Drummer's Corner of the World

One of the things on my long list of Things To Do has been to get the Beetle over to ASG and let them check it over and get it running again. It's essentially been unhappy since it stranded me in Ohio over Thanksgiving, 'cause the guy who worked on it there didn't get the timing set right. The TDI "guru" in this area was too busy to get to it, and then got out of the business entirely (it had been a sideline for him), so I've just been juggling priorities (and driving the gas-guzzling Trooper) until I could get it fixed.

When I went to fire it up a few days ago, the battery was dead, so I jumped it, but it had been dead long enough that the remote control didn't work. Thankfully, the car still recognized the key as its own so unlocking it didn't set the alarm off, but it was annoying not to have the clicker. I dropped it at ASG over the weekend, and my friend Scott picked me up and drove me home, then I stopped by ASG on my way to work on Monday to leave them the key and tell them what needed to be done. I mentioned (more as an information item than anything else) that the key wasn't keyed to the car any more, and then didn't really think any more about that. (In the past, only VW dealers could cut new keys or re-code keys... so I thought I was going to have to take it to them.) (All of the instructions I was finding for re-linking it yourself involve having two keys, and I only got one when I bought the car.)

Imagine my delight when I picked up the car this afternoon (having given one of my staffmembers with a lovely little convertible the "opportunity" to get out of the office for awhile by following me home then driving me to ASG to get the Beetle after I left the Trooper at the house) and discovered that the clicker works. Not only that, but they didn't charge me anything (it doesn't even show up on the shop paperwork). And the car is soooooo much happier. Apparently it was only running on three cylinders (dead glow plug). No wonder it was smoking a lot and running rough!

We last left the tale of two dead cars when the Beetle decided to turn on a persistent Check Engine light on the way home from a sound tech gig on Friday night. Saturday, I limped to the grocery store and back in it, but it was a highly unhappy small car. It got me there and back, but only under protest... and if I hadn't needed to buy things like a 28-lb bucket of cat litter, I probably would have just walked there and back. That left me sitting at home looking at the million things I was supposed to do this weekend and wondering how to make them work.

Saturday afternoon's meeting got cancelled, which solved one problem, and I backed out of the building session with Michael to build Chase's high chair so I can stop having to hold him for 20 minutes after every meal to keep him vertical. I expect we could have still made that work, but I hadn't put in enough prep time to have the plans ready, etc. That left me with today... a percussion rehearsal for a Women's Chorus gig at 3 p.m., then Wild Mercy rehearsal at Barry and Sally's. I called Scott (who had previous offered to help get the Trooper running) and let him know that (a) I was down to no functioning vehicles and (b) it was supposed to be 60 degrees today, making this the ideal opportunity to try to fix the truck. I put Sally on standby to come get me before the women's chorus rehearsal, just in case, and that's where I left things at bedtime last night.

( from dead to happy... the Trooper is revived! )

You know, I'm not a big fan of WalMart, but I must say that my two experiences with the automotive service department at the Fishers WalMart have made me a believer. They are now officially my go-to guys for the routine stuff. They're friendly, helpful and affordable. Gotta love it!

While at WalMart, I called Sally and told her I could get to rehearsal under my own power, then I traipsed back home to move all my Wild Mercy stuff from the Beetle to the Trooper. The percussion rehearsal went okay... I felt like a klutz 'cause it's been forever since I've had to read an actual score and percussion scores are funny-looking. It's kind of a fun piece, though, and I'll figure it out now that I've got the score and can work through it at home.

We gathered early for Wild Mercy rehearsal, and worked on set list ideas for the Broad Ripple Arts Fair gig while chowing down on sammiches from Subway. After dinner and organizing, we headed downstairs and spent a really solid rehearsal focusing on the pieces of "Dream of a Far Light" that still need tracks laid down in the studio. Jen found a kick-ass harmony part for "Your Cosmos, Cavalier," which had been eluding her until tonight, so we worked that one a lot to let it gel. We also took a look at a couple of new things that I was hoping the band would like... both by Peter Mayer (who wrote "Holy Now" and "John's Garden," if you've heard me do either of those) and we've decided to work one of them up for the Arts Fair gig, so we played with it a little bit. Fun stuff, and it felt really good to get in a solid rehearsal groove. I'm always energized when I leave rehearsal, which I think says a lot about the band dynamic... not only do we enjoy making music together, but we enjoy just being together, which is a very good thing indeed. :-)

Now it's time to feed dogs and get some sleep. All-in-all, it's been a good weekend, spent with friends new and old, interspersed with some house cleaning and some quality time snuggling cats and dogs. I can't ask much more of a weekend!

Apparently, 2007 is destined to go down in my personal history as the year of the car repair.

Early in the year, I had engine work done on the Trooper. Not unexpected, but a fairly sizeable chunk of money invested in keeping my favorite truck alive for awhile longer.

Then I got the Beetle and had to replace the timing belt. I knew this was coming and I'd factored it into the cost of acquiring the car, but it was still another chunk of money out-of-pocket.

A few months ago, I had to have an exhaust sensor replaced in the Trooper. Expensive part, but it improved gas mileage and general behavior (the mixture was all wrong 'cause of the dead sensor). More money gone.

Over Thanksgiving, the Beetle stranded me in Zanesville, OH, where I spent way too much money having a mass airflow sensor replaced and after which I discovered that (a) the podunk mechanic place didn't get the timing set correctly afterwards, so it still needs more work and (b) the local TDI expert is booked up 'til after the first of the year. So the Beetle had been sidelined and I was driving the Trooper. Beetle is supposedly drivable, and driving it won't hurt it, but it won't run as well as it should.

Tonight on my way home from work in the Trooper, I first noticed that the lights seemed dim, then when I got home and put the window down to get the mail, the window didn't want to go back up and as it tried, the radio cut off. Hmmm... that can't be good. Checked the ammeter and it's sitting at 8v. Definitely not good. Turned the lights and radio off, which let me get the window up (it's raining, so leaving it down seemed a supremely bad idea) then parked it where it's not blocking the Beetle, in case it won't start again.

It's been making squealing noises recently (and it wasn't making them tonight), so if I'm lucky, it's a belt that my friend Scott can replace. If I'm less lucky, it's the alternator. Either way, I get to drive the ailing Beetle (and hope the local guy is right about what's wrong with it, since his diagnosis is based solely on my description) until it stops raining long enough for me to get a good look under the hood of the Trooper.

None of this is particularly helping me get in any kind of holiday spirit. Hard to buy Christmas presents (or even go shopping, for that matter) when I keep pouring money into car repairs.

Ah... the joys of tiny cars.

I'm starting to realize that the big tall truck with its great big tires was remarkably immune to road hazards which attack its smaller kindred. ( Random car stuff back here... )

After that, I'll be down to the fun stuff... upgrading the stereo head unit to one with an iPod interface. Whee!

Gleep and I are home. The trip was uneventful, and he's been to the office to be approved of by my VW-geek friend Ron, and I've been over to visit w/ Dick and Sharon across the street to catch up on the neighborhood news. Gotta love neighbors that you can drop in on at almost 11 p.m. and be met w/ beer (Lost Coast Raspberry Brown... my favorite!), cheese and crackers. Granted, the timing was 'cause Dick was getting home about 11 from a business trip to Minneapolis, but still... my neighbors are awesome.

More tomorrow... pictures, trip report, mileage, etc. ... first, I must sleep and snuggle dogs (though not necessarily in that order).

Well, okay, first I hit the air, and then the road.

My flight to Dallas leaves at 11ish in the morning. The car dealer's meeting me at the airport (possibly in the Beetle!), then we'll go do paperwork and all that jazz, then I hit the road.

Hmmm... it's been a long time since I spent any time driving a stick... and now I get to polish up my stick-shift-driving chops in rush-hour traffic in Dallas. Whee! That should be fun.

I'll probably stop for the night in Little Rock or maybe Memphis... depends on whether I'm sleepy and how the trip's going.

I guess I should pack, eh?

iPod... GPS... change of clothes... laptop... camera... oh yeah, the cashier's check for the car.

That's all my brain can say... the soundtrack for my day has been a slightly panicked bouncy voice in the back of my head going "beetlebeetlebeetleMEETINGbeetlebeetleARGH/STATSbeetlebeetlebeetle..."

I don't know why I'm working (well, except for the meetings and the stats, which did get done and which I think were even coherent), because at this rate I'm going to be mostly useless 'til Tuesday when I can go get the car.

This is a first for me (as if you can't tell)... I've bought cars before, but never online and never essentially sight-unseen. I've always done the haggle-em-down, walk-away, come-back haggle-down-more process.

I actually enjoy the whole haggling process... but this time there was no real room to haggle, and I was too far away to do so effectively anyway, since the haggling would be based on ThingsICanSee (since I can't exactly haggle sheer price since the car's already about $2k below NADA).

It's kinda entertaining and more than a little bit weird. I have an invoice... and I have insurance... but the car is still this semi-mythical thing off in the Land Of Texas.

But it's a cute semi-mythical thing in Texas!

( See? Oooooh... shiny! )