It never makes the sound at the dealership.<\/p>\n
I like things perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I know, that makes life challenging in an imperfect world, but I’m just being honest.\u00c2\u00a0 I like to buy the best and revel in its glory.\u00c2\u00a0 You know how they say no one uses all the buttons on the remote, that the features are wasted on the customers?\u00c2\u00a0 Not with me.\u00c2\u00a0 I read the manual.\u00c2\u00a0 I ferret out all the detail.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m the guy who comes over to your house and amazes you with what your products can do, or bores you talking about all this stuff you think is irrelevant.<\/p>\n
I read every word of David Pogue’s Snow Leopard manual.\u00c2\u00a0 I really only got one good trick, but I’m going to reveal it to you now.<\/p>\n
Launch Safari.<\/p>\n
Go to the File menu.<\/p>\n
There you’ll see a choice, about halfway down, "Mail Contents Of This Page".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s grayed out if the page isn’t fully loaded.\u00c2\u00a0 But if it is, click on the menu choice and the Web page in your browser comes up in Mail and you can send it to your buddy.\u00c2\u00a0 No link required.\u00c2\u00a0 No extra step.\u00c2\u00a0 The actual Web page!<\/p>\n
Isn’t that cool?<\/p>\n
It is.\u00c2\u00a0 To me anyway.<\/p>\n
That’s just the kind of guy I am.\u00c2\u00a0 I get satisfaction when my stuff is humming, it puts a smile upon my face, it makes me feel glad all over.<\/p>\n
And if it isn’t?\u00c2\u00a0 If there’s a glitch?\u00c2\u00a0 If there’s an imperfection?<\/p>\n
I just can’t cope.<\/p>\n
I know, I know that’s ridiculous.\u00c2\u00a0 But I get satisfaction from my objects.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got something to do with what happened in my house growing up and I don’t know you well enough to tell you but…\u00c2\u00a0 Here goes, you don’t put yourself in the public eye if you’re well-adjusted, if you got all the love you need.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m writing for the pleasure, but also the positive feedback.\u00c2\u00a0 You see I’m broken.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m going to the shrink to try and fix myself.\u00c2\u00a0 In the meantime, since I can trust my possessions more than people, if they function perfectly I’m in a good mood.\u00c2\u00a0 If they don’t…<\/p>\n
I’m devastated.<\/p>\n
I spent $1900 to get my transmission fixed.\u00c2\u00a0 For a problem I thought could never arise from starting a car with the reverse gear engaged.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an unlucky accident, I feel stupid enough to begin with, since I don’t really believe in accidents, I believe everything’s my fault.\u00c2\u00a0 But to pay all that money and still have a problem?\u00c2\u00a0 It makes me INSANE!<\/p>\n
I noticed it driving right off the lot.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a thunk.\u00c2\u00a0 That was never there before.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d know.<\/p>\n
Did I really hear it?<\/p>\n
That’s where the testing is involved.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s where the OCD comes in.\u00c2\u00a0 And OCD therapy is about exposures, learning to cope with imperfection, but they also tell you to take care of real problems right away, not to obsess about them.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t have time to take the car back.\u00c2\u00a0 I needed it.<\/p>\n
And then I picked a date.<\/p>\n
And here’s where the social anxiety comes in.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost easier not to go back, to suffer in silence.<\/p>\n
You see I don’t tell anybody about my mental trauma, I’m fearful of being laughed at.<\/p>\n
And when I anxiously showed up at the dealership two weeks ago, Daryl thought he knew what the problem was.\u00c2\u00a0 But he had a limited time period.\u00c2\u00a0 His theory didn’t pan out.\u00c2\u00a0 He tightened a few things, but he wouldn’t guarantee the problem was gone.<\/p>\n
And it wasn’t.<\/p>\n
Daryl said I could come back and he could put "electronic ears" on the car.<\/p>\n
Huh?<\/p>\n
I’m no mechanic, I just play one in real life.<\/p>\n
I was sure it was the clutch.<\/p>\n
I called to make an appointment but they wouldn’t give me a loaner.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a Catch-22 situation.\u00c2\u00a0 They only give loaners if they’re doing work…but weren’t they going to work on my car?<\/p>\n
I knew I was not going to win this one.\u00c2\u00a0 I picked an empty day, today, and got Felice to pick me up after I dropped the car off.<\/p>\n
This time I didn’t demonstrate the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 The last time it took a long time for it to manifest itself, and even though Daryl said he heard it, he’s such a nice guy I figured we’d be bullshitting, like last time, and the thud, the thunk, the clunk would go unheard.<\/p>\n
So I just described it.\u00c2\u00a0 Said I thought it was the clutch.\u00c2\u00a0 Because after all, they just pulled the transmission and reinstalled it and the clutch and the noise was coming from the footwell and…<\/p>\n
I had absolutely no confidence the problem would be rectified.\u00c2\u00a0 I know I heard it, it was getting worse, but would someone else?<\/p>\n
And I’m embarrassed, that I’ve got a problem and that I want it fixed and it would be easier to buy a new car, they’re so cheap at the Subaru dealership, you can lease one for $159 a month!\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise, to live with this problem forever…<\/p>\n
And Daryl’s so different.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s nice and he’s friendly.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually encounters with the dealer are adversarial.\u00c2\u00a0 Been to BMW?\u00c2\u00a0 You feel like you’re interrupting the Beatles, bad Beatles, who need to work in secret.<\/p>\n
I had no faith.<\/p>\n
But Daryl just called.\u00c2\u00a0 He said it was a motor mount problem and he fixed it.<\/p>\n
Huh?<\/p>\n
And this is where devastation truly lies.\u00c2\u00a0 Having hope and ending up with these same hopes dashed.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, my hope is gone, I don’t believe anything will go my way.\u00c2\u00a0 In life and love as well as fixing mechanical and electronic items.\u00c2\u00a0 Those people with confidence…where do they get it from?<\/p>\n
So Daryl put on the electronic ears.\u00c2\u00a0 Drove with his partner.\u00c2\u00a0 Isolated the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 He said he had it nailed.<\/p>\n
The motor mount was broken in the extraction of the transmission.<\/p>\n
Now that makes sense.<\/p>\n
But really?<\/p>\n
Well I just drove home and didn’t hear the noise!\u00c2\u00a0 My inner flame is starting to burn a bit stronger.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m starting to believe.<\/p>\n
My problem is solved.<\/p>\n
So what do I do with all this?\u00c2\u00a0 Pat myself on the back for standing up for myself?\u00c2\u00a0 Daryl said the problem was obvious.\u00c2\u00a0 He heard it.\u00c2\u00a0 He described when he heard it, which matched my experience.<\/p>\n
Do I beat myself up for believing the problem was unsolvable, and I’d have to exist in a living hell?<\/p>\n
Or do I just relish the fact that my automobile is back in perfect shape, and when I’ve got the radio blaring and the sunroof is open and the turbo is whining I’ve got a smile on my face and everything is right in the world.<\/p>\n
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It never makes the sound at the dealership. I like things perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I know, that makes life challenging in an imperfect world, but I’m just being honest.\u00c2\u00a0 I like to buy the best and revel in its glory.\u00c2\u00a0 You know how they say no one uses all the buttons on the remote, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-16S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4271,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}