VW and Me

It's all TBG's fault, actually.  He jinxed the whole thing by his one, off-hand comment last weekend.

"Y'know, The Schnozz has been basically a trouble free car.  You haven't had anything major or expensive to deal with."

From his mouth to Satan's ear, for sure, because this morning, on my way to Mah Jongg and the middle school and the furniture store and the gym and the library and the grocery, with the clouds lowering and the windshield showing a smattering of tiny drops, my sunroof refused to close.

Yes, I know, in a normal climate a temperature of 84F would require the air conditioner at full blast.  Here in Tucson, though, we start opening our windows and reaching for sweaters once we're back down into double digits.  84 was perfect for smelling the desert air, creosote on the breeze, nothing mechanical to cool me... perfect for lowered windows and open sunroofs.

It got half way there, and retreated.  Then it wouldn't move at all.  Then it went an inch and stopped.   Clearly, something was amiss.  I pulled off onto a side street and called the dealership.  Certainly there would be a fuse I could pull and reinsert to fix the problem, I thought, conveniently forgetting that it cost $75 to replace the rear tail lightbulb, with a See a Certified Mechanic to perform this operation warning in the manual.

Sure, they could look at the car today.  Sure, they could drop me off at home.  No, there was no simple fix.

So, Andrew took The Schnozz, a Brazilian music major recently relocated from Juneau drove me home, and TBG held me as I responded to Andrew's phone call.

"The mechanic managed to get it closed...."  and right away I knew I was in trouble.  $1700+ worth of trouble.  Apparently, the track on the frame is bent, requiring the replacement of the entire mechanism.  The part is not in stock.  It will take the better part of a day to install.

On the bright side, for this kind of thing, for sure they have a loaner for me.

I hate car trouble.  I use my car as a purse, carrying my stuff from hither to yon.  My purses don't break, and when they do, I throw them away and get another.  I don't let their break downs eat into my soul the way I allow automotive and computer problems to take up residence and start chewing from the inside out.

This is only money.  I was safe, if somewhat wet, and there is a plan in place to resolve the issue.  I should be able to let go.  I keep telling myself that it's not my fault, that no elephants climbed on the roof of the car, that leaving it open last night didn't do lasting damage, that I could honestly answer All the time when Andrew wondered when I last opened the damn thing.  Apparently, some people keep them closed from April til October and they get stuck.

I'm trying to find an answer to the unanswerable.  I'm getting pretty good at that, it seems.