Take the Money and Run

I received my letter of acceptance into the SUNY Washington Semester program on Saturday when I checked the mail on my way out the door and only the way to another wonderful day at Sears. Looks like I probably will try to take out another loan, otherwise things are going to get pretty rough. No details as of yet on what the internship will actually be - Fitzpatrick made it clear that once the acceptance is given, he will start working on the best fit for what each individual is looking for.

Some of the paperwork is supposedly due on Tuesday, which should be interesting. The reservation for the Alexandria apartments is what I'm talking about specifically.

Last Thursday, I took Matt to rendezvous with his supposedly repaired automobile, which had died while in the US Customs booth on the previous Saturday and had to be pushed back into the United States. We got to Buffalo and the Goodyear shop where he was informed that the timing belt had been replaced..."but I don't know how far you have to go, but you ain't got no brakes." This was news to Matt, who was under the impression that while his brakes may have needed some work, that they were indeed still very functional when he had been towed in to the shop.

After Matt calmly questioned the highly-qualified repair specialist - who went by the name of Jacz and looked like an extra from the Samuel L. Jackson flic 187 - and miraculously retained his composure after hearing approximately three to five separate explanations why his brakes no longer worked, we held a conference in my car to get out of the cold and away from the prying eyes of the other repair specialist gathered with their faces pressed against the shop's windows. In the car, we concluded that in all likelihood, he was being fucked over.

In desperation, we walked across the street to Sammy's Auto Center, which is the place of business that had provided the initial tow but had been closed on Saturday. We spoke to the proprietor, who informed us that he was not particularly surprised at our lack of confidence in the adjacent repair shop. While admitting that the explanations given for the brake failure were indeed possible, he communicated that he shared our impression that none were very probable.

Back to Fredonia and then to Mayville we went, ready for a return trip the following day. On Friday, the purportedly faulty master cylinder was deemed completely functional and intact. Instead, the likely cause of the loss of pressure in the brakes was instead the Goodyear shop's failure to bleed the lines when one was changed. While unable to establish demonstrable malfeasance on the part of the repair specialists (not even Jacz), we are fairly convinced that their intention was to keep the well-worn Honda Civic there long enough to bleed Matthew's wallet more effectively than they had bled the brake fluid in the lines.

The story would likely be better in person, as told by Matt, but since he hasn't updated his blog since July, I figured I'd do the abbreviated honors.

The library's closing, so I'll end there for now. I have two papers due by the end of the week, so that should be fun.