Happy Car! - All the happy car news that's fit to print!

Friday was my "regular day off" so it included dropping by the electrical guys to see if they could figure out what to do about the speedometer, a trip to the car wash to have the engine steam-cleaned, and a trip to my normal car guys to see if they could find the oil leak. Car wash: WIN, although they cannot wash the under-carriage. Some day I need to find a detail place that can do that, too. Car guys: Sorta WIN -- they identified the oil leak was near/from the Head Gasket, but they couldn't repair it or recommend anyone. Car shop on corner: EPIC FAIL. I stopped by to see if head gaskets were something they could repair, and was handed a fist full of attitude. "Why would you repair that? Just get a new car." I answered with a very short and curt, "Thank you" and left the shop while he was still talking. The nerve! Seriously??! Grrr.

Back to picking up the car, my car guys topped off my oil for me (WIN) for free, and as always, I just adore them. Drive the car home, work on things around the house, and then get a phone call from the electrical car guys: WIN! He found a supplier that had not only my cable for the speedometer, but 3 of them on his shelf. Part is being shipped, I've an appointment to be there Monday morning.

Fast forward to Monday: Electrical car guys now are affectionately my "New favorite car guys." Or more specifically, *Logan* is my new favorite car guy. More on him later. He replaced the cable in the time it took me to sit down, drink my coffee, read Newsweek, and read TV Guide. WIN! My speedometer and odometer both work now, although the gauge is several hundred miles short (like 1500+ or so) for the three weeks it wasn't working. Oh well. I have the records for myself. But in the afternoon, the car was idling funny, with a rumbling, bouncing, kind of weirdness.

But, while I was in on Monday, I asked Logan if he could recommend anyone to help me get the head gasket fixed for the oil leak. He corrected the diagnosis: It was probably an Oil Gasket Cover (or something like that), and that um, duh, that's what he DOES for a living. =HE= could fix it, if it was fixable. So I made plans to come back Tuesday (today) first thing, and he could look it over.

So this morning, I rolled in just after 8:30 (when he said he'd be there, and he was). The funny idle? A loose tube, cable, whatever you call it, that he found in 15 seconds while I was standing there watching. With that fixed (WIN!), I left him the car, and went across the street for breakfast. He rang up and identified (a) it could be repaired (because the spark plugs looked *great* and were NOT covered in oil, that was his worry), (b) it was definitely the oil gasket cover, and (c) who the frak repaired it last time? Because whoever worked on the oil gasket cover last time was a goober: The bolts were mismatched and different sizes, one was missing, and one was completely broken and my new favorite car guy was going to have to drill it out to fix it. I okay'ed the work, and he called me back later that the whole thing was done. WIN!! It took about 3 hours max, and only $213.68 today, to repair the whole thing. EPIC WIN!!!

Logan happens to mention, when I came back into the shop to pick up my car, that the week was going to be crazy because he's getting married on Friday. I asked "too slow or too fast? should I be saying 'Congrats' for your wedding?" and I stopped there, and was thinking "lucky girl or lucky guy?" because you never know, nowadays. It's not like I'd pegged him for gay, but I really honestly didn't know. And bless his cute little made-for-tv bright smile, he answered back with, "I don't know why, but after nine years he still wants to marry me!" Cue my laughter here. *big grin* So we briefly chatted and laughed about all the "get married before Election Day" weddings going on right now in CA, because we have a proposition on the ballot that would ban same-sex marriages, and we won't know until Nov 5th what happens. But currently, same-sex marriages are legal in CA and there's been a rush on weddings pre-election day just in case.

Notes to my friends and family: I believe in voting NO ON PROP 8, so if you disagree with me, please remember this is *my* journal and *my* story, and not a place for your preaching in my comments. Just in case. I have no problems if I have friends and family with whom I disagree with on issues (in fact I assume we're all different in many ways), just please be considerate in my comments. 'Nuf said.

Added postscript: It is unknown at this time what happens to all the legal same-sex marriages if (horror) Prop 8 passes. Currently, most pundits believe nothing happens, and they remain legal, because the prop is NOT retroactive. Hence, the wedding rush.

Oh, right, back to my story. So my dearest favorite new car guy is now a "fabulous gay" new favorite car guy, and getting married on Friday. Nifty. Now here's where it gets funnier. I mentioned to several friends that my new favorite car guy was "all muscle and tattoos and looks like he belongs on a reality tv show for cars, only like a surfer version of a chop-shop tv guy... totally sweet, totally cute." Guess how right I was?!? He tells me that "about 2300 people have already RSVP'ed for the wedding." Um, sputter sputter, excuse me, what?? I looked at him incredulously and said, "Are you some kind of bigwig and I didn't know it? Is your partner some kind of bigwig?" And he laughs and looks like he's surprised I don't already know... Apparently he *does do* Reality TV, so the RSVP's are tons of people from the networks, from Discovery Channel, from this, from that... *laughing at myself* Wow, I really pegged it right that he belongs on TV for cars and things. Now, I haven't found him yet on Google, but I have a sneaky suspicion which show he used to be a part of. I'll have to ask next time I'm in.

So guess what? Not only is my car running, but I have a new favorite, fabulously gay, celebrity, reality-TV-show car guy to thank for it, too!! *squee* Who's getting married in 3 days! *double-squee*

Okay, that's the car report of the day.

* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: My new favorite car guy, of course!