Liza
Eliza
Eliza Katherine
Eliza Katherine Doxey
Pitufa (Her nickname..Smurfette in Spanish)
No matter what you call her, it's hard to deny a sweet little daddy's girl a free romp in the car..until now. Like idiots, we keep (used to keep) toll money in the coins slots of the pull out tray below our stereo.
Why, I'll never know ... at $4 or $5, it's not like small change is going to get you through a bridge toll around here. Plus, if we're ever caught without the toll money, Nathan is always there to bail us out since he is the only one who carries cash in the family. As they say, I digress...
Back to the story--our little Liza got loose and made her way to the small change tray, and promptly inserted a handfull of pennies into our tape deck. I fished a few out, but I know others went into oblivion. Liza's small act of kindness multiplied exceedingly well--it not only shorted out the tape deck, but killed all power to the CD and DVD player.
Hours of fuse hunt/fuse testing began in earnest. I called the Honda dealership for tips and tricks (only to learn it be between $400 and $1500 to fix and was told, "Don't even try..."), researched a gazillion chat room postings on the issue, all to no avail.
Finally, I was able to make it blow a brand new fuse, which to me was proof enough that there were still pennies laying on the circuit board frying circuits. (BTW, my bro. Andy...any electrical engineering love here?)
Undaunted, yesterday I started taking apart the dashboard and quickly (well, after nearly the whole day yesterday) learned why there is no way anyone in their right mind would try to remove an entertainment system from our car.
You see, it was the first thing installed on the dash. Think digging to the center of the earth--or somewhere along those lines. The years of expertise gained in taking apart my bike and putting it all back together again even seemed to fail me. I was hosed. Our tape/CD/DVD was hosed. All for the price of a few pennies. It's going to be cheaper to just replace the whole thing...someday.
It's a family--what should I expect? Comes with the deal. You gotta pay for the fun.
5 comments:
Oh mym Daniel. I do feel your pain. I am constantly amazed at how quickly anything we buy, or give to our children is dropped, smashed or ruined. Last years PS2 and the fun DDR mat was an expensive christmas present that lasted all of 1 month before it was permanently RUINED. I am sorry. I do know how stressful these things can be. One of our kids put pennies in our heater of our minivan one year and we were without heat for the remainder of that ownership. We drove from Cedar City to Provo one Thanksgiving without heat and FROZE our keesters off! :)
Nice...if anyone can synpathize, it's certainly you Les. Mahalo.
Make that sympathize...
wow...that story is tragic and educational! thanks for the laugh (i mean...i wasnt laughing...this isnt a laughing matter).
Here's the short and sweet:
1. Paul got to our change tray about two years ago while he was let loose to entertain himself while I vacuumed the car out at the car wash.
2. Denise notices that she no longer has a change stash.
3. Don't really think a lot about it, CD/radio still work.
4. Fast forward August 2007. (approximately 14 days after lease expires & we've purchased said car) Denise pushes play on CD player and all it reads is ERROR.
5. Thinking of all that change that was deposited down the slot everytime I get in car to drive. Radio still works but H-A-T-E listening to the radio.
6. Keep thinking there must be a cheap way to fix CD player in said car. Thinking of asking Steve to try surgery on CD player.
7. Read Doxey blog (have a million thoughts and things to say to you but one post really hits home)
8. Decide that radio is ok in car as is.
9. Was hoping to get to No. 10 but gotta go do surgery on Paul's throat. He just came in screaming that he swallowed the wrapper attached to his candy cane.
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