Two days ago, I planned to write and publish a post yesterday on a different subject, but as the sentiment “Sh!t Happens”1 goes, life interferred yet once again and my plans got kaboshed by a series of aggravating semi-catastrophies that left me in an entirely different mood and thoughts on my mind. My detour began when:
- I got in my car to go to Speech Therapy appointment and discovered that the electronic keypad portion to start my car had somehow broken off from emergency door key on my keychain and been lost. That meant my car could not be started or driven – not even hot-wired sinced there is no place to insert a key or pull out wires to cross.
- Since it is not a matter of simply getting a new key made, I learned my car would have to be towed to the Subaru Dealer to get a new electronic transmitter programmed, I called my insurance company to start the process via their Road Assist provider to order a tow truck.
- Next complication, my car was parked in a multi-story parking garage at my apartment that has a 7’2″ height limitation at the entry & exit gates, car was parked facing forward against a concrete wall, and could not be put into neutral gear because of missing transmitter. This meant a specific type of tow truck was required – one equipped with “skates” and NOT a flat-bed. Despite having given this heads-up to the dispatcher, it took almost 22 hours and 9 different tow-truck service providers to finally send the proper truck and a competent driver to finally show up and drop my car off at the Dealer.
- I then learned that in order for them to make a new wireless transmitter for me, they had to entirely remove the “Keyless Access Control Unit” from the steering column, send it to the Subaru Factory to be zeroed out and returned to the Dealer for programming it specifically to my car: a process that will take 2 weeks for a total cost of just under $1700!! (forget all the various claims about replacing or re-programming electronic keyfobs by any other means than through a Subaru Dealer – they don’t work for any model newer than 2020 and are scams).
- Because the loss of my original key/transmitter is not considered an insurance coverable expense, I am not only left to cover it out-of-pocket but also the cost of an interim rental car that will be around $650 for the period required.
- Next complication, one can’t rent a car without a credit card (no one accepts cash) but as of just the day before this, I had to cancel not only my credit card but also my bank debit card because of my accounts having been hacked into by fraudsters and it takes up to 10 days to get new cards! AARRGH!
- So what now? Both Uber and Lyft require a credit card to establish accounts. My son’s car is out of commission and also stuck at Dealer and he has no credit card or rental car. My sister-in-law doesn’t have a driver’s license. My closest friend who also is my home-care/health/transportation helper has been suddenly become unreachable since New Year’s Day (having her own personal and family emergency issues to deal with). I’ve already had to cancel 5 different medical appointments that had been scheduled for this week.
I am at my wits end. I don’t even have the emotional strength right now to properly rant about the violent idiocy that’s going on in our Country and the world. How pitiful is that? I am going to sign off now to pray to G-d that Little Orphan Annie was right: “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.”
- “Sh!t Happens” another way of saying “Life Happens when you’re making plans“, “Man Plans, God Disrupts“, “Man Plans, God Laughs“, or many other variations of this saying. See history of these quotes. ↩︎
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