Calmed

[jay]

Or at least not moving rapidly, as patgreene is home, but both of our cars are broken. The van is getting its bodywork done after the wreck en route to the hospital, while the transmission failed on the convertible. After only 18K miles on the last one... this will be $3K in car repairs in one week, grr. A lighter foot and better workmanship would have helped...

Otherwise, I had to pull together a set of speakers on our Space Launch Initiative work in vehicle health management to brief my boss today, and also give the overview myself. It went well... but later, my boss privately said that he could understand my keeping a low profile for the past couple of years, but that over the next couple he expected to see me take a more visible project leadership or PI role somewhere.

And tomorrow, ice skating lessons begin for this year! (bounce)

Comments

Oh no!

[runeshower.livejournal.com]

That is WAAAAY too soon to need transmission work. The shop ought to do it for free. Will they cut you a deal?

And your boss's remark is about as left-handed a compliment as I've ever heard! But it does work out to a compliment in the end. He wants to see you more active and visible, and thinks you can handle it! So congrats!

Re: Oh no!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

There's no warranty? Then there's definitely cause for trying to get it done cheap where you bought it.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I had it done in February 2000 at an AAMCO in Sunnyvale... they use their own parts, and only give a 12-month/12K mile warranty. I'm at 30 months/18K miles, so am out of luck. And it turns out that they did poor work -- the internal pistons' machining was a bit out of tolerances, and the shift linkage was missing a metal grommet -- AAMCO used a plastic tie wrap! Which stretched and bent over time, causing the transmission to shift irregularly and accelerating wear.

I could try to take the local AAMCO to small-claims court, but I'd have to prove it was their poor practices that directly led to the failure. And spend another $1K on an attorney... not worth it. The small family-run shop that has it now I trust explicitly... and they build and sponsor dirt-track racing cars