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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Rejected

No one likes being rejected.

And, the feeling is multiplied when the world knows... Because the person doing the rejection put a big ole sticker on her with a giant X and the word "REJECTION" in ugly capital letters.

Embarrassing.

My poor little car.  She failed her annual inspection.  And now, she is humbly sitting in my driveway wearing a humiliating pink sticker on her windshield at the mercy of ME to get her fixed.  Bless her little engine.

My dad is incredible about things like car inspections.  I guarantee you that at any given moment he could tell you the exact day when his car inspection expires.  He goes to a local mechanic named Rex who lowers a car a good five feet when he sits in the driver seat.  (Side Note: His business is actually called "Rex A. Cars."  I do not lie.)  Anyway, growing up, I NEVER thought about silly things like the date of the sticker on the front of my car.  Then, I got married. 

Jeff takes a different approach to car inspections.  His belief falls more in line with "cheating the system" to see how many extra months you can get out of an inspection sticker before actually getting a ticket, at which point - according to VA law - you have 30 days to get your car inspected and the ticket is void. He is an expert at this method.  Last year, he received approximately four tickets in the month leading up to his well-timed $16 inspection.

I am proud to report that this year, I had successfully made it three months with an expired sticker and was going strong.  Then, ENTER POPPY.  (Some sister - who will go unnamed - had to go and rat me out.) At 91, if you notice something that isn't right you, quite literally, have NOTHING else to do but think about it ALL the time.  (Example: Last week, he called THE MAYOR'S OFFICE to complain because my neighbor's trash hadn't been picked up.)  On Thursday, he called me at work to tell me he had made me an appointment with his mechanic for that afternoon.  Operation aborted. He called me four more times to remind me of the appointment.  So I went,  and she failed.  Stupid airbag light.

To make matters worse, ONLY the one Toyota dealership in town can fix this problem.  Oh, great, they aren't busy with maintenance right now at all. 

I have 15 days to get this problem fixed.  Toyota can't see me until late next week.  They quoted me between $50 and $80 just to run a diagnostic to  find the problem... Then, who knows.  If it takes longer than 15 days to get the needed parts etc, not only will I have to pay for them... But I'll also owe another $16 for a whole new inspection.

I was better off with an old sticker.  Jeff, you are so wise.

1 comment:

  1. No fun! So glad that Alabama doesn't have a yearly inspection. I know that Brian's car wouldn't pass we are just trying to run it into the ground until we can get a newer car sometime later this year.

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