Our first group of children is gone - hallelujah. There are around 25 kids staying either 4 or 6 weeks, but today they're all either on trips or being amused by a skeleton staff with board games and movies. The rest of us have the day off, so I'm sitting in the Volkswagen dealership typing this in Word and will transfer it over when I get Internet again. I'm going to try to find a Panera or a Starbucks with a wireless connection so I can download some music - the camp is behind a firewall, so I'm quite limited in what I can do there. No MSN Messenger, no websites with unsecure items (including the Chapel Hill student website, bah), and no Limewire.
I just went to Dick's Sporting Goods, trying to find another Endurance suit (that special material that doesn't wear out as fast as lycra). Mine lasted a long time, but the lining is finally starting to rip out - every time I pull it on, I make the holes bigger and bigger. At home, they have tons of those suits - I see them on the racks every time I visit Dick's - so I was happy that there was a store so close to the camp. However, when I walked in and asked for them, I was told that (a) they don't have any, and (b) they only carry swimsuits, period, for three months out of the year. I was shocked. It really is a different world up here. Guess I'll have to order off the website, or wait another month until I'm home. I have other suits with me; they're just not as good as that one.
Hah. The VW tech just came out and told the man at the front desk, Billy, that my car has a leak somewhere in the cooling system, and they're going to go in with a blacklight and try to find the spot. I didn't say anything, but I feel slightly vindicated. Billy is a very nice guy, but he was trying to tell me that charging the AC up (meaning just putting in more refrigerant) was probably all that was needed, when Dad had specifically told me in an email that freon (or whatever gas they use now - something with letters and numbers - F-134?) can't just disappear - it has to go somewhere. So I told Billy I didn't understand how simply filling it up again would fix the problem, since the gas had to have leaked out somewhere, and he sort of hemmed and hawed about evaporation and then said, "Well, we can have them check for leaks first," in a way that suggested, "If that's what you want - I'm only doing this to humor you." Well, HA. So there.
After they get finished, I'm going to go back to the Panera here in Augusta and have lunch and try to get on the Internet, then check the movie times for Pirates of the Caribbean II and confer with Mel and Laura (friends back at camp) as to what time they'd like to go see it. I'm also thinking about going to Target (although the closest one is really close to Freeport, so I might end up getting drawn back there if I try to hit up Target), and I also want to work out in the athletic center and maybe, if there's time, lie out on the dock. I was determined that this would be the year I attained some hint of color on my pasty white belly, but since we're not allowed to wear two-pieces in front of the kids, the contrast between my limbs and my core is only growing more distinct.) And last but not least, I want to go to bed early. I am really hurting for a night of about 9-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep - no alarms, no children who have to go to bed before we can, and no 5:30 sun coming in the window and waking me up. (I have an east-facing window at the head of my bed, and I cannot get used to being this far from the equator - the sun comes up so early here! It's like being back in the Netherlands.)
Guess that's all for now...
UPDATE: "Only a charge," yeah, right. Turns out there is a massive leak in one of the main pipes of the cooling system, requiring a $225 part and 4-5 hours of labor (=$350), during which they will be essentially dismantling the entire front half of the car (taking the bumper off, etc.). Meaning I have to figure out how to get the car into Augusta on a weekday, since the job is too labor-intensive to do it on a Saturday with a skeleton crew. Oh, and they also charged me $140 for the diagnostic stuff they did today (putting in the dye, running the blacklight, finding the location of the leak, etc.)
Big, big sigh. But what choice do I have?
I just went to Dick's Sporting Goods, trying to find another Endurance suit (that special material that doesn't wear out as fast as lycra). Mine lasted a long time, but the lining is finally starting to rip out - every time I pull it on, I make the holes bigger and bigger. At home, they have tons of those suits - I see them on the racks every time I visit Dick's - so I was happy that there was a store so close to the camp. However, when I walked in and asked for them, I was told that (a) they don't have any, and (b) they only carry swimsuits, period, for three months out of the year. I was shocked. It really is a different world up here. Guess I'll have to order off the website, or wait another month until I'm home. I have other suits with me; they're just not as good as that one.
Hah. The VW tech just came out and told the man at the front desk, Billy, that my car has a leak somewhere in the cooling system, and they're going to go in with a blacklight and try to find the spot. I didn't say anything, but I feel slightly vindicated. Billy is a very nice guy, but he was trying to tell me that charging the AC up (meaning just putting in more refrigerant) was probably all that was needed, when Dad had specifically told me in an email that freon (or whatever gas they use now - something with letters and numbers - F-134?) can't just disappear - it has to go somewhere. So I told Billy I didn't understand how simply filling it up again would fix the problem, since the gas had to have leaked out somewhere, and he sort of hemmed and hawed about evaporation and then said, "Well, we can have them check for leaks first," in a way that suggested, "If that's what you want - I'm only doing this to humor you." Well, HA. So there.
After they get finished, I'm going to go back to the Panera here in Augusta and have lunch and try to get on the Internet, then check the movie times for Pirates of the Caribbean II and confer with Mel and Laura (friends back at camp) as to what time they'd like to go see it. I'm also thinking about going to Target (although the closest one is really close to Freeport, so I might end up getting drawn back there if I try to hit up Target), and I also want to work out in the athletic center and maybe, if there's time, lie out on the dock. I was determined that this would be the year I attained some hint of color on my pasty white belly, but since we're not allowed to wear two-pieces in front of the kids, the contrast between my limbs and my core is only growing more distinct.) And last but not least, I want to go to bed early. I am really hurting for a night of about 9-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep - no alarms, no children who have to go to bed before we can, and no 5:30 sun coming in the window and waking me up. (I have an east-facing window at the head of my bed, and I cannot get used to being this far from the equator - the sun comes up so early here! It's like being back in the Netherlands.)
Guess that's all for now...
UPDATE: "Only a charge," yeah, right. Turns out there is a massive leak in one of the main pipes of the cooling system, requiring a $225 part and 4-5 hours of labor (=$350), during which they will be essentially dismantling the entire front half of the car (taking the bumper off, etc.). Meaning I have to figure out how to get the car into Augusta on a weekday, since the job is too labor-intensive to do it on a Saturday with a skeleton crew. Oh, and they also charged me $140 for the diagnostic stuff they did today (putting in the dye, running the blacklight, finding the location of the leak, etc.)
Big, big sigh. But what choice do I have?
stormed at 14:06
1 Comments:
What choice do you have? Buy a Toyota. They're much easier to fix, and they don't break nearly as often as that overly complex, over-engineered German engineering. Once VW ditched the original Käfer, it's been a long downhill spiral. Yours is a testimonial to how much high-tech stuff can be crammed into a small space.
And in most things, I'm about the most pro-German individual you'll ever meet - but I've lost WAY too much skin, blood and time trying to fix new VW's.
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