I am stressed.
The last few days haven’t been exactly good ones.
I have decided that I am not friends with our SUV. It has seriously pissed me off. I hate fuel filters and I hate water.
So, we have been having torrential rain storms. Saturday, last week, I had to drive through about two feet of water to get out of downtown. I guess our fuel lines and fuel filter didn’t care for water much. So, the car started to run quite poorly. (Doesn’t that sound proper…guess I’m hanging with too many Brits…starting to call toilet paper “loo rolls”…..ANYWAY….Ross makes a “mechanic” call and announces that we need a new fuel filter after he has taken the old one off. This is Tuesday. So, off I scoot on the quad as now we no longer have a running vehicle. I take the old fuel filter and go to the “automotive store” and I use this term quite loosely. I have the “automotive service dude” sell me a new fuel filter of pretty, shiny, clear plastic with evidence of a paper (?) filter inside…what can possibly go wrong?
Well, let me tell you what can go wrong……….
Wednesday, Ross and I head to the Jolly Roger Bar to do our Wednesday opening. After we are done our morning, we hop into the car to go home and get stuff done before we head out to our friends for a BBQ and pyrogy dinner.
Car doesn’t start.
Gas is ALL OVER the road and running down the gutters. Dominicans are standing and pointing at the running gas…bending over to smell it….ALL WHILE SMOKING. I kindly point out the fresh gasoline and am politely told that it is “no problemo”. Okay, just blow us all up…..that’s ok.
Ross is becoming very “Dominicanized”. He pulls the blue tarp out of the car, crawls under the car (remember we are still parked on the side of the road in front of the bar) and pulls off the newly installed fuel filter which has come apart. Note: pretty, shiny plastic does not make a good fuel filter especially the ones made in the People’s Republic of China.
Off I go back to the “automotive store – God I miss Canadian Tire” to show the “automotive service dude” the defective fuel filter. I don’t speak enough Spanish so after some guy hopping on his moto and going to find someone down the road who does speak English, I finally can communicate that I need another one.
Ross installs the new fuel filter and we are good to go! Well, not really but we did drive away from the bar.
Today is Black Thursday. I drove the pissy car to work this morning because it appeared that it was going to rain again except it didn’t. I got almost all the way home and the frickin car died. I had a ten minute walk up hill (no there isn’t any snow and I wasn’t barefoot). I get home and my loving husband is looking at me panting like I was going to have a heart attack and gently asks me, “where is the car?” I wasn’t all that polite when I responded to his inquiry.
So, he determines that we probably have ANOTHER ****ing broken fuel filter. Gee…….really???????
We lock up the house and get the quad out for a trip into town to get another fuel filter. We decided that perhaps we should try another “automotive supply store”. We found a metal fuel filter!!!!!!!! YES! Our problems are solved…….
The car is running much better now….except…..
Well, we had a small issue with the quad when Ross drove it home from where the car broke down. He blew a tire…not repairable but we knew the tires were on their last bit of tread.
So, off to David Tire Store and we are now the proud owners of two new front tires for our quad….Happy Birthday Ross….lol
I am drinking beer now….and starting to unwind.
