A Moment of Silence.....PLEASE

I may have mentioned this in a recent post. Then again, probably not. I have been so busy and a hundred posts have been rolling around in my brain, but I have not taken the time to do much posting. You see, with the Holidays, a week at Disney World, extended work hours and finally moving all of my belongings to Bama, well, I just have not had much time. Not to mention all of the different forms of stress I have been enduring lately.

Several weeks ago, the pulley came apart on my alternator on the big truck. I was sent to 3 different shops before the appropriate repairs could be made. In order to assure my arrival at each new location, I had been given a total of 12 new batteries to ensure I would make the distance.

The final shop secured a used alternator and pulley, installed the final four new batteries and sent me on my way.

I immediately noticed that my generator was no longer working, so I inquired to my local mechanics to make sure all the cables were mounted properly. After a quick once over, I was told the batteries and cables were fine, but my inverter had taken a dump.

I set out on my route and by the time I made it into Massachusetts, the computer in my truck was freaking out. Indicating multiple problems at random, with no consistent symptoms. I did manage to find that one of the cables had not been attached to the battery post. After securing it, the truck seemed to return to normal....  for about 3 hours.

Then it started again. Completely at random, it would send false signals, initiate the windshield wiper delay and sound off warning buzzers. 

After 6 weeks of this, and having 3 different shops take a look at her, she finally lost it. The truck that is, but I was not too far behind in my mental capacity. Last week, I made an appointment at our Charlotte shop to finally get the etched windshield replaced and thought maybe, just maybe, Charlotte would be able to diagnose my problems. I was scheduled to arrive any day before 3pm, to have the repairs made. I was on track for a Thursday arrival, but was told on Tuesday that the mechanic would be in New York that day. This is when I came unglued. I was in tears, actually, because my nerves had been pushed to the limits with both the computer and the windshield. I decided to make one last ditch effort and stop at our South Atlanta shop. I was prepared to sit there as long as necessary until ALL of my concerns were addressed.

Instead, they found me a hunk of junk to use for the next few days. It was so horrible!!!  Still set to run 62mph, which we all know leads to one very irate and anxious little girl. But this was not the problem. The problem was......6th gear was about to fall apart, the transmission whined so loudly you could not hear yourself think, it had a major exhaust leak and  it would not pull a noodle out of a bowl of spaghetti. There was no way I was going to NYC in a truck that probably could not make it, but also, I could not reach the pedals in this one. Very important for safe maneuvering.

So, the Boss found a truck. My jewel has been sent to Volvo. And my mental capacity has stabilized..for now!!

Just so you get a better idea of what I was dealing with, I included a short clip featuring the antics of my trucks computer. The video was taken while I was sitting still, so for illustrative purposes, imagine actually cruising down the highway with a very annoying buzzer screaming in your ears, while the wipers are racing to and fro across the dash. You can not silence the buzzer, you can not stop the wipers, and the headlights are disappearing for up to 30 seconds at a time.

ahhhhhh......Good Times!