Well, turns out that my mechanic did not tell me whether he got the OK from his co-owner to charge what I owe the body shop onto his card reader in time. By 3:30, about 90 minutes before the auto body shop closed for the day, I caved; I told Mother that they surprised me by saying it was cash only, and I made her take me to the bank before the auto body shop. Good thing; on my way to said shop my mechanic told me that his co-owner finally got back to him and he did not have the OK.
Got there, told Mother she didn't have to stick around, she said of course she would, I got a little freaked out that she's going to notice that the total bill was $850 and not $750 like I said, and ... I got bailed out when the guy who managed the makeover of my car took me behind his shop to the street. There are, like, a dozen shops clustered in this area, so if business is good, they need overflow spots. Good thing is that we walked to my car while Mother was turning around the minivan. I don't know if she even saw me leave. Eventually she parked it out on the street and waited for me where she dropped me off -- while me and the guy were on the next street over. Helped me feel like she was out of my hair. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten into my business, but, well, being physically far away from her helped me ease my nerves.
Somewhat. I took a quick look around the body of the car. Through his thick Mexican accent, I believe he said he repainted and repolished only the left side of the car because most of the rust spots were or were about to erupt on that side. They also buffed out the scratches I think my mechanic made when replacing the power steering hose, largely. I had abandoned trying to fix scratches I put on when I scratched it against my parents' minivan three years ago, I didn't tell them about that, and it was on the other side, so I'm not sure if they removed that. In fact, I don't know if they filled in the scratches at all. Thought the mechanic told them to do that. I also noticed a big polish smell inside the car. He said the worked on the interior a little bit, too. Saw that they lacquered the hell out of a couple places, like the emergency brake.
Look, all in all, it looks good, but partly because I didn't want to dawdle before Mother sauntered our way and "found out" about us, I just gave him the money once I went around the car one time. The rust spots are gone, and that's great news. Now I just hope they don't come back. I had rust removed from the top edge of my windshield several years back. It was the result of a half-ass job done by a drive-by windshield repair company Father brought home. Right now I still don't see any rust, but that was after I paid $800 and gave these guys (another body shop, one much closer to home) an entire workweek to work on it. These guys gave me back my car after two days. That worries me. Plus it was raining off and on yesterday; is that a going to be a problem? I thought the mechanic said it took 48 hours to dry, and I don't believe they started painting until Thursday. Finally, it's raining today. Bottom line: I am not sure if these guys have done a good job, but I don't really know until a year, two years from now -- assuming that the job was bad paint starts running off the car right now.
Oh, and the hood ... yeah, that looks alright. Everything seems to be in place, and it hasn't popped open yet. The dents seemed to be banged out. In fact, there was a dent right up against the side of my left headlight that I decided not to fix, and it looked like (because it was on the driver's side, the one where I pointed out all the rust) they did their best to straighten and paint over it. That's good. But I have yet to open the hood and close it. I hope it works, I assume it will, but I'm afraid of opening it because apparently I have no fucking ability to close it. Goddamn, I still don't believe I didn't close it. I still cannot believe I made the mistake of not closing it all the way because it cost me so much money. Seriously, this damages my account for at least the next few months, and this might derail my pile of money for the rest of the year, and beyond. And all because I didn't close the hood all the way?
I had no major plans this week, but looking back, I'm astonished how the car has been my main -- my only -- concern all week. The whole week centered around my car -- how to fix it, how much, when am I going to get it back, where can I go without it, where can't I go without it, what alternative plans do I have to make in order to get back to it once it's fixed, etc. And all because the fucking hood popped up Monday morning. I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD THIS IS NOT MY FAULT!!! AND NOW I'M BROKE BECAUSE OF IT???
It's confusing, it's outrageously unfair, it still could be bullshit; if the hood pops up suddenly on the way home, then I know it's not my fault. But the thing that keeps me from totally losing my mind is that I now have this whole goddamn episode behind me. And the problems with vibrations and slow acceleration, well, those are problems I'll deal with another time. This fucking episode is over now:
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