Your Bag of Nothing for Wednesday, January 8, 2024
Everyone is talking about the impending winter storm coming Thursday, which will blanket the area with snow. Of course, loyal readers know this will be an emotional trigger for me. But I think, as most things do, I’m handling it better as time goes by. Thankfully, BoyGeeding will be with me.
Driving my new car home from Denton last week on I35, all of a sudden, it sounded like the air conditioner fan went from low to high. Confused, I toyed with the climate controls and confirmed that wasn’t the cause. I didn’t think I hit anything as I was alert and saw nothing in front of me. I pulled over as soon as possible and examined the car, thinking I must be dragging something underneath. Nothing stood out looking at the front of the car, but underneath the engine splash shield, also known as the skid plate, lower engine cover, or engine splash guard, was dragging and bent out of shape. Unable to safely remove it, I drove to a nearby oil change place, and a worker was kind enough to remove it for me. Unfortunately, a wire came with it, and I was told the shield wasn’t correctly attached. He didn’t charge me anything, but I gave him twenty. Since I didn’t know what the wire was for, I opted to take the car to the dealership to get worked on, even though I found the engine splash guard as low as $122 online. The dealership told me I should contact my insurance because it was apparent to him that I hit something. USAA made an appointment to take it to the body shop, where I dropped it off, and called me the following day to tell me they couldn’t work on the car because it was clear it was in a collision and not repaired correctly, and the air conditioner was also damaged. They would now have a field adjuster look at my car, make an assessment, and then told me I could take it elsewhere to get it repaired. Some folks think I should ask the dealership how their 150-point inspection missed several things. But I’m thinking since I bought it “as is,” that will do no good. Others are telling me to reach out to CarFax about their buyback guarantee. Some are telling me I’m just SOL. As much as I want to take action on something now, I think it’s best to let a few things fall in place, such as letting the field adjuster do his job and get an estimate, and then go from there. But I am bummed I didn’t catch some of these things earlier before buying the car.
I am not a cat person in the slightest. But I found this kitten with two different colored eyes on my back porch yesterday afternoon.
I let out DogGeedingII to chase it away, but that old dog just kind of sniffed at it. When I called OtherDogGeedingII to shoo it away, the kitten stood its ground and was prepared to fight. It’s literally freezing outside. I wouldn’t be concerned if the cat were an adult, but it’s still a kitten. Anytime I approached it, he ran away. When I went to trivia last night, I talked to our competitors we smack talk with who work at an animal hospital. They gave me the contact information for a rescue organization but also suggested that I contact my city’s animal control. It would be adopted quickly because it is a kitten with two eye colors, so my fear of it being put down would be put at ease. On the way home from trivia, I stopped by the store to buy some kitten food and a few other things. BoyGeeding and I used some stuff left over from owning our rabbit and made a shelter for the cat to stay in overnight. I’m trying to do what I can before the winter storm hits and everything is shut down.
