food for fish

God is teaching me patience, and rightfully so. It seems this patience lesson is coming through by using my car, you see over the last month I have had much for my car or to my car�. "It's story time with Travis."

It starts out with getting a routine oil change, in which I take my car to Jiffy Lube for a "signature" oil change; you know the works; vacuum, check lights, top off the fluids, clean the windows. I notice over the next few hours how my car is acting a little funny, but I can't quite put my finger on it, then the next day I notice a whirring noise while I accelerate, and the infamous "check engine" light comes on, okay now I start to worry, what does the check engine light mean? Is it safe to drive? Is it just going to die on me? Come on give me more details then "Check engine"! So, I manage to leave work early and take the car back to Jiffy Lube where they take about two seconds to "check things over" and promptly tell me they don't see anything wrong, and they don�t have the computer to see what "check engine" light is all about., they suggest go to Subaru. So I beg and plead Subaru to look at it for me, because they said Monday was the earliest. I get to Subaru Service, and what do they say� "Um sir, your air filter is missing and the housing was not screwed into place", I laugh and then frown, because this means Jiffy Lube did not replace my air filter! So, Subaru replaces it, charges me $122.00 just to look at it and install a new filter, so I promptly go back to Jiffy Lube, and the guy behind the counter apologizes, then goes to the shop and yells at all his men, and gives them a stern talking to. Jiffy Lube a week later mails me a check for $122.00.

So a week later I get rear ended, not too badly, but there are some scratches to go along with the dent I already put in my bumper back in the fall. Everything seems okay, I call the police they come out; give us the papers to report the damage to our insurance companies, and all looks well. Until I call the other guys insurance company and it turns out he isn't a policy holder for All State, and so I call my insurance company and thankfully I can still claim the damage but I'll have to pay $300 instead of Zero, but that's better than the $500 they said I would need to pay if they couldn't find the guy at all. So I take my car into the body shop about another week later, they say "oh yeah, one day no problem". So my roommate and I go out to my parents house, I pick up my mom's car to drive for the day, and my roommate, driving my car, follows me out to the shop to drop my car off. The day the car is being worked on, I start heading back to the shop around 4:00pm, because they said it would be done around that time. On my way there I encounter the WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) paving the highway I was using, and so I sat in construction for 25 min, just as I was beginning to move again, I get a phone call from the shop. "Were sorry but your car wont' be done until tomorrow because we had a problem with the part from Subaru"� I'm thinking to my self "What can go wrong w/ a bumper cover?" and "Great now I have to drive back through this mess", but thankfully the friend who was going to help me get my car and follow me back to my parent's to take my mom's car back, hung out w/ me the rest of the day. That was fun. So the next day, the car was finished, it looked sweet. My friend Matt offered to help me do the car switch back to my parents; upon arrival of my parent's house I discover that the security system in my car isn't working right, great, just great another problem with the car.

So the next day, I take the car back to the shop, tell them what's going on, they take a look, and they can't figure it out. So they suggest take it to Subaru, so I call Subaru, they ask a few questions, "is your security light flashing fast", answer "YES", solution "Turn the car off, open the driver's door, hold the 'unlock' button for 5 seconds".. I say "okay". I do, and now problem fixed, two days of a security system not working all because the car was in "valet" mode!

So, now I make one more claim to the insurance company because my windshield has been cracked for quite some time now, and the driver's side fog lamp has been busted for about the same time. Thankfully because they were busted at the same "event" it's one deductible, of only $100 for both the windshield and fog lamp. The fog lamp it self is like $175! So, I make an appointment to have my windshield repaired the day after I was suppose to have my car back from the shop, well that didn't happen so I had to reschedule (a lot of things actually), but it worked out and I had the windshield scheduled for Friday. They come out, tell me all about the procedures for replacing the windshield, to not slam my doors, etc, etc� Then I get a call at my desk, the new windshield basically folded on its self when he installed it, and they don�t have a replacement on hand until Saturday. Great, so now I have this huge crack, with chunks on my dashboard and everything, through my windshield, on the driver's side. I'm thinking to myself, what else could go wrong w/ this car. So the next day he comes out, replaces the windshield everything is good.

So, I call Subaru to schedule a time to replace the fog lamp, which was supposed to be today. I get there, and I'm sitting in the waiting room for about 30 min before they come out to tell me they don't have a fog lamp in stock, and need to order one and it will take probably until next week, maybe Friday, but no sooner. Thanks, thanks for letting me sit for 30 min before finding out you didn't have the part in stock! But that's okay... I said and went on with my day.

Had this been a few years ago, I would have been so upset at Jiffy lube I would have blown a cork, I would have demanded a rental car from the shop, and driven back to the Auto Glass shop to have a windshield put on right away, and told Subaru to order a new fog lamp express shipping, but I've learned, be patient, things work out, and it really doesn't make a difference when it happens. And you know what, each person I came in contact with who had to give me the bad news, thanked me for my patience� If they only knew what I was thinking� thankfully I can control my tong and attitude, most of the time. I had times of frustration, and certainly my friends saw that, especially the security system problem, I don't know why, but that really irked me. I'm beginning to wonder if people just don't know how to work on my car, or what the deal is... but Patience really is a virtue. Thank God.