Wednesday, February 11, 2009

This is why I'm a raging alcoholic

Apparently my tires are magnetic. In the last year or so I have picked up three nails and one screw. Is it just me, or is that a lot? Seems like a lot.

Just as a heads up, if you are going to put a hole in your tire that needs patching, the best place to do it is Upsala. There it only costs $12 to fix. Gotta love Upsala Motors. If not Upsala, do it in Fargo. Only $16 at OK Tire.

But don't go to the Bridgestone in Brooklyn Center. $30. Lame. And they also do a "courtesy check," which is code for "find as many things as we can with this car that may possibly need work, and see if we can get some saps to go for it." They tried me for over $300 worth to replace two tires and a belt, flush the radiator and transmission, and change the oil. Good one.

On the plus side, I sat and watched Jeopardy in the waiting room.

7 comments:

Caleb said...

I hope you took them up on that! What a steal! Consider yourself lucky, my friend, to have caring, courteous auto mechanics.

Laurel said...

at least you're not going to pay someone to change your windshield wiper...

Jordan said...

Proverbs 31:6-7

Eva Joy said...

We thought we got a flat in Maui. We were on the phone for about half an hour trying to get a rental repair guy to come out and help us before we finally decided to get out of the car and figure out which tire was flat. I kindly offered to go figure it out and then got teased for not being able to figure out which one was flat. Linda got out next and verified my conclusion: no flat tire. We started driving again and everything was fine.

Hannah was still on hold with the rental company and I told her to tell them that it blew back up.

I'm just glad we didn't wait two hours for the repair guy to come out and tell us we didn't have a flat. That would have been just plain stupid.

Psh. Girls.

Laura said...

Two Stories. Same Car.

1. Spring 03.
2. Driving in Willmar.
3. Ran over a nail.
4. Went to a tire place/gas station/mechanic.
5. They said it was too bad to patch up, I would need a new tire.
6. They did not have the particular tire my car needed.
7. I said, I'm going to my hometown, maybe they have something for me.
8. They put on my spare tire for me. And said, don't worry about paying for it. And also some advice about driving on the donut (As my memory serves me. It was 6 years ago. Is donut slang for spare tire?)
9. Drove from Willmar to Upsala slowly on my spare tire (the old nailed tire in my trunk, just in case.
10. Pulled into Upsala Motors. They patched it up for 10 dollars.

1. December 05.
2. Driving through Needles, California (on our way home to MN).
3. Stopped to get gas.
4. Gas attendent notices a bulge in my tire. Becomes concerned.
5. He offers to check it out for us, seeing how the car is full of all my earthly belongings, and we must be traveling far. Wouldn't want that tire to blow up while we're driving.
6. We eat lunch while they're checking it out.
7. After lunch we go back, and the car is raised up on one of those things they raise cars up on. I think it's called a "cars up on."
8. In the 15 minutes it took us to eat at McDonald's, they had replaced both of the back tires for us. And, since they didn't know where the tool to get the lug nuts (right? is that what they're called?) off, they broke one, and thought I would probably be ok to drive on it.
9. Then they said, "You're leaking radiator fluid." You need a new radiator. We have to wait for 5 hours for a part to come it."
10. I say, I need to be home in 20 hours, let me make some calls.
11. Upsala Motors phone number was on my phone, so called them.
12. Meanwhile Steve called his Uncle Greg.
13. Then we called Travis.
14. After compiling all the honest info we could (and honest pricing), we decided to risk it.
15. After they lowered the car (and worried about our impending doom), I opened the trunk and asked "Is this the tool you were looking for when you broke the lug nut off of the tire?"
16. It was.
17. We made it home safely.
18. I think the car still has the same radiator in it. You'll have to ask my mom.

In conclusion. If you can't make it to Upsala Motors, at least keep them on your speed dial.

Longest comment of all time.

Josh Koehn said...

Jordan makes a scripture joke. Tee hee.

Eva. All I can say is wow. Funny.

Laura, that's what you get for driving through a city called Needles.

Laura said...

Needles. Pretty much unavoidable. However, won't get gas there again.