap out the battery under warranty and send me on my way. He goes over and gets one of the service guys to grab a battery and swap it out right away. So within minutes of my complaining to the manager, I've now got a brand new battery too! To my surprise, they replaced the battery completely under warranty and didn't charge me anything. Usually when you get a battery replaced under warranty they charge you a price prorated based on the warranty life of the battery, versus how long it actually lasted. They didn't do it this time. They replaced it for free.
So now I've got a fixed door 'striker' and a brand new battery out of the deal and I didn't pay anything! I'm quite a happy camper now, even if I ended up leaving the dealership a good hour later than I got there. By now it's 430 in the afternoon. I leave the dealership and drive off to get some gas. I was planning on going to the Dade County Fair that evening and that's a long drive (about 35 miles) so I had to fill up first. I filled up the car and headed south.
By the time I got to the Dade County Fair, it was 6pm. There was a line of cars a good mile or two long waiting to get into the fair! I ended up waiting in that line of cars for over a hour and a half to get into the fair! That's the last time I go to the fair that late in the evening! By the time I found a parking place and got into the fair, it's 745pm. I walked in, looked around a bit and then watched a show there called 'Visions'. It was an interesting half hour show, full of acrobats and wild costumes.
I spent the next several hours at the Fair. It was a beautiful night. No rain, a nice breeze, not too hot. I walked around, ate some grilled corn on the cob (yum!) and a few other things. I looked at the exhibits. It was a nice evening. The damn rides were expensive though! $1.00 per ticket and most rides required at least 2 tickets. So I have to pay $2 to go on even the lame rides? That's not worth it! Plus they had practically NO healthy food. It was fried everything! Fried vegetables? WTF? It's truly sad how bad and unhealthy the food is there. (but that's a story for another blog). Anyway, I left there about 1030pm. By ll15pm or so I was home. I did some stuff around the house for a while and by 100AM I was in bed. That's a long day!