My Life is a Circus: Part 1, "The Car"

This is just a random picture that I took yesterday off my back porch...was snowing like crazy here.

Anyways....

This is the first in a series of three (and only three, I hope). And before you read on, please note that I do realize all this stuff just relates to material things, none of which are the most important things in my life. But as you read, I think you’ll agree that the events I’m describing are annoying!

So you might recall from a previous post that I bought a car here. It’s a nice car. Solid feel on the road, gets decent gas mileage, etc. It’s gonna work perfectly for me here.

Well, I took possession of the car on a Thursday in mid-November. The following Saturday night (two days later), I was leaving the American Sports Bar here. Get in the car, turn the wheel to the right to back out of my parallel parking spot, then turn it back to the left to pull out and leave. As I’m turning it to the left, I hear and feel a scraping, popping noise in the steering wheel. I think “that felt weird, I hope nothing’s wrong with this car!”

I kind of forget about it because as I’m driving home everything feels normal, so I think it’s maybe something that was under my car that my wheel hit…..whatever.

The next morning I get in my car and as I’m pulling out of my garage, the same thing happens, only this time, the wheel is a little harder to turn. It keeps going on like this for about a week and then I decide to take the car to the Saab dealership in Mersch (about 30 min north of my apartment). By this time, it’s obvious that the power steering has gone out, because the wheel is really hard to turn.

I drop the car off on December 1 (a Thursday), and they give me a rental car. I was to return the rental car by 5pm, and my car should have been ready.
On my way back into work, they call and tell me that the tube that holds the power steering fluid, etc, was broken and that indeed my power steering had gone out. They could fix the problem that day and it was going to be about 300 Euros. Ouch, but okay, as long as it’s fixed by today that’s fine.

Later on in the day, I get another phone call. “Mister Marcum, we found a big problem with your steering. The entire steering column is cracked and broken. It’s been like this for awhile…when did you buy this car? We will have to order the part directly from Saab in Sweden. Your car won’t be ready until next Tuesday at the earliest. Also, unfortunately, this part is very expensive and takes a lot of time to replace. The total invoice should come in at around 1,200 Euros.”

My jaw drops and I swear that I probably got three or four gray hairs in the next 30 seconds. “Also, we still need you to drop off the rental car tonight. We can have one of our mechanics drop you off at home.” You should have seen the guy that took me home. I can't even describe him. Joke.

So a few days without a car. Ok, I can manage. It’svery annoying, though, because now my 15 minute drive into work becomes a 45 to 60 minute bus adventure, taking the #10 into the city, switching to the #5 to get me close to the office, then switching to the #18 to get me actually to the office. Same route, in reverse, for the way home.

I email the guy that sold me the car, asking him what the hell the deal is…did he know about this, etc? He calls the dealership to get the story from them for himself, and then calls me back. Luckily, he is an honest guy and offers to cover the cost of the repair. I just need to send him the invoice. Sigh of relief.

Monday comes and I call the dealership to ask about my car. “There was a problem with the shipping from Sweden, and your car won’t be ready for about another week. We will reserve the rental car for you, starting next Tuesday, and you can use it from then until your car is ready.”

Ok, another week without a car. Now I’m really annoyed because there are other things that I need to buy that are just too big to carry around (i.e. a television…will be discussed in detail in part II of this series).

Tuesday comes, and I take the bus up to Mersch to pick up the rental car. After a week with no car, I’m itching to pick this thing up! I’m not really sure exactly where this bus is going to let me off, but at least it will get me into the general area (I assume). Well the bus lets me off in an area I remember from driving up there the first couple of times. It’s a 45 minute walk to the dealership. So I’m hoofing it, and it starts raining. Sweet.

I get the rental and all is well. The week goes by and I don’t hear anything from the dealership. Then on Friday I get a call. “Mister Marcum, Saab in Sweden can’t get us the part until January. But, we can order a similar part from a different company that manufactures parts for Saab, BMW, Volvo, and others. This part is a little cheaper and comes with a two year warranty. Should we go ahead and order the part?”

Yes, I tell them.

Saturday morning comes and the dealership calls to tell me that my car is ready. I rush up there and pick it up. Total cost comes to 1,000 Euros. By this time, I don’t even care. It's been over two weeks! I’m just happy to get my car back. I jump in the car and am all excited because I’ve purchased a tape adapter and car power cord for my iPod (like a the old tape adapters for portable CD players…yes, my car has a tape player and no CD player). I’m all geeked up to listen to my own music in my car. Everything works, life is good.

I go to the grocery store, stock up on stuff, head home. Go out for a run. Half way through my run, my iPod craps out on me. Dead. Can’t revive it. I get on Apple’s website and try all the “resetting” tricks they have on there….nothing works. It sounds like the hard drive in the device is skipping. Ahhh!!! I’ve also bought the Bose sound dock for my apartment, so I can’t not have my iPod. Now that I’ve had one, it seems like an essential part of life!! Another $300...unreal!!

Put a tent over me….because I’m a circus. I've literally just been laughing at myself. My first thought now when trying to plan or buy anything is "Ok, what can go wrong here."

I’m starting to get the feeling that whatever I touch just implodes. Nothing can be taken care of quickly or cheaply. Not one gosh damn thing. You may think, “Oh, it’s only one thing that went wrong, Matt. Chill out.”

Well, stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for Part II, The TV.

Other than that....things are going really well!! We had our work Christmas party last night. It was actually really fun. The theme was "Aladin." They even had camels outside. Where the hell do you get camels in Luxembourg?

This was a long blog, and I've got to get some stuff done here. Take care. Peace out.

Strasbourg, France

Hi! Sorry that this picture is a little dark...I thought I fixed it up a little, but it must not have saved correctly. And, sorry that it's been a couple weeks since I've updated this blizzog...I've actually been keeping pretty busy...lot's of paperwork (anyone catch the Old School reference there?).

Anyways, the past couple of weeks have been interesting, to say the least. I will expand more on what has been going on in future posts...I just need to wait for the final outcome to play itself out on a couple things. Unfortunately, I get the strange feeling that I will hit some other snags related to these "things" before all is said and done! Sneak peak: things aren't going as well as I'd have hoped with my car and setting up TV. Also, I currently have an interesting situation going on at work.

But, on the bright side, I went to Strasbourg, France yesterday with one of my co-workers (a guy named Henk from S. Africa). Strasbourg is a France-Germany border town, located southeast of Luxembourg in the Alsace region of France, and is supposed to have one of the nicest "Christmas Markets" in the area ("the area" being France, Germany, and Luxembourg).

Honestly, though, I was pretty unimpressed by the whole Christmas Market scene that they had going on. Things just weren't that "authentic" feeling and it was really crowded (lots of other tourists, I believe). The city itself was pretty cool, though. Really old buildings, tons of cool restaurants, a lot of nice shops (tons of ski/snowboard shops, actually), etc. We also found a decent "brasserie" (bar) with some really really good beer.

The trip also served the purpose of getting me acquainted with the way the trains work here, which was probably the better part of the whole thing. In summary, the trains here are really comfortable, really smooth, really easy to figure out, and really convenient. You can basically get to the station five minutes before the train leaves, hop on (no check in, no baggage claim, etc), and in a couple of hours you are in the center of the city of your choice. The only drawback to them is that they can be kinda expensive and they take longer than if you'd just drive places yourself (i.e., a drive from here to Zurich is 4 hours, but the train will take at least 5 hours). But the scenery during the ride is nice, the seats are surprisingly comfortable, the bathrooms on board are surprisingly decent, and you can take the extra time to read, listen to music, etc.

Some major cities are decently close: Paris = 3.5 hours; London = 6 hours; Brussels = 3.5 hours; Amsterdam = 5 hours; Cologne, Frankfurt, and Heidelburg each = 4 hours.

We only had one little thing happen...neither of us brought our passports. So when the guys came around to check our tickets, and asked us for our passports, we both just kind of looked at each other and then started trying to explain to these guys that we lived in Luxembourg and didn't think we'd need our passports. We were trying to laugh and be friendly about it, but they didn't seem too amused. One of them asked if we had 7,000 Euros cash on us, apparently because that was the fine. Then another guy started looking through my back pack, and found the piece of paper where I wrote down the train schedule (so we knew when to catch the train home). On the back of it, I had written down the World Cup groups and where each of the teams were playing. He was asking me "Why do you have all of these countries written down? What do you plan on doing here?" Then his buddy took the piece of paper and started looking at me pretty sternly. I was getting a little worried, but then they started laughing and it was obvious they were messing with us. (very funny)

Anyways, I'm excited to start taking trains around to see things...especially next summer for the World Cup (several cities in Germany), possibly this February for the Winter Olympics (Torino, Italy), next summer for Oktoberfest, etc.