Louis Went Home

My mother came by to pick Louis up and take him home. He's been hanging out at Josh's great uncle's place. He's such a nice guy.

Bye, bye Louis. I'll miss you. Hopefully Mom can make you run again.

Snowstorm

It's snowed more in the last couple days than it did all last winter.

I shoveled Josh's car out to take it to work today. Made it out of the parking lot and barely past the stop sign before sliding into a snowbank. Some nice guys tried to push me out but we couldn't move it. Tried more shoveling before calling Josh to come rescue me. Another guy stopped to see if I needed help. I called into work while I waited.

Josh, Jess, and Chris helped me get out with the help of the rugs from our kitchen. So now I'm home thinking about making some fleece things to sell on Etsy.

Also here's a picture of Louis.

Louis in the snow.

Vacuum

Finally got a chance to clean out my car. I put all of the car parts and other stuff in my trunk then drove to the carwash to use their vacuums. Now my car is very clean and I feel like I can actually drive my friends around in it. I've managed to make two full trips with my car now. Yay!

First Trip

Louis made his first successful trip to Walmart and back. I'm still getting the hang of shifting but it won't be long and I'll be a pro.

Louis is in Marshall!!

Louis parked in front of my apartment building.

I am pretty much the happiest person alive. I have been waiting for this moment for nearly three years. My bug runs and it is finally in my possession. Of course there are still a lot of little things that need to be fixed but the motor runs great and that's the important thing.

To be honest I am a little scared to drive it. I'm just so nervous that I'm going to get halfway somewhere and it's going to break and I'm not going to know what to do. I'll make it past that though. I have to. This car is so important to me.

A huge thanks goes out  to my mom's friend Alvin who worked on this bug a lot for me. Thanks so much.

Goodbye Louis

Mom left this morning with her boyfriend today to go back to his place. They're taking the bug with them because he's pretty good with cars and knows some people who are good with Volkswagens. So this means my bug might actually get finished. Very excited.

Attempting to Fix My Car... Again

So we got the car back from the shop. They really didn't know what they were doing. :( They decided there was a problem with the starter so they got a rebuilt starter and then figured out that the bushing was bad and to get at it you have to take the motor out. I wasn't going to pay a ton of money for them to do that so I paid the $185 for them to tell me they really didn't know what they were doing, or what was wrong.

So I called Steve and asked him if he would tow my bug home and he said he couldn't get to it until Monday (today). But yesterday when I was driving home from work I look up ahead of this line of cars I'm following and I catch this glimpse of purple and I'm like "Oh my God, is that my car. No, that can't possibly be my car. Who is that, that has a car the same color as mine?" Now Steve's truck is green camoflage so I didn't see it towing my bug down the road. So that was pretty funny.

We took the motor out, replaced the bushing and decided to call it a day. It was pretty hot outside and Steve didn't want to work on it anymore. 

Time for a Real Mechanic

So Mom finally got fed up with the bug not working so she called around at a couple shops and College Way Auto in Fergus Falls, MN said they were capable of fixing bugs so we decided to take it there. So we tied it up to my mom's little Escort and headed down the road. We didn't even get 3 miles down the road when we broke the tow rope. Luckily I learned how to properly tie a knot in my Stagecraft class a couple semesters ago and was able to tie it back together.

Oh, and it was raining and my sunroof leaks down the sides of the headliner. So that was not fun but also answered the question of how my mechanics books got so wet that I had sitting in the car.

Pertronix Ignitor

So I bought a Pertronix Ignitor to replace the points in my bug to hopefully make it run better. It cost me $80 on ebay. It was supposed to only take a couple days to get to ship so I was really surprised when I got back from my long weekend and it still wasn't there. Turns out the UPS guy left it at a door we rarely use (that's what we get for having 5 exterior doors on our house). So Steve came over and helped me install it.

I was not excited to find out that I paid $80 for a couple little pieces of metal with some wires attached to them. Unfortunately he had to leave before I could actually test it out.

Dinner at Walmart

I ate dinner at Walmart tonight in the garden center. I was probably should have just eaten in the break room but I really didn't want to. It's also much quieter out in the garden center. I bought some chocolate, drank some sprite leftover from lunch, and had a salad because they were out of sandwiches I liked. The salad was actually really good and I think that's going to be a go-to food for a while. I like salads.

It was actually pretty nice while I waited for Jamie. I killed my iPod at McDonalds this morning by watching too many episodes of "The Office." It's gonna be another early morning tomorrow. But then mom comes home so that will be nice. 

McDonalds

I've been spending a little too much time at McDonalds because Jamie can't pick me up till she's done with work and she has to drop me off early because she has other things she has to do. I got kicked out last night because I didn't realize they closed at 11pm. The McDonalds in Marshall doesn't close till 2am. Either way it's not so bad. I've been watching "The Office" and that's pretty funny. I get to drink coffee too, which is also not bad.

Abandonment and Rescue

So Steve told me not to drive my bug until we got the electronic ignition in. He also said he wasn't going to be around this weekend. And if you've been paying attention you know that my mom has been gone. Which means I had absolutely nobody to drive me to work. I called my mom and she told me to call my sister's friend Jamie who is always willing to help us out with our pets and giving rides and stuff for my mom.

So I call her figuring our work schedules will totally clash and she won't be able to help me. Thankfully she is totally able to help me. I will have to wait around town for a couple hours after my shift until she is done with hers but McDonald's isn't too far of a walk from Walmart and I can use the internet there on my iPod. Thank God for friends. She is saving my life and my job. I can't afford to miss/be late.

So she's going to give me rides for the next couple days until my mom gets home. Then I can use her car again while Steve puts the new parts on my bug.

Then for some reason I am scheduled to have 5 days off in a row, which means I am borrowing my mom's car whether she likes it or not and going to visit my boyfriend.

Rear View

I'm getting really tired of this being the only thing I can see out my rearview mirror. This sucks.

Another Failed Test Drive

So today was another test drive... to work. Didn't turn out like I hoped. I only made it a couple miles before my car died. Thankfully I had a wide neighbor's driveway to pull into because the road I live on has no shoulder at all.

Dead once again.

Steve came and rescued me. I convinced him to tow my car home and drive me to work. I'm tired of dealing with this car and the stress about how I'm going to get to work or get home. Ended up getting to work an hour late. Thankfully it was a day where the garden center had everyone scheduled so it wasn't too big of a deal that I wasn't there.

Last night I bought an electronic ignition to replace my points. That should solve a lot of problems. I need to buy new spark plugs and that should fix a lot of other problems. Now if only I could figure out the charging problem I would be set.

I just want this car to run.

I Needed a Little Help Getting Home

Unfortunately my car didn't make it out of Fergus Falls on it's own. I had to get Steve to come and rescue me. We tried and tried to get it started but it didn't work.

So he hooked his tow rope up to my car in an attempt to pop start it. We couldn't get that to work either. So he ended up towing me home.

Juxtaposition

I had to stop at Fleet Farm to exchange an old car battery and buy some things. When I came out I couldn't find my car, which is fairly normal because my memory is terrible. Turns out a giant truck had parked right next to me. The justaposition was hilarious so I thought I'd share it with you.

The Test Drive

Well, my test drive was actually my drive to work. My car died twice. The second time a nice man helped push me across an intersection so I could get my car started in a parking lot. The car was sounding pretty bad by the time I rolled into the Walmart parking lot. But I made it.

Poised and Ready

Let's Get This Show on the Road... Literally

Well, now that we've got that all cleared up about my Saturn we can move on to news about my bug. Louis runs.

So that's really awesome. I'm scared to drive him around at the moment though because I don't want him to die before he can get me to work tomorrow at 8am. If I can get to work tomorrow I'm golden because Steve can rescue me if I can't get it started and I have a couple days off after that to work out any extra flaws. Louis is officially my form of transportation. Oh yeah, and my mom went on vacation so I don't have her as a backup plan. This should be fun.

 Good news for you though. This blog is finally going to fulfill it's destiny and purpose.

Tires

Got new tires for my car today. Might get to drive it tomorrow. Fingers crossed.