Car karma. (Carma?)

Well.... where do I start......

I had a problem with my car this week, so I took it to the local repair place... I've had good faith in this particular repair shop because they've fixed my car before. (Not fixing, really, just regular maintenance.)  This time, however, the car needs a repair, not just an oil change.

I took the car in on Thursday.... they checked it out, told me what the problem was, and said if I brought it back first thing on Friday morning, they could fix it, "no problem."  They started the work before 8:00 this morning.... called me at 11:00 to tell me the car was ready.  Fine.  Except there was a problem.

When they had my car in the garage and called me, everything was fixed and working...... in the time it took for them to pull my car out of the repair shop and park it in front of the building, the "fix" wasn't fixed anymore.  The manager called me up and told me "We have a slight problem...."   Back into the garage went my car, and we just waited for them to call again.

At 2:30 this afternoon, they told me they couldn't find the problem...... they checked all of their manuals, they checked the Internet, they checked and re-checked everything they could possibly think of.  Their suggestion was that I leave the car there till the owner can look at it first thing on Monday morning.  "This is his shop... he's been doing this for years.... he can fix everything.... no problem."

Part of the problem, as I see it, is that this repair shop isn't ever open on Saturdays...... who doesn't do business on Saturdays, which is usually one of the busiest days of the week?  (Even the local animal shelter up here is closed on Saturdays. Why the heck is that?)

When I told all of the above to my husband, he got on the phone and called the car repair place we used for years in Clear Lake..... he explained the situation with my car, asked if they had suggestions, which they did. He wrote down their instructions.... called the repair place here, told them what the Clear Lake mechanic said...... and still, we haven't had a phone call yet to come pick up my car.... and they close at 5pm, which is half an hour from this very second.

So they have my car till Monday.  They promised to keep the car locked inside the garage, not out on the lot. I had told them my car has always been garaged at night, and hardly ever goes out in the rain. (I give them points for not laughing at that.)

The mechanic here, after talking to my husband about the current problem with my car, said that "This here car is going to give your wife more problems over the years.... they don't make this car anymore and parts may be hard to come by..... plus she doesn't drive it enough."

Well.... pardon me.  We're out in the hills, surrounded by cows and goats and horses and wild pigs and two-lane roads that wind around the hills and don't get you anywhere except into the next small town that rolls up its sidewalks and closes its shops at 5pm and they may not be open on Saturdays because everyone has gone hunting or fishing or some such thing..... so just where is there to go????