making the news

On Saturday I took my car into the dealership for it's regular oil change. On the advice of the savy technician - I opted for a coolant flush as well. This turned out to be a BAD idea. My family and I were on our way to attend Nyah's 1st birthday party in Vancouver when our car troubles mounted. The 5 of us were on the highway (big Mike was driving my car) when it started jerking. I was a bit startled - as we were going quite fast and the roads were slick with rain. After a few more jerks the hood started to smoke up. By this time there was another car honking beside us and pointing to our hood. Everyone in the car was surprised. Mike tried to maneuver the car over to the side of the road. This was a bit scary as there was heavy traffic and the car was continuing to jerk and smoke. The rain and smoke made visibility horrible. We finally got to the shoulder unharmed. The other car had pulled up in front of us and was trying to help out. Chicky hopped out of the car and went to the hood while Mike tried to turn on the hazards and pop the hood. We were making quite the scene on the highway. Not knowing what was going on with the car - I felt anxious. Should all of us had gotten out of the car incase it catches fire?! We took our chances with a potential fire because no one had an umbrella and didn't want to stand in the rain.

A few minutes passed by and a cop car raced past us with it's lights blaring and sirens on. It was in the far left lane and we were on the right hand side. All of a sudden it stops and backs up. Great - just what we needed...more attention drawn to our car. The cop car cut across 2 lanes of traffic and stopped everyone on the highway. It didn't stop there. As Chicky was leaning over to talk to the officer - 2 fire engines come blazing up. I think someone called 911 - not us of course. Confused and excited by all the commotion and hoopla, I thought to myself - this would be fun to take a picture of. Lol - I was riding in the back seat so only saw Chicky talking to the cops. When the firemen jumped off the fire truck and ran over to my car - I was sure sure that they'd make us get out of the car and thus face the onlookers. :-) Luckily Mike talked to the firemen. Apparently there was an accident infront of us that they were responding to and thought that we were the ones that were in trouble. Oh no...I taking up precious emergency vehicle response time! So they rushed off after confirming that my car wouldn't blow up on the road. :-) So we made it to News 1130 as the car that was smoking and causing a delay on Highway 1 eastbound. :-) Hope you guys weren't on the highway then!

I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get a hold of Nissan road side assistance so that I could get the car towed. It turned out that a hose had detached which caused fluid to spill out of the car and smoke up the way it did. Stupid dealership - this is the second incident in which their service department has caused me grief. With 3 of us on cell phones we managed to get Little Mike and Carol to come rescue us from the highway. I left my car for the tow company to pick up and went straight to the dinner party.

Nyah's birthday party was really sweet. Betty & Hanif hosted it at a chinese restaurant. There were 7 tables, our family taking up nearly 2 tables, and TONS of food. :-) Betty made some yummy cupcakes for everyone to take home and of course gift bags for all the kids. After dinner we went over to Betty's house to hang out. Chicky and I had to take a detour first to see if my car was towed to the right location. We couldn't find it at the dealership. I had to call them later that night to find out where it was. It's very difficult getting in touch with a call center after midnight. :-) So at 4am Chicky and I gave up looking for the car in Coquitlam and I suggested swinging by the Nissan Burnaby location. I had told the call center earlier that night that I wanted it towed to Nissan Coquitlam but since it wasn't there - I thought that maybe the tow truck guy got lazy and towed it to the nearest Nissan - which would have been the Burnaby location. Low and behold - it was in the Burnaby lot.

I have all day workshops so left Chicky to deal with the car situation today. Luckily after a long day of meetings, Chicky left me an email message saying that my car was fixed by the Burnaby location, brought back to Coquitlam and is ready for pick up. They're also refunding my money for the "servicing" they did on Saturday. So dumb. Anyhow it's all over now - I have my car back. I'll have to see how it runs tomorrow. I'm so happy that Chicky is there to take care of things like this. I was fighting with an Ebay company last week and was unmotivated to take on another annoyance. :-) Last week was a long week, with work draining me and dealing with an incompetent Ebay seller. But that's another story. Seems like my series of "unfortunate" events has not stopped. :-) Oh well - makes for good blogging....