Livid AND Pregnant

I picked up my car from the shop this morning. It had been sitting in my carport since the 4th of July and CS and my brother had made a few attempts to figure out what was wrong and fix it. They tried new spark plugs, which fixed it for a day. Then it refused to work the next morning. CS determined it was a fuel issue, specifically with the fuel pump. If you remember back to April of last year, when I got into an accident in Denver and had to pay for body work AS WELL AS a batch of bad gas (cough*sugar*cough) while recovering on my couch from having my tonsils removed. I didn't think it could be fuel related because I just had new gas lines put in! So CS and I put off fixing my car for the past two months because we didn't want to put in the $300 it would cost to get a new fuel pump that he could install. Plus, he got the bike to ride to work and I could take the truck and we'd save some money! (Except the bike has worked about 5 days out of the two months we've had it and so I consider it a big fucking waste of my savings when clearly I need to pay Cobra.) My mom and brother gave me money for my birthday this last week and I decided that I had had ENOUGH of depending on other people to get me around. So the fuel pump was purchased and CS went out on Friday evening to install it. And LO! My car started up on it's own when he decided to turn the key for the heck of it. The service engine light was on, so we rushed down to Auto Zone to have the codes run to see if we could find out what was wrong. It pulled a code for some failure in the air system and that's obviously not what was causing my car to simply up and fucking die when I needed it.

So brilliant, pregnant me suggested that we drive it down to the valley the next morning when we went to celebrate my birthday. Why I thought this was a good idea, I have no clue. Why CS went along with it? I may wonder that till the day I die. So we left for the valley around noon on Saturday, but left the keys to the truck in case something happened and we needed my brother to get down to use and help tow it back. (See, some planning!) And the car worked great all damn day. Started up just fine every single time we made a stop. Until we got out of the theatre at 1:30 AM. Car. Dead. And my brother was no longer available for helping as he took off with the family I currently despise. He was in Mesa, just like us. But incapable of helping us to get anywhere. So one cab ride, one hotel night, one rental car, one trailer, and only one emotional meltdown later we got my car to a shop back in Globe. And over $600 later, I have my car back. Not only did he have to replace the fuel pump, one that cost me $150 MORE than the one I had sitting on my kitchen table.

It gets better.

The man who fixed me car showed me my old fuel pump. Specifically the part where someone welded it back together. FUCKING WELDED IT BACK TOGETHER. Pardon me? Did I not just have all my gas lines replaced because I had a batch of bad gas? Hmm, City Auto Plaza? How the hell did you think you'd get away with welding something back together when you are supposed to replace everything thing fuel related when bad gas is present? Obviously a brand spanking new fuel pump would not have been welded together. I just couldn't believe it. Still can't. I'm so angry at this dealership in Canon. They did a scandalous thing and I'm paying for it. They thought they were just swindling my insurance company but in reality they just fucked over a pregnant woman who doesn't have an extra $600 when she's paying Cobra a grand a month just so she's not stuck with a ten thousand dollar hospital bill. I'm half tempted to fly back to Colorado right now, with my old fuel pump and shove it down someones throat. My insurance company can't help me, but he did tell me to take it to them and demand an explanation and at least attempt to get my money back.

However, anger does nothing to induce me into labor on my own. Neither does stress. Or I'd have this baby weeks ago. One shining spot in all this? Cobra has received our election and the check so we're good. I overnighted another check and they will get it tomorrow for September. This way they can't try and tell me it's late when I have confirmation they received it before the 1st of September. Yay for me being on the ball!