As most of you know, I have been unemployed now for almost two years. The few jobs I had been offered, were one I had not even applied for. They were contacting me saying how well my resume matched with what they were looking for. We were a perfect match! One of the ones I was referring to here, was from a company that wanted me to go to all the businesses around Erie, and get them to sign up for the company I would represent, where the business accepts credit cards. Use their service instead of the banks and they would get a smaller service charge. Sounds sweet right? Wrong! Just on a whim, I was getting my car serviced, and I knew the counter people, and I asked them about this set up. They all laughed at me and said yeah, Right, we get at least 6 of those offers each week. Hmm, Does not sound like it would be a profitable deal for me either.
Another one who had contacted me, was a company that also said that my resume was exactly what they were looking for. I was to go to companies such as the one I had left, and get them to compare health insurance plans from the the big boys and compare to what company XYZ could do for them whom I represented. I responded to this one and asked how could i be such a perfect match when i do not have any sort of license to sell any sort of insurance as they are claiming? I did get a response. Not what I had expected, but they related that they would help me find the proper schooling to become an agent. I had pointed out in my resume that I had no such license.
Well, I had gotten off track here, so I will start to bring it around. My unemployment ran out, and I have been doing what I can to keep going. It has come to the point in the last few months that i had turned in most of my 401 k money to keep paying the bills. Last two months, I had dipped further into my horde of gold coins. Back in the day, when I had a great job, I had a good savings account, and I bought a few gold coins. It started out as Christmas gifts for my niece. She was into Panda Bears, and I found once in a coin shop that China had 24k gold coins with Panda on their faces. This was back in the day when Gold was in the $ 370./oz. range. I had purchased some 10th of an oz, and sometimes maybe a 1/4 oz sized coin for her each Christmas. I started to like them as well, and got a few for my self. And before you say, did I name them; "My Precious," no, I did not. I kept them in a safety deposit box. I had not been to that box in like 15 years.
Well, with my current economic situation, I had dipped into my horde. Last month, I sold two items. One was a 10 gram Credit Suisse 24k gold bar.
The next item also sold last month to pay bills was my gold necklace that I had owned for more than 20 years. For just these two items, I had rec'd $ 682.52 WOW, I was in heaven. I was flush with money once again. This was when gold was at $ 1560/oz. After paying bills, I still had some money. That is when the curse set in. Within a few days, that is when the wheel broke off my car. Refer to older post. I had given it no further thought about it.
Comes this month, on the 15th, to be exact, I traded in a 1/10 oz Panda coin, and a 20 Franc French Gold coin. Gold had continued to go up. For these two coins, the Panda is smaller than a dime, and the franc coins is just wider than a nickle. BTW: The franc coin was only 18k. These brought me $ 485. Again, I paid bills and was ahead a little.
Well, once again, within a few days, The car broke down. I was on my way for routine maintenance on the car, and I was driving thru Wesleyville in the outskirts of Erie to go to Monro muffler Shop to get oil change, and tire balance. Right in the middle of town, the engine shuts off. I am moving, but dash lights come on, and steering becomes hard. Thankfully, I did not panic, and was able to steer to side of road. I called Monro, and told them what had happened and I would be late. they understood, and were sorry that they did not have a towing service. So, for the second time in two months, a wrecker was called for a tow. Here is an interesting fact. Vehicles with all-wheel drive should not be lifted and towed. Could ruin the drive trane. They should be loaded onto a flatbed. The curse of all of this was, I was only 4/10ths of a mile from Monro when I broke down. From the side of the road while I was awaiting the tow truck, I could see the sign for Monro's.
Alas, flatbed towers are not as readily available as the normal wreckers. So, I had to wait just over an hour and 15 minutes. Great Job for McMillan Towing. They were the ones contacted thru AAA for the towing job, and they did call to let me know where they were, and that they were on the way. Hooked me up and gave me a ride to Monro. driver was very friendly and a great help. While I had to time to sit and think while waiting to be picked up is when I had come to think of the Gold as Cursed. It must be Leprechaun Gold, and when it came out into the sunlight the leprechaun could see where his stolen gold was at and could curse the owner. Both times I sold it, The car needed expensive repairs.
Finally at Monro's and over an hour late, they still made time for my car. it had to manually pushed into the work bay, and i never saw any complaints from the workers. They started in on mine while working around the ones that were scheduled in already at their appointed times. Good thing a have a learned habit that seems to run in my family, I almost always have a book with me when I know I may have some butt time sitting. After quite a few chapters, the manager asked me to come out into the bays where my car was. That is not a good sign. I got there, and I saw that my valve cover had been removed from the top of the motor block. They said that there were almost positive what the problem was from the moment I called and said what had happened and why I was going to be late for my scheduled appointment. It was the Timing Belt. It definitely was broke, and that it is a major expense. Chuck ( the manager ) said that he would highly recommend that he also replace the water pump, because when like the timing belt goes, almost always the water pump goes like within a month. As long as they need to do almost a 60% rebuild on the motor to do the timing belt, it is far easier to do the water pump at the same time. I agreed and he gave me a quote.
I intake a big breath at the estimate. He said was a ball park and would, get a better one once we went back inside the office. Original estimate was for about $ 1700. OUCH. He found the part prices, and labor, and fiddled here and there, and gave me a revised estimate of just over $ 1500. He said that since is doing the water pump at the same time he was able to do me a bit better. Still it is quite high, but did cut off 200 bucks. Thank God for friends and Credit Cards. I asked how long this all may take, and was told that it is normally a two whole day job for all that we had there. Since it was already about 5 Pm I figured I would not get it back until Saturday sometime. he asked how I was going to get home, I had said I originally was going to wait on it, but I guess I will have to call some one. he told me to just sit and wait, and as soon as he could free up one of his guys, they would give me a ride home.
As we were chatting there, I was kidding around saying that I guess I will be having quite a few TV dinners for the next few days. You always would go grocery shopping before you car goes in for repair for a few days and since I expected to be driving home today, I will scrounge for the next few days. The driver dropped me off at home and I circled the wagons to wait out the repairs.
This all started on Wednesday. I am trying to break from my father. I had the original appointment set for 2 PM, and I was going to be there at 1:30. If any of you knew my father, he was perpetually late for appointments. I guess I am cursed to be my fathers son. Even with the best intentions, and leaving early, I still managed to be over an hour late. Once there was a free spot from customers, I was offered a ride home and I got home just after 6 PM.
Come Thursday afternoon, I hear a loud knocking downstairs at the front door to Aunt Mary's. That is unusual because almost all the delivery people just ring her doorbell. I was sitting in the computer room and I looked out because a knock is so unusual. I see parked out front a blue Honda CR-V That looks familiar. I look back at the tire cover. It is dry rotted on top. WAIT A MINUTE! That is my car. How could that be? It is only 2:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, the day after I dropped my car off. It was fixed! WOW. I did not expect this to happen until late Friday afternoon/evening or Saturday morning. They came to pick me up. WOW
As the final bill was being prepared, Chuck, the manager said that he does not like having to leave people without their cars and have to eat TV dinners, so he, himself, came in two hours early before the shop was to open, and he started on my car because he could work without interruptions. And, after he had done his work, another tech had stepped in and done his part, and they got it fixed as quickly as they could. On a job that is scheduled to take nearly two full days, they had the job completed in less than 24 hours. JOB WELL DONE MONRO. I Thank The company, the manager, Chuck Simpson, and the techs, R Miller, and D Churchill
They really live up to their Logo .
One last entry here, my Blog would never be complete without a photo of the work being done. here is the top of my engine with valve cover removed. the first photo has a black belt shown at bottom of the photo. That is the timing belt. and the second photo is showing how tightly the engine fits into the compartment and the spaces they had to work in.
