What a day...

[DetroitNut90]

Friday was the suckiest day of the summer. First off, my alarm clock didn't go off when it was supposed to, meaning that my mom came in very pissed off at me (I work at my parents' office, so that means she's my boss as well as my mom). Second, we ran out of my cereal, which meant that breakfast consisted of a very old, very dry Quaker oatmeal square. Third, it was hot-very hot and humid, and the air conditioner in the office decided to crap out on my side of the building-and only my side. But the worst part of the day was that my truck got sick-very, very sick.

My dad usually drives it into work because he gets up before my mom and I do, so he gets his choice of vehicle. And he takes the truck. So as he's on the Beltway, he says that the engine shuts off and then turns back on. Then, he hears a clunk and his speed drops very rapidly. He thinks he has a flat tire, so he presses down on the gas and the clunking gets louder and faster. It's then when he realizes that the driveshaft snapped, and the clunking noise is the shaft smacking the road and the underside of the truck. He calls around the time I woke up and tells me that he needs my mom to call AAA for a tow truck. He only tells me the truck isn't working properly. We end up passing him on the Beltway on the way to work-he didn't want us to stop for him. And that's when I see the driveshaft hanging off of the truck.

But this problem can be traced back to another problem we had earlier in the summer. We had gotten home from my grandparents' house when he noticed that oil/fluid was leaking out of the back of the truck. Turned out that a valve seal had come loose, which prompted a trip to Carmax to have it fixed. The technician that serviced it said that it was not something GM did. He said that what had most likely happened was that a rock or something hit it and made it slip off. I didn't know what to make of that, but it wasn't leaking anymore, and we really needed the truck back.

So when he got into the office Friday morning, I asked if that was the only thing that had happened to the truck. He said that there was more than that-and I'll give y'all three guesses as to what we found underneath the truck that morning. If you guesses oil/other fluids, you're right. According to the independent garage we took the truck to, the Carmax technician didn't fix the valve seal like he should have, so the seal came loose again, causing the fluid to leak again, which somehow led to the driveshaft falling off. It's been out of commission since then, but on the bright side, we got an '06 Mazda6 as a rental, complete with the auto-manual transmission. Only I can't drive it-I'm not 25 yet. I'm mad with Enterprise right now.

Later in the day, my family and I went down to see my grandparents'. I almost got ran off the road by a riced Civic on the way, so that didn't sit very well with me. But something more confusing than anything happened a little while after we got there. We went into Ocean City for some Phillips carry-out. I had to use the rest room, and while I was washing my hands when this guy my age comes out of a stall. We talked for a moment when he told me he likes my a$$ and started hitting on me. Words usually don't fail me, but I couldn't think of what to say. I thought about reciprocating to be polite, but I didn't think that I could fake something like that. So I just said "Do ya really think so?" I got a yeah, I do in reply. I was afraid that this wouldn't end, but his cell phone rang and he excused himself to take the call. I didn't know what to make of this situation-I've really never been hit on before by anyone-guy or girl-so this was new to me. I was a little flattered that someone found my rear attractive, but a little wierded-out that my first experience ended up being in a bathroom.

Needless to say, I was very happy to pop a few Advils and go to bed that night. Thanks for listening, y'all.

[Variance]

'Twas truly a freaky Friday.

[Flybrian]

Can I just tell you that the thought of a person sitting down at the table to eat on Quaker oatmeal square is making me laugh my ass off?

[76ChevyTrucker]

Sorry you had a crappy day man. what valve seal broke on the truck. There should only be two real seals concerning the driveshaft, one being the tailshaft seal on the transmission/transfer case, the other being the pinion seal on the differential.

[DetroitNut90]

I'm not entirely sure which seals broke-I just understood that at least one broke and it was serious enough to land it in the service bay at the local Carmax. I imagine that it was the same seal that failed when the driveshaft snapped, but I dunno, car mechanicals have never been my forte.

[76ChevyTrucker]

I understand that and I'm put in that boat at least once a day at my job (CarQuest, I'm a parts guy).

[NOS2006]

Can I just tell you that the thought of a person sitting down at the table to eat on Quaker oatmeal square is making me laugh my ass off?

174599[/snapback]

You too? :rotflmao:

[ocnblu]

DetroitNut... you and your folks might have a case against the shop that changed the leaky seal. I hope it didn't do damage to the underside of the truck. Good luck finding the real cause of the dropped driveshaft.

About the guy in the bathroom, at least he was your age, that's a little less scary than some 70 year old, ugh.

[DetroitNut90]

I got an update on the Sonoma's condition today.

The good news: the necessary parts have been ordered, and the truck is off of life support. It should be moved into the operating room tommorow or Saturday. We also found out exactly what caused the driveshaft to fall off-a lot of water stuck inside somewhere it shouldn't have been.

The bad news: The water was never there before, and Carmax sent out a claims adjuster to look over the truck. He told my dad and the mechanic working on the truck that Carmax was denying our claim for reinbursement because-and get this-it was OUR fault that the driveshaft snapped. The guy told us that the only way that water could have entered where it was pooled was if we took the truck off the road and put it through a river. Well, the closest thing to a river it's been through was a puddle. But apparently this guy knows what we've subjected our truck to better than we do. No one is happy with Carmax right now.

But on the bright side, I got a new digital camera today, and got to stroll around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. I forgot how nice it is up there.

[Cadillacfan]

Make sure BV doesn't read this post. He'll be staking out that bathroom for weeks.