Everyday Stupidities

The other day I received a card from the Department of Licensing, saying that it was time for me to renew the year tab on my car. This is of course one of those things people put off until the last minute, or the last day of the month that is on the month tab, but I'm trying to be on top of stuff. This week I had only two days off and I wanted to get everything taken care of. Since I live in a metropolitan county, one of two that require vehicle emissions testing every two years, I needed to get my car checked before I could purchase my tabs. And this is where the adventure starts.

I went to the emissions place that I always go to and pay the $15. The woman gets in my car and plugs into the onboard computer system to see what the car has to say for itself. Wasn't thirty second later she's handing me a form saying I failed testing... wow, without ever sticking a sniffer up my exhaust pipe? The car's computer reported I had two issues: I was idling fast, and I have a leak in cylander 1. The former I disagree with, but the latter I already knew -- cracked cylander that will cost $1400 to repair. I took my form and I went to the auto parts store to get one of those OBD2 scanners so I could reset the computer. That cleared up the idle issue, but it doesn't fix engine block cracks and since it's an ongoing issue just starting the car sets off the sensor. I went home to stew.

The next day I got another estimate on a repair, which is about the same as the one from the dealership because (surprise!) the part the corner garage would order is coming from the dealership. The counterperson there was very helpful and told me what I needed to do to get the emissions testing resolved. So I went to this emissions repair place not far from the testing center and told them what my situation is: that I need to get an exemption, and this is done by spending at least $150 on repair work and diagnostics. They were quite willing to help me by charging $140 on diagnostics (regularly $70) and writing up what they found (which we already knew), so after tax the total would be $152 and I'd qualify for an exemption. Once done there I went over to the testing place, presented all my paperwork, they confirmed nothing's been fixed within a matter of seconds, and I got my exception certificate. I raced over to the licensing place because it was pushing 5 p.m. and they cheerfully renewed my tabs.

All parties involved -- the emissions people, the engine repair people, the exhaust repair people, the Saturn people, and even the guy at the auto parts store -- thought it unusual that I'd have a cracked cylander head at 110,000 miles... for what it's worth. Now, with that tale told I can head to the live comedy show at the bowling alley up the street. Oh, and in a different brand of stupid news, I've decided to do one of those things where one takes a photo of something around them every day and posts it somewhere (known as a "365 Days" in some places and a "PAD - Picture A Day" in others) but this is just for me, not associated with any 365/PAD group because a lot of them are populated by vain, unoriginal people who hate criticism and only take photos of themselves most of the time anyway. If you're interested in seeing the world through my eyes on a daily basis, click here. C'mon, it'll be fun, maybe.