Thursday, February 6, 2014

Good News, Bad News

There's an old joke that goes something like this.
A guy is in a car wreck. He wakes up in the hospital. The nurse comes in and tells him that there's good news and bad news.

The guy asks for the bad news first.

The nurse says, "We're going to have to remove your legs."

Then the guy asks for the good news.

The nurse says, "The guy beside you wants to buy your sneakers."
Our situation isn't quite that bad. To recap:

On Monday all three of our family vehicles were down with mechanical problems. Today we've got them all back - sort of.

Our daughter's SUV was a quick fix. It was ready early Tuesday morning. She had lost a couple of weights off one tire. I had all four tires balanced and rotated, and the front end aligned. The shimmy and shake is gone now, and it rides like a dream.

My wife's minivan was fixed the same day. It was gifted with a new radiator, had the cooling system flushed, and had two new tires slapped on it. So far, so good. But...

She also had a cracked windshield. We made arrangements for the auto glass company to meet us at home yesterday and replace the windshield. The good news - they showed up on time. The bad news - they brought the wrong windshield. They promise to be back today with the right one, but in the meantime the van is sitting in our garage sans windshield. Not much use when its cold and rainy, like it is now.

As for my truck, the good news was that the oil pump is just fine. The problem was a faulty sensor. The bad news is that the parts shop sent the wrong part - twice! When they finally delivered the right one it was defective. So the truck spent an extra day at the mechanics. I picked it up this afternoon and promptly headed out of town. Of course, once I got about 30 miles away the problem reappeared.

Sigh...

I called the shop to 'inform' them of the situation. The good news is that they swore up and down that the oil pump is fine. They put a manual gauge on it and the pressure held steady at the proper level. The bad news is that the truck has to go back in for a re-repair, leaving me without a vehicle for as long as it takes. But the good news is that they won't charge me.

And I get to keep my legs...



4 comments:

Bag Blog said...

My husband uses the "good news; bad news" line all the time. I have learned to just ask for the bad news, because usually there is no good news. We were moving into a new house once. He was bringing the last of the yard stuff to the new house. When he walked in, he asked me if I wanted the good news or the bad news. I, of course, said bad news. He said, "While I was driving down the highway about 65 MPH, the rabbit hutch (children's pets) fell over and the rabbits went flying out onto the road. They were mangled. I had to put them out of their misery." Horrified, I asked what the good news was. He replied, "We are having rabbit for dinner."

jeff said...

Well I won't try and top the Bag Blog story...sheeesh.

But as far a vehicles if it's got tits or tires..you know.
After a few thousand dollars and three trips to the repair shop I finally got my Avalanche back, good news to be sure. Bad news, same thing that precluded the trans going out started again. Come to find out there is a three hundred dollar motor that would have fixed the problem in the first place.

Old NFO said...

Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad... :-)

CenTexTim said...

BB - nothing like a delicious rabbit casserole for dinner... :-)

Jeff - I just hate that 'replace-parts-until-the-problem-goes-away' approach. Sometimes, however, that's the only way to figure it out. At least you've got it back, and it's running...

NFO - At this point I'm thrilled with 2 out of 3.