A run of bad luck

I wonder if a black cat crossed my path on Halloween, cuz the last few days have felt like there's a rain cloud just hanging over me.

The other night as I left my office and was just starting to merge onto the freeway for the short drive home, the transmission on my Civic started slipping. This means that I was able to go about 25 mph while revving at 4000-4500 rpm's. Not fun. The sad part is, this has already happened to this car once before. When I first bought it (used) I drove it about 2000 for a total of about 25,000 on the then 5-year-old car. Luckily I had a great service advisor at Honda back in California who advised me to call Honda of America since the mileage was so low and the corporate office actually agreed to cover the entire cost of replacing the transmission. I was actually really impressed with how they were standing behind their product. They footed what would have been a $4000 bill to me (and I had only paid about $10,750 for the car). I thought I was done with that nightmare. Now here it is, back again.

I called Honda of America again and this time they'll only cover the part and I have to cover the labor, which means I'm out about $700. Grrrrrr...what happened to Hondas being bullet proof?! I mean, this car is supposed to keep running until the wheels rust off. That was kind of the whole point when I decided to buy it over a luxury car in the first place. Everyone at Honda--the corporate guy, the service advisor, the service manager, and the salesman we talked to about trading it in--all commented about how unusual it was for a Honda to have such a serious problem, never mind having it happen TWICE. My only solace is knowing that it's through no fault of my own as an operator--the car is an automatic so there's no way I messed it up. *sigh* We decided to go ahead with the repair because I'm handing the car over to my sisters so they can learn how to drive and finally have a car to beat around. But, seriously, what are the chances of this happening to a Honda once never mind twice?! Grrrrr......

Then today was supposed to be furniture delivery day #1. The dining room table did arrive, but sans the hardware to put it together! So now we have a disassembled table sitting on our dining room floor, waiting for the hardware to hopefully arrive via overnight mail tomorrow. The dining room chairs and the kitchen table are supposed to come tomorrow--let's hope the cloud over my head goes away by then.