Ted the mechanic

This room won't stop spinning.

Last night, my team had its first outing and I chose to finish all the beer. As is the case with any dysfunctional group trying to socialize, there was plenty of awkward silence, needless bragging and polite laughter. I chose to drink and let the boss yack, after feeding him with some potent questions (and I did want to hear his opinion, wonder how much of a kiss-ass I came off as). Later, dinner with friends meant vodka, wine and more vodka. I wasn't hungover this morning (thanks for the fruity cocktails R!), but was sleepy as hell. I can make do without caffeine on a daily basis, and I use coffee for days such as these, but I need to limit myself. I had a large cup of near black java and I've been jittery for the last 3 hours.

As a result I've been awfully cheerful, and insanely productive. I can probably slack off for an hour or two, so hello world!

I'm gearing up for a trip to Bangalore, and am sorely unprepared. I have tickets, but that's about it. My roommie moves out the day I leave, so I'm hoping he'll clean his part of the house and won't rob my place. Need to find volunteers to water the near-dead plants in my absence, clean the kitchen, wipe off all the bile from the WCs, vacuum, laundry... AAAAAAAH. It doesn't help that I'm working weekends and late nights, so I have no energy left when I get back home. That and God of War 3. Still, the flight's a week away and I need to get my act together.

Last Christmas, I lost control of my shiny-red on ice, and bumped the curb. The steering was all whacked and the bumper popped out a bit. I took it to an auto-shop who told me I needed to replace a rim and everything else was dandy. We had no luck with that, and I was told that wheels were rotated so I had another bent rim which no one had found so far. So a few more hundreds down the hole, I now had two new rims. There was still some vibration, but it was far lesser so I figured it was due to snow and shitty mountain roads. New tires, new wheel bearings, we tried everything. When I heard a weird clicking noise on left turns, I had enough and asked the mechanic to bugger off. I'm not 100% certain my dealer is honest (well, which one is, anyway?), but I had to go there. He found a bent ball joint in the wheel assembly, and the alignment was badly off. As a result I'd come close to shredding two tires, which are barely 3 months old. I had this claim backed up a third, independent mechanic, so there.

During the 5 months of trial and error, I kept asking the first mechanic if the wheel assembly and suspension was okay, I even expressed surprise that I didn't need alignment. Now, nearly $1500 down, I wondered if he is incompetent or just plain dishonest. All I wanted was $300 for the new tires. If he had bothered to align the wheels, he would have found the bent joint, and I wouldn't have shredded the tires. I bent the ball joint, I'll pay for it myself. I gave him a chance to explain his position, and he pretty much asked me to fuck off. Guess I got that cleared up. I've complained to the BBB, and am contemplating Small claims court, but some people say I don't have very good legal ground, since by driving a car that I knew had problems, I'm also responsible for the state my tires are in. Oh legal-ese, how I love thee.

What was I saying about honesty again?