Friday, July 06, 2007

evening

The Best News I’ve Ever Been Able To Post In My Blog

My blog friend, Laurie, has metastatic breast cancer.  Naturally, it’s a scary scary thing, especially for a young person with two little boys, and a really great husband.  Her last CAT scan gave her these incredible results.  Results that, frankly, I didn’t even know were possible.  “There has been very substantial response to treatment. Widespread metastatic disease to the liver has regressed remarkably…Very significant response to chemotherapy…the remaining parenchymal nodules and evidence of scarring are difficult to evaluate for viable residual disease.”  Apparently it’s a complicated way of saying that they can’t find any cancer, at all.  I just wanted to post that because it’s so fabulous.  Yay!

terribly early in the morning

Dear Purrfect Auto - You Suck.  Love, Flippy

I left getting the smog check for my car until the very last day, until it was mere hours before my car registration renewal would be late.  However, I know that smog checks don’t take long, so I could be home immediately after they transmitted my successful smog report back to the DMV.  After all, the car is only two years old, and shouldn’t even have to be smogged for another five years or so anyway.  Leigh-Ann found a smog check coupon in our mail a few weeks ago for Desert Oasis Smog on Craig Road.  It was going to cost $20, which was fine, it was $5 off their regular price.  However, I was looking at a local coupon booklet that came in our Sunday paper and it had an ad for the grand opening of Purrfect Auto on Simmons Street.  It was a little further away, but it was closer to the post office, where we wanted to stop off and pick up a package on the way home.  It’s also in a newish neighborhood, and it’s nice to see what new stores and restaurants have gone in around us.  For instance, I’ve been asking my parents to get me things occasionally at Costco, and it’s not just because they have a membership and I don’t.  Costco is near their house and it’s about 25 minutes from our house, which isn’t all that convenient when you just want biscotti or some cheap Benefiber.  However, I’ve been doing some research on free prescription cards you can get online (I’ll do a blog entry on them soon), and they give you sometimes HUGE discounts on prescription meds.  Since I used up my pharmacy benefits on my insurance in March, I’ve had to pay full price for them since then.  When I was looking up local pharmacies, I kept seeing Costco mentioned, but didn’t really think much of it.  Then, something clicked, duh, if I’m putting in my zip code and it’s coming up with Costco as a choice, that means there just might be one near us.  Indeed there is, it’s only 6 miles away, and I had no idea it was there.  It must be fairly new, but since I don’t generally go out in that direction, I didn’t know it was there.  That brings me back to my smog check adventure.  I thought I’d go to Purrfect Auto because the place was brand new (it was 116 degrees yesterday, I figured a new place would have a nice cool waiting room) and they were only charging $12.95, so I’d save $7 too.  It seemed to be a win-win situation.  They get a new customer, I explore a new area of town, save some money on my smog check, and I’m close to the post office for the trip home.

I follow my little map, turn right instead of left, but only go the wrong direction for about thirty seconds before Leigh-Ann, who spent the day being right about everything (in a nice way - we managed this ordeal with nary a cross word), pointed out that I should’ve turned left.  We pull up to Purrfect Auto #244(dumb name too), we had a nice uneventful trip, it’s in a nice neighborhood, in an area we’d be happy to go back to.  It’s really quiet there, so we walk inside to tell the guy that we’d like a smog check.  He nonchalantly tells us that their machine is down.  No apology.  He tells us that it’s working at their other location and he gives us the cross streets.  It’s only a couple miles away, so while it’s annoying getting in and out of your car when it’s 116 outside, the smog check had to be done.  We get to the other Purrfect Auto #059 location on Allen Lane, and it’s quiet there too.  Their little “office” area is outside though, and we had to wait a few minutes until someone noticed us.  We told him that we were there for a smog check, and he also nonchalantly tells us that their machine isn’t working either.  When we tell him that we were sent there from another location because theirs was supposedly working, he just shrugs and says, “They break in the heat.”  Frankly, I think he’s full of shit.  I’m not sure that I believe that either one of their machines were down.  Funny how both smog check machines just happen to not work on the same day.  Now, I’m pissed off, because I have no idea where there’s another smog check place in that neighborhood, the neighborhood we wanted to be in for our trip to the post office.  Leigh-Ann fortuitously brought the coupon for the original place, Desert Oasis Smog Check, so we drive all the way back there.  I suppose I should’ve gone to the post office first in that case, but I wasn’t really thinking about it and just wanted to get the damned smog check done.

At first, we thought we saw the smog place and we pulled into the driveway.  It turns out, it was a different place.  An itty bitty booth where everything is in the sun, and there’s one car in the process of getting the smog check done.  Since Desert Oasis is just a block away, we don’t wait at this place and we keep going.  We get to Desert Oasis and it’s a slightly bigger booth, but it’s in the shade…and there’s no one in line.  So, we drive up, and hand the coupon to the very very very nice older man with an accent that we couldn’t place.  I thought it was Italian, Leigh-Ann thought it could’ve been Eastern European.  I turn the car off for a minute, he does a couple things, and then I turn it back on for the smog check, which means we can sit in the car with the air-conditioning running.  The man looks at my odometer incredulously and says, “Only 7327 miles???”  Yes indeed, I’ve owned the car for two years and it only has 7300 miles on it.  It would have even fewer if we didn’t have so many doctors’ appointments.  We’re there for less than five minutes, we give him a $20, he gives us the official paper and a free car wash coupon, and we’re on our way.  I feel comfortable that he’s transmitted the info to the DMV because I heard a beep when he scanned the VIN on the dashboard.  It was a lovely experience, and if they are still there in two years when I need my next smog check, I will go back to Desert Oasis Smog to see the nice man with the cute accent.  I will never darken the doorstep of another Purrfect Auto for as long as I own an automobile.  Their employees didn’t even apologize when they told me their machines weren’t working and they knew I had to continue driving around in 116 degree weather.

We go back towards the evil Purrfect Auto, but fortunately don’t have to see them, on our way to the post office.  We pick up the few bits of mail in our POB, that we use for our business address and rarely check.  There’s a bill in there for the next six months of charges for our convenience.  We just paid in May.  We look at the bill and it says that the price went up $5, as of May 15.  Our box expired May 31, so that means we owe them five bucks, and we feel kind of lucky that they didn’t lock us out of the box.  When we get to the front of the line, we offer up our five bucks to the woman.  Because we didn’t get a receipt for our payment (but I knew they cashed the check), she goes to check our account.  She comes back and thanks us for offering the money, but since we paid them on May 7, we don’t owe them any more money.  It’s kind of weird, considering our box expired after the price went up, but because we sent our check in before the price went up, we don’t have to pay the new price?  But okay, that means we’re now only out $2, instead of $7 on the smog check fiasco.  We drive back home, I get online, I pay the registration renewal…on time.  I’m happy.  I still hate Purrfect Auto, which is the whole point of this incredibly dull blog entry.  I’d rather write my complaints on my blog where everyone can see what crappy customer service Purrfect Auto in North Las Vegas has, instead of just one person at Purrfect Auto headquarters.  I like to make my complaints public, as well as my compliments.  Yay for Desert Oasis Smog Check.  They cost more, but they actually smogged my car and made it a pleasant experience.

(update:  after reading all the horror stories about Purrfect Auto online, I’m very glad that they said that their smog check machines weren’t working.  Frankly, from the stories I’ve read online, it’s not farfetched to presume that they to figure out a way to get more money out of me for repairs of something, and with a smog check, that’s less likely than with other services.  So, all’s well that ends well.  I got my smog check, and I learned that I probably avoided disaster.  Thanks for not having working smog check machines, Purrfect Auto!  Don’t worry, you’ll never have to see me again.)

An an antidote to Purrfect Auto, I present three purrfect sleepers.  They used to be crazed animals who acted like we were their personal jungle gym if we let them come into the bedroom when we wanted to sleep.  They had to either be locked in the guest bedroom while we slept, or we had to close the bedroom door and lock them out.  But, in the summer, it gets way too hot in the master bedroom when the door is shut.  Leigh-Ann decided to reclaim the guest bedroom and turn it into the office we wanted it to be versus the cat home it was.  It’s the only room in the house that doesn’t get invaded by desert sand, so with the cats kicked out, the office can be a nice clean office.  The cats have been really well-behaved since we’ve let them sleep in the master bedroom when they want.  It only took them about two nights to get used to sleeping when we do.  Now, they take turns trying to curl up with us and/or each other.  Sometimes we get almost all of them, plus Frank.  Sometimes it’s none of them.  This time it was TJ (sleeping), Bing, and Tie.  Generally, they sleep in the crook of Leigh-Ann’s arm and spare me the pain of sleeping in odd positions.  Sometimes Bing likes to curl up under the covers next to me…and drool.  I never knew that when cats are happy, they drool and drool and droooooooool.  Not all of ours do it, but Bing & Scampi are huge droolers.  It’s flattering, but totally gross when they shake their heads and splash us.  Blech.