tired of fighting

I am just exhausted with this "Down with Bell Honda" crap. It's worse knowing that they are the big corporate entity and that nothing will probably ever come of it.

I spent yesterday morning at Kinko's making copies of all my receipts and whatnot for the State Attorney General's Office (at their request--so at least it seems like they are looking into it), and got an email yesterday afternoon from the Better Business Bureau with a response from Bell Honda. So now I have to shoot off an email in response to that and make *additional* copies of all those papers and send them to the BBB--probably will send a copy to Eric Zimmerman, General Manager of Bell Honda himself as he apparently has NO idea what's going on (in his response to the BBB he says that my complaint falls far outside the 15 day period allowed. Au Contraire!! We started this nonsense on day 14, and I have the receipts to prove it!).

Anyway. I find myself sleeping (or trying to) a lot, simply because my dreams are a whole lot more easy to take than reality at this point. I want to just drop the whole thing and get start enjoying my "new" car and get on with life, but I'm stubborn and I hate to lose. So now I'm going to go finish my response to the BBB/Bell Honda and head to Kinko's--again--before I go to work.

*sigh*

not yet summer

but the temperature for the past three days has been over 110. Today it's only supposed to get up to about 105, dropping into the low 90s by next Monday.

Arizona. I want to go north for the summer! :(

So I was really sleepy when I entered that last post, and thankyou Joann for the kind words. I literally scribbled most of it down as I was driving home from my overnight shift--on the back of a work schedule. Silly me, I'd left my voice recorder home on the kitchen table. Note to self: put it in the car, where you do most of yer thinkin...

Anyway. I'm off to finish my draft email to 3 On Your Side--the local news consumer protection folks. Wheeehah!

Luna

I saw the moon tonight
nearly full
golden and beckoning
just before it slipped over the Western Horizon

it took my breath away
like a long-forgotten lover
tempting me to follow
as it slipped over the Western Horizon

tomorrow it will rise
again
and I will dream
of its cool journey through the heavens
the sun a distant memory
when it slips over the Western Horizon

Continuing Attempts

...at regaining a certain level of fitness and accomplishment. I went riding yesterday morning with a girl from work and her fiance. We road about 8 miles of a "flat", fast, sandy trail that lead eventually up to the base of a mountain and some cool indian ruins. I liked this trail the most of the whopping three I've been on so far in Arizona because it's fast and did not brutally beat my rigid-bike riding body. I'll be going back to that trail.
The view from the ruins was beautiful--and even the ride up was pretty. We went early in the morning, so there were cactus flowers in bloom and everything was still lush and green. I had every intention of taking the digicam, but the battery is dead and we're not sure where the charger is. :(
I'm working a super-whacked schedule this week--8pm-2am M-W, so I won't be doing any riding this week unless it cools wayyyy down. It's 11:15am and 91 degrees already. Yes, today I will be staying in and doing around-the-house stuff!

Guilt Complex

I have this *thing* about not wasting my days off. I wish I could just kickit and relax like other folks, but on those days that I have spent sitting around in my pajamas eating bonbons, I end up feeling like complete and utter shit. Like somehow that one day's respite from responsibility and mom-dom and all that is going to send me on a non-stop bullet train to slacker hell.

So. Today being a day off, I did stuff. I ironed clothes, while watching Hackers (Angelina Jolie...mmmmm) and avoiding the Chocolate Chip Cookies. I went for a bike ride--albeit brief--around our local "mountain" (see recent photos of green desert). My butt was aching pretty badly from Tuesday's ride and I really didn't think I'd make it three blocks, but after a mile or so a certain numbness sets in and it's all good. I found a nice mellow trail that circles the base of said mountain, so I'm going to make an effort to ride it somewhat regularly in an attempt to get back to a shape that says "I will not keel over or crash horribly if you invite me to go riding with you."

I came home and chopped a few errant bits from the shrubbery in the front yard, lest we incur the wrath of the HOA--again. I ironed a few more shirts and started the shower with the intention of bathing myself, but Bucket butted in. I invited him to jump in the bathtub (this is BEFORE I got in myself, mind you), and he did! So he had an impromptu bath, which he is now ruining by racing around the house wrestling with the still-filthy Delilah.

I had my shower and now, at 2:21 in the afternoon, I am going to slack a bit.

Insight

I survived and even enjoyed the bike ride yesterday, but there were moments when I thought the End was Nigh. I am not in as good of shape as I like to fool myself into thinking. Could be this pizza I'm currently noshing? Or the box of cookies from the mound of same at work? Or the fact that the ride yesterday was the first one in something like 2 months?

Possibly.

I should have taken the camera, because I'm pretty sure I'll never to that ascent again--it was an amazing view, and I was quite proud of having made it to the top. However, now knowing what's ahead, I don't know that I would ever take that particular trail again. OH! how I miss the single track dirt and leaves of Oklahoma!

Back to the Whack

The luxury days of having a regular M-F schedule at work have flown the coop. They hired a full time POS person, despite my fervent hand raising and look-at-me attempts to get demoted to the position. So I have today and Thursday off this week.

I have plans to go for a mt. bike ride with a guy from work who seems overly concerned that I'm going to have a spectacular wreck or just keel over from exhaustion. Am I that out-of-shape looking?

So that's in about two hours and with the new Mike Doughty CD blarin on the stereo, I'm going to chill out a bit before I go to my apparent Doom.

Last one for today. My attempt at artsy-fartsy. Probably could be cropped a bit, but as raw material, I quite like it. 

Another photo proof of all the rain we got here this "winter". I need to take some comparative photos now so you can see what it normally looks like! 

Alas, we have not any mt. trails very near our house, but we do have flat desert trails in spades. Here's a photo from a few weeks ago when it was lush and green and I actually liked it here! 

Delilah looking regal on her rock..she's a climber! We are looking forward to taking both pups with us on the local mt. trails. 

A few pics of the hounds I took some weeks ago. We've only just found the usb cord for the camera! More to come, but here's Smilin' Bucket. 

Chores

Waking up today was the first chore. The pups have become used to me waking up no later than 5am in recent weeks, and are very insistant about eating at that time, despite the fact that they didn't eat until about 1130 last night. For the last two days, however, I've closed the store, and not gotten home until about 1030 or so. This means that I am up until the wee hours, playing and winding down. So when 3am rolled around last night and I finally got to bed, I should have known that it would be merely a nap. The hounds awoke at 7am, 8am, 9am and I finally gave in and got up around 930. It's not their fault, I know, They are so starved for food, treats, and attention! :P

Next chore involved wrangling down the air filter here in the house. Our rental contract actually states that we must change it once a month. When I first read that I thought it was ludicrous and overzealous, but Arizona is the dustiest place on the planet and a monthly change is probably too infrequent. Sadly, I haven't changed it in about 2-3 months, so it was a horrific mess of grime, and was making a sickly whistling sound. Bucket was standing at the base of the stepstool (which, out of necessity, was placed just at the edge of top of the stairs) and I held my breath in anticipation of him bolting after some unseen offender and sending me to my doom. He didn't, I lived, and the filter has been changed.

I of course had to drag out the vacuum to suck the nastiness off of the grill that holds the filter in place and that evolved into a quick zip around the loft. I had NO intention of doing any vacuuming today, but those things just sort of evolve for me. It's some bizarre form of ADD.

I now have to empty the vacuum cleaner of its sludge, which will digress into yardwork. Here is the progression: I have to take the vacuum "bucket" out to the trash bin to empty it. The bin is currently on the front walk because it's pickup day. They should have come by now, so I will drag the bin to the back yard, where there are bags of pulled weeds and bits of trees that the dogs have chewed off. These will, of course, have to be tidied up. Then, while I'm doing that, I will note the abundance of poo and commence poo patrol. The vacuum cleaner will be emptied, but vacuuming the remainder of the house will go to the bottom of the list. This is why there are so many half projects in my life. I Poing.

I hear the dogs doing something naughty. I must be off...

On a Lighter Note

Who has ever eaten *half* a package of Ramen noodles? Seriously.

I took both dogs on a walk tonight after work. At the same time. It went pretty well, really. Shockingly well. Efficiency, how do I love thee?

I wrote letters to the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney General's office this morning. Tomorrow I'll hit the tv stations. In the meantime I'm going to eat my ENTIRE PACKAGE of ramen and munch on Wasabi Peas while I play a bit of WoW.

Campaign Bell Honda Sucks Begins!

I have my Xterra back. It's still in a sickly way, although after I left a rather scathing message with the General Manager Monday evening, they did call me back and say they would take care of the O2 sensor (about a $300 repair). Still no relief on the a/c being bad (the PRIMARY reason I even wanted a new car in the first place!), the leaking shocks, or the other minor things like the air/fuel filters. And the second shop claims that there was no code on the diagnostic stating that the Knock Sensor was bad--only that a code came up indicating a possible problem and that it could have been caused by the O2 sensor going out.

The long and short of it is, I'm still screwed on a vehicle that I bought 3 weeks weeks ago. I'm filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the state Attorney General's office, and a couple of local television news channels that do "Consumer Protection" type stories. I'm taking the fraud angle on things, because I feel that most--if not all of these problems existed before the vehicle left their lot and that I should have been informed or made aware of them. The general maintenance stuff should have been taken care of when they did this so-called 128point inspection that I was told the vehicle went through. The crack in the Exhaust manifold? Techs should have caught that if they were doing any sort of real inspection.

When I picked it up at the second dealership yesterday evening, the service manager there even asked about it: "How long have you had the car?" "The problems started less than two weeks after I brought it home." "And all they are taking care of is the O2 sensor? I would definately pursue this..." And he gave me his card. I may just give him a buzz as well and ask him what he might suggest.

And if any of you have any suggestions, I'm open. Russell is considering doing a little webpage about the whole fiasco, and I'm considering hanging out at the dealership (in cognito, of course) and chit-chatting with some of the customers about my experiences.

Anyway. I'm taking a little break from the bitch fest now. Thanks for listening