100617 – gettin’ my stuff done

What a clusterf–k of a day! But I did get all my stuff done and everyone was very nice. Here’s the summary:

1. I am awakened 8-ish by the van guys coming to work.  I hand over the keys and clear out.  I did not sleep well at all; I kept turning over and wondering if it was time to get up – I hate that.
2. They check out my water system, the water heater seems to be working just fine.  They pressure-tests the whole system, so woo hoo, I am good to go!
3. Off to Upscale Auto to get my swivel seat installed (they are about $70 cheaper than Specialty). On the way over I notice water seeping out of the reservoir area of the van, sigh…. Upscale does install my swivel seat, but it’s f—ed up in a way that mystifies them – the sharp metal corner of the base needs to take a chunk out of my door post just to complete the swivel. But I decide to live with, and pay up.
4. Sigh… back to Specialty to show them the water on the floor. My guy is not amused, but I clear all my stuff out of the back half of the van and he tears into it and does find a leak, a little crack in the PVC that runs from the tank to the pump (I think…), which is not part of the pressurized system, so that’s why he didn’t find it earlier.
   Did I mention that I have a raging headache by now? I partied a little too much with the Idaho Chardonnay last night (really … Chardonnay from Idaho, marked down to $2.97 at the Susanville grocery), and I’ve felt pretty crappy all day.
5. While moping around the shop I ask Rob if he has any theories on why my swivel seat is screwy, and he tears right into that, even though it’s not even his shop who did the work.  These guys are really very great. He looks at it, and immediately diagnoses that they’ve installed a driver’s side swivel on the passenger side. The center of the swivel – the pivot point, is offset from dead center so the thing won’t bang into the door, so installing the opposite one bangs into the door really badly.
6. So … my water system really is fixed, I am done with Specialty.  I am re-packing all my stuff in the back of the van with one hand while yakking on the phone with the shop foreman at shop #2.
7. I return to Upscale, where they do have the correct unit in stock (thank goodness), and replace it in about 20 minutes. In their defense, the box was mislabeled, the screw-up was back in Slovakia or wherever the heck the thing was made, where they put a driver’s swivel in a passenger’s box.

So … that’s two trips to two different repair shops.  Wearing a groove in the route from the little industrial park in Lake Oswego to the little industrial park in Tualatin and back, and forth, and back… I am done.  Seems like a lifetime, but it’s only 4pm!   Boy there sure is a lot of day when you get up at 8, haha.

My plan has been to treat myself to a night at Edgefield, and since this is game 7 of the NBA Finals tonight, my extra point of emphasis has been to be settled there and ready to watch tv by tip-off time at 6pm.  So I insert myself into the brutal Portland freeway traffic and am off to adult Disneyland!