Thursday, January 28, 2010

midterms: part 2

Well, now it is Megan's turn. She has one today (a hard one), two tomorrow that are not so bad, and her two worst on Monday. There's an afternoon swim meet on Sunday that could run most of the day so I hope she can sneak out of that one early to get to studying, which is probably all she will be doing on Saturday as well. Then on Tuesday she has one, and a gym final. Yesterday she had a full day of school and then a swim meet, where she had to race the girl who challenged her in the county meet again, but it sounds like she got that one without too much effort this time. I wasn't there to see! She also had a come-from-behind victory in the final leg of the last relay, where she passed the girl in question, a good way to punctuate the week. (we did not win the meet, but that was OK) They will meet one more time, next weekend, at the conference championships. That will be a busy weekend for us.

Why was I not there to see, you wonder? Well, because Brian didn't have a ride to the courthouse! So I had to drive him there and watch him sit on a jury of only three peers, observing the same case, this time with two different schools arguing. However, it turned out to be an interesting experience, because although all schools receive the same case, and they split into defense and prosecution and argue both sides all year in preparation, some will pick up on little details that others don't, and the trials take very different turns. For example, although the team that beat us (incidentally the county champs from past years) was arguing for the prosecution, yesterday, the defense made a much stronger case. So by using the facts in their favor - such as getting a drug conviction disallowed as evidence, or discrediting an article by saying that it is so old that the accused had not yet been known by the name listed as the author - a skillful team can stump their adversaries. It was fun to watch, even not knowing any of the participants.

However, we didn't get out till close to 7. This has made for two late nights. Luckily (?) my job for this afternoon was canceled so I have no work today. I am sitting around with my sleeping dogs, waiting for Megan to get home. Then I'll go out and pick up some things Brian needs for a church function this weekend, and drop off the money for the licenses for the two dogs. Megan has practice tonight and if she is sure she doesn't need the time to study, I'll take her to that. Brian is probably going to stay after for a basketball game. And then there will be dinner. And laundry. But no Jersey Shore. Tragedy!

Anyway, in other news, something odd happened last night. I have posted about my car debacles, first with the Explorer and its rear differential and then with the Honda and its brakes. I might not have known about the amount of brake complaints against the Honda if I hadn't seen it on carcomplaints first, when I was researching the Explorer and saw that the only car with more complaints against it was the Accord. I am lucky enough to own BOTH of the most complained about cars on that site. But I did know, so when they told me I needed new brake pads, I knew this was not right. The girl at the dealership was wonderful, friendly and helpful, but she was only able to give us a discount that worked out to be about $15. The cost for the pads was still close to $300. Future pad replacements are now covered forever, although we will have to pay for labor.

So. What happened yesterday? I got a phone call, the usual post-service survey. I always thought these were completely confidential. But I did not give them the best rating for the experience, because of the fact that it cost me so much to repair something that should not have gone wrong. Well: not five minutes later I got another call, this one from the service department! She was most apologetic and told me that AFTER I left, they had had a big meeting about this very issue and perhaps Honda might be ready to take some corrective action after all! So now I am waiting to hear back from her to see if they are going to do anything to further rectify the cost burden for the replacement of the brake pads. So that was a twist in the case.

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