Freak Magnet Dave

I'm at home Monday afternoon, my day off, working on a ridiculously annoying jigsaw puzzle and observing the antics of one Ms. Winfrey when the phone rings.

"Dave?"
"Yes...?"
"What are you doing?" It's Weezie, my baby mama.
"Laundry, a puzzle, Oprah, and just about to get dinner started."
"I need your help."

So here's the scoop. Weezie had her oil changed on Sunday. I mean that in the literal sense, not the bow-chucka-waw-waw sense. Her first mistake was that she had it done at the Hooterville Canadian Tire. Now for those of you not from Canada and not familiar with Canadian Tire, well, suffice to say most people lovingly refer to it as Crappy Tire. It's a Canadian institution up here. They have everything for your automotive, sports, camping, painting, cooking, wiring, plumbing, and so-forth needs. They are known for fairly reasonable automotive...ahem..."repairs". Though anyone I've ever known bitches about the work done.

Monday morning came along and Weezie packed up the kids, and made the one hour drive to The Big City, dropped the kids off at daycare, and continued on to work. On her way that morning, she detected a smell. Sort of like the SUV was overheating. Immediately, she suspected the radiator. When she arrived at work, she lifted the hood and noticed something wasn't right. She called Canadian Tire in Hooterville and told them what she found. She told them that although they did the work and checked all the levels of everything, it smelled like it was overheating and that she noticed that they forgot to replace the cap. There was some fluid sprayed all over her engine.

The mechanic she spoke to told her to pour some water in and that should temporarily help until she gets a new cap put on that night. So Weezie poured in some water. Ya, unfortunately, it wasn't the rad. The cap they left off was actually the oil cap. That's right, she poured water into the engine.

She asked me if it would do any harm if she drove it with water in it to a nearby Canadian Tire. Some people never learn. I told her not to drive it, but to call a tow truck. Unfortunately, she was in a parking garage and there was no way a tow truck would be able to get in there, so she had no choice by to drive it down the parking garage and onto the street.

This is where I came in. I had to meet her at work to get the carseats from the SUV, install them in my car, and pick up the girls at daycare while she waited for the tow truck. Once I got the girls picked up, we headed to the local Canadian Tire and waited for Weezie to be towed in. After about 20 minutes or so of hearing Brynn whine "where mama? where mama?", I see the big-ass flatbed tow truck with Weezie's SUV on top.

The driver got the SUV off and into the garage and Weezie came over to express her disgust over the whole situation and to say hi to the kids. She said the mechanics probably think she's some stupid woman who doesn't know what a radiator is, but by the same token, how stupid is a mechanic who doesn't know enough to put the oil cap back on? And he was apparently a professional who works on cars every day.

She headed back to give the driver a tip, and as soon as she walked away, Brynn started crying for her mother. We're talking panic attack, full tears and all. She's such a dramatic little thing. Where does she get it? Weezie finally made her way back to the car and she told me that they probably need her vehicle overnight. They'll need to flush the engine. I'm hoping they also plan to shampoo the engine and replace all her belts too, since they've been sprayed with oil. And the Hooterville store will be footing the bill.

I drove us all back to my place, the whole while listening to the girls nattering, singing, crying in the back seat. They were getting pretty hungry, it was already past their bedtime. How does she do this every night? She usually drives an hour, I was driving about 20 minutes or so and I needed some Advil. When we got to my place, I handed over the keys and let Weezie be on her way with my car to get the kids some food quickly and get them home and ready for bed.

I haven't heard from her yet whether or not they will have her SUV ready by the end of the day. If so, she's driving to get me at work after picking up the kids, and I'm taking her back to Canadian Tire to get her SUV, and we'll both be on our merry way. If not, she's hanging on to the car for a while.

It's a good thing I live across the road from work.