So a full week before we are supposed to leave for tour, we told Jeff to take the van into the mechanic to get looked at before we drive 3,000 miles into the Deep South where it's still summer and where our van likes to overheat to the point of constantly being at risk for blowing up. I tell him to take the van to my mechanic who is affordable and never "finds" extra broken things.
He doesn't do it. Thursday, Erick and I are at his house practicing. We ask him again. "Did you take the van in?" Jeff says, "Nope." Erick says, "Will you?" Jeff says, "Maybe." I write down the address, phone number, and directions to my mechanic. I can't do it myself because I'm substitute teaching in a middle school class for children with severe retardation and autism. Their teacher had a nervous breakdown the first week of school when reality set in.
Anyway, after work on Friday, we are over at Jeff's practicing again. "Did you take care of the van?" we ask again. He says, "No, I'll take it to my guy on Monday." I don't bother to say anything because Jeff doesn't care what you say or what you think. But I think 3 things:
1. Last time Jeff took the van to his mechanic, he found $600 worth of work that was "DIRE". We took it directly to my mechanic who said it was fine.
2. We are supposed to leave on Monday to drive to Atlanta for the show on Tuesday night so if it needs work, we won't have time to wait for it to get fixed.
3. Oh well.
[Jeff: Allow me to interject a small bit of truth here. Amanda tells me Tuesday night that the van needs to be looked at. My mechanic is a 5-minute bike ride from my house, but she insists on hers, which is a 35-minute drive away, leaving me stranded if it takes more than five seconds. Whatever. She says she'll call and tell them I'm coming "because they give me checkups for free." Wednesday comes and goes. Thursday she and Erick show up for practice and ask if I've taken the van in yet. "No, have you called?" "No, you can call." Fine. We practice until 7pm. I call first thing Friday morning. They have no openings. Neither does my guy, but he says he can get to it first thing Monday morning. Also, my guy never found $600 worth of "dire" problems; that was a gas station I took it to for a simple oil change. It is true that her mechanic never finds anything wrong and always declares the van roadworthy. Of course, after getting said clean bills of health, we've had an ignition module die on us, forcing us to cancel a show with Les Savy Fav; a tire blow out on the highway, followed by the tow truck driver telling us the other three were on the verge of blowing out as well; and the constant overheating problem.]
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