Car update (with a little bit of life update too)

First of all, all hail schmallturm, he of the great Googling skills! (Not to mention the great car knowledge.) Thanks to some links he provided, I discovered that the problem is endemic to Fords, and Tauruses (Tauri?) in particular. It also has an easy fix, though there are some disagreements as to precisely how. (Some say use WD-40, some electrical cleaner or something, etc.) Basically, you just spray lubricant (no jokes, please) on/in the "door latch mechanism." Unfortunately, there's no indication of exactly what is meant by that. (Is it the door latch? Is it the thing on the inside of the door?)

Anyway, I'd made the decision to do the smart thing, which is to drive to my local NAPA auto parts store and ask them for advice. (They've helped me with the Volvo in the past.) When I got out to my car, however, I discovered (after some experimentation) that the problem.....had apparently fixed itself. Now, I'm no babe in the woods about this; I'm aware that what goes wrong once will go wrong again. And again. But since it's all right today and since there's a failsafe and since I probably won't have to drive today, and finally, since we have a lot to do today, I've decided not to worry about it until later this week or so. So, problem not solved, but definitely nowhere near as big or scary a problem as I thought it was. Thanks again, Dr. S!

So, the cleaner/organizers arrive today. We're not ready. And we're freakin' terrified. Amythyst decided to stay home today to prep a bit. (Well, ok, that's really only one of the reasons she stayed home today. She'd been unsure, but my car issues were the last straw, in case she needed to follow me to a garage, but she had plenty of reasons to not want to be at work. Thankfully, her shift on X-Mas eve will make up for any lost $$.) Not that we're going to be able to do much prepping, but the "Organization Lady" (as she prefers to be known) specifically said we shouldn't clean the apartment before she got here, that it was her job. I wonder if she has any conception of the task ahead of her....A and I are kind of afraid that she'll take one look at the place and back away screaming....I'll update later and let y'all know...

Oh, on one other note, congratulations to me for a full month of posting! I was wondering if I could do it and I did--at least one post a day here from November 20th to December 20th! Ok, it's not an important achievement, but it is an achievement nonetheless. And hey, the Excalibur community now has three members--have you ex-Excaliburites thought about joining yet??? :-)

This....has not been our week.

So the Organizational Lady? Not so much with the showing up. It's now around 7:30 and she was supposed to be here between 4:30 and 5. Now, it's a nasty night out with nasty traffic, but this is ridiculous, especially since we haven't even received a phone call. (She did tell Amythyst last week that she'd call if she got lost, so we know she has a cell phone.) It's especially weird since this woman has a good reputation and has been in the business for 17 years, so it's not like she's unreliable. We're currently working under two theories: 1. Something serious came up and everything else got sort of lost in the works or 2. the Organization Lady and Amythyst and misunderstood each other about what date we were having her come out here. Regardless, I called her office (about an hour ago) and left a message, so I should hopefully get a call clarifying things tomorrow. We'd still like her to come out here and do her stuff, but....I'll see what reason she gives for not being here tonight.

It wouldn't be so bad except this is the second time something like this has happened to me so far this week; first, I got all anxious and everything for a phone conversation yesterday with a recruiter who never called (and who still hasn't replied to my questioning e-mail) and now I get all anxious (silly though that may be) about this cleaning thing and the person never shows up or calls!

(And let me forestall Mr. Spoo--no. Not now. We're giving her another chance.)

So now we'll have a relaxing night, I guess, instead of having to keep out of the way of a cleaning crew.....