So despite me having so many car troubles in the last couple months, I am going to start this blog with what some would say may be an ever bigger problem, my eyeballs. Just three days after grilling with John & the puppy Max (blog link soon), and one day after going to the Bulls game with Brian (another blog link soon), I went to Lenscrafters and got my eyes checked on Monday, October 9th, 2017. I have had issues seeing street signs far away when driving, especially at night lately, so I figured I should probably see what was up. Well let me tell ya, I had quite the experience at the eye store. This was my first eye exam ever I believe, outside of looking at that triangle chart when I was super young. And boy did it amaze me! After I couldn't read pretty much any letters on the chart they showed me, they then took me into the office with the doctor and went through a variety of lens options. I sat behind this machine that would quickly switch out the magnifying power, making it clearer and clearer with each change. I didn't know life could look so crystal clear. It was honestly like seeing in HD for the first time! After I went through all that, the eye doctor said, "do you drive?" I replied by saying every darn day. She responded with, "You have a license and they didn't say anything during the test?" I was like lady, I had that co-op in HS and haven't had to take a driving test or exam since. Good driver perks. But at the end of the day, in my super wrinkly shirt, I needed glasses and bought some when I came back later with the wife to pick out the frames. They should be in in a couple of days.
So my eye store adventure resulted in me being blind! Well not quite, but -1 and -1.25 in my either of my eyes. Just short of being required to have glasses to drive. Not a bad time to get glasses for the first time at age 28! I welcome myself to the four eye club.
Just three days later, after having a burger and beer at Draft Pick's during lunch, my glasses arrived to the store in Chicago! Sure they're slightly crooked on my face, but I won't go and get it fixed. I'll just straighten em out every five minutes. That's my style! I usually only wear glasses now when I am driving, and sometimes watching tv or looking at things far away. I wore them to a Beach Fossils concert on October 17th, and I suddenly understood why people don't mind standing at the back of venues. Wowee!
Oh yea, remember how this blog was about my car? Just over a month later, on November 11th we were on our way to Auntie Wanda's party from Chicago, and stopped to get some ice, maybe 10 minutes away. We all went in the Walgreens, they didn't have the ice we were looking for. So we went back to the car and nothing happened when I went to start it up. The car was dead! We called my parents as they were at the party, and my dad came to give us a jump. After trying to jump the car about 10 times and having no luck, we called AAA. Now AAA seems great when you first have it for $50 or whatever it is a year. I'm not sure the exact price, my dad still pays for it I think. And it really is some great coverage, but it took the tow truck an hour to drive 1 mile down the street to get to us.
He arrived and let us know that his tow is broken, so he will try to jump the car with some battery backpack thing. What the heck! A tow truck without a tow?! Well he does jump it and magically the car starts up. What the heck part two, but also woo hoo! It was a bit frustrating and annoying that we waited an hour just to have the car jumped when we tried so hard, but at least it was running. So we went to Auntie Wanda's party and I tried to start the car again. No luck. So the battery is probably dead I guess.
My dad was super kind and went and got me a new battery from the store, and we swapped it out. Great car experience for someone who has no idea about cars. After we swapped the battery out and went to start it up, again nothing.. The car still wasn't working. Well this was some bad news.
We tried to enjoy the rest of the party and then when we headed out we had to jump my car again. Luckily this time jumping it worked and it started. I took it straight to Pep Boys which was luckily open at 8:30 that night.
After dropping the car off, Rachel and I babysat the niece and nephews at my parents and watched them until about midnight. We slept over at my parents and the next day had to head down to Manteno to visit Grandpa in his new VA home. I borrowed my sisters car to get down there, and then came back to Naperville to pick the car up. It was fixed! It turns out my alternator was too weak and had to be replaced. Glad that it is back in business.
Despite this fast maintenance, there was a rattling noise coming from under my hood for 2 days during the next week. Another car annoyance and made me worry while driving over 60 mph. I'm not sure how it was fixed, seeing as when I took it back in to Pep Boys they said there was nothing wrong, but my dad and I tightened some things and it got rid of the rattle. Oh how my car worries have just begun.
Later the next week, on November 16th I got new tires for my car. I got them from Discount tire, as I think they do a pretty good job there. Another expense on to the car, but they told me I needed new tires over a year ago back in October, so I think it worked out. Although the sales guy seemed to think I could have pushed it a little further, so I was slightly disappointed, but better safe than sorry! New all weather tires replaced in just over 90 minutes and I was out of there back on the road!
Then, the night before thanksgiving, November 22nd, we were hanging with Torie, Tim, Sarah, & Beth at our place. It was fun, we had dinner and drink, and Beth slept over as we would be going to Thanksgiving the next morning. When we went down to our car in the morning, it was gone. Simply just not there. I said, "Oh where is my car?" in a shocking voice. We then proceeded to walk around the building as if it would be there for some reason. It wasn't there to say the least, and I was 99% sure I didn't park it on the street that night, so I called the tow company, "Lincoln Towing" as they have a sign on our building. They said they had my car, and it was towed, but since it was now November 23rd, Thanksgiving, he was the only one there and I couldn't talk to a manager.
We got an Uber to the tow company which was one of the most shady places I have been, right off of Clark and Irving Park Rd. It was a shitty wooden door and a small little doorway that only one person could really fit into. Within that super small waiting area, was a barred and glassed off office with very poor lightly. An absolute dump. The guy we talked to when we were there was a dick. He was smoking a cigarillo the entire time, and was mumbling under his breath. Sure your job sucks, but be responsive at least. WTF. Rachel was pretty fired up and we tried arguing that our car was towed from our own spot and we didn't really want to pay, but he wasn't having it. He eventually was pissed off for some reason, slammed the little door under the glass that we could pay with and yelled that we couldn't get our car back unless we "CAME BACK WITH CASH!" Well that's just great. We decided to call the police. Actually my first time calling 911 ever which was exciting I guess. We then stood outside in the cold outside of the shady office, and waited about an hour.
Finally the police arrived, and they came with some serious power. 5 squad cars pulled up. This was looking to be a blood bath. We talked with a couple of officers for a bit, and it turned out they can't do anything because it was a "civil matter." I didn't really end up understanding, so we drove over to the closest police station and filled out a police report. Wow my first police report! The officers at the police station told us that they usually get at least 4 calls a day about this towing company, and they had one of their own cop cars towed once. And even they had to pay to get it back! After filling that out, which was basically a complaint against Lincoln Towing. We finally went back to the towing company and once again tried to pay with card. Three hours from when we first tried to pay the dbag behind the counter finally allowed us to this time, and we got our car back. What a SCAM!
Lincoln Towing illegally towed my own car from my own parking spot. F these guys! And F Chicago for not doing anything about it. I mean, Steve Goodman even wrote a song about their shady business that they run, yet somehow the Lincoln Park Pirates are still around.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Josh