Well let me tell you what.
My car leaked all of it's power steering fluid like it's on a 3-day juice cleanse and I am without working vehicle ONCE AGAIN.
There are few words I have left that I can say in a public forum and still hope to keep my a) dignity, b) job, c) squeaky clean professional profile - that would adequately describe the level of stress and frustration I have felt in the last 24 hours. I literally felt it in my heart today.
I shall start from the beginning. Basically it has been cold lately. Typically cold for this time of year but really cold nonetheless. So when my steering wheel felt a little stiff and my engine a little noisy Monday morning (-40ish) I didn't really think anything of it. I haven't been able to plug my block heater in recently because the plug has somehow become almost completely severed from the cord leading to the engine. But that's another story. So I thought a cold engine might have something to do with it.
Monday must have been a holy day for Satan because he chose that day to curse me with YET ANOTHER car problem. Beelzebub himself did something to the tube connected to my power steering fluid container thingy in my van thus pouring raspberry smoothie-like liquid all around town. I came home Monday night to a puddle of red crap in my driveway from it being parked there a few hours earlier before I went out.
I immediately called upon any person I knew with a male companion who might know what it was. General consensus was: power steering fluid leak. It explained the "hard to handle" steering wheel and questionable noise coming from my car. So upon hearing this I was terrifed!! Nowhere near a dealership or parts store I was beginning to panic. I, along with several other teachers go to school at 7:30 every morning to prepare breakfast for the students as members of the school's breakfast program. No busses, taxis or other methods of transportation, or hope of rides from any teachers who go in nearly that early, I was worried about walking from my house (I'd say a 20-25 minute walk) in -40 morning conditions. I was, however, prepared to don my sexy neon orange hunting skipants, 1980's purple ski gloves and balaclava if necessary!!
Luckily by testing the steering at 6:00am this morning I was able to confidently say I could get myself at least to school and figure out the rest from there. So off I went and at the first opportunity today I took my car to the town garage. I dropped my keys and begged them to look at it the first chance they had. So Thursday at the earliest :/ I'm optimistic though.
The shining light at the end of this dark and unholy tunnel is Marsha. Marsha is truly a saint. Marsha has graciously and selflessly lent me her vehicle to use. I am so incredibly grateful to her I can't even start to describe all the ways I owe her. Not having to walk in horrible, terrible, frighteningly cold weather to school to serve breakfast in the morning means more to me than I think most people understand. I hate the cold. I hate the cold combined with the outdoors and Marsha simply said "take my car" without the bat of an eyelash. A true and genuine friend.
So I will wait until Thursday to see if they need to order a part. If they do, I will see if the garage can temporarily patch the leak while I wait, refill my fluid as needed to get by and try and get Marsha's car back to her ASAP. Talking to Dodge customer service this morning, this kind of repair will likely be covered by my warranty (for once) and since I live remotely and cannot get to the nearest dealership reasonably (minimum 9 hours to Amos), I will be reimbursed for costs of repair. So there is a positive!!
As for my mental health, that is not covered by warranty and I am still waiting for a refund.
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