Day 342 of 365: Conference call

Well, today was eventful... i woke up knowing that it'll be a difficult day. With that in mind, i decided to have a good breakfast at New Taraval. The usual eggs, bacon and pancakes. Grab a book and enjoy breakfast for an hour. Instead, New Taraval was closed and i went to the local bakery to get coffee and a cream cheese danish. No bacon, but God knows exactly what i need either way because the coffee was, at the least, decent and strong. Pretty much had me set for the day.

i came home and played my Xbox for about half an hour. Got pretty decent scores and that made me satisfied for the moment. That's where i shut the system down and made phone calls. First off, i called Mike Harvey Honda and asked them about the account i have with them when i last replaced the Odyssey's transmission. They did and they were already informed about my inquiry. i thought to myself that this is good! Now i know i can get my van fixed! We arranged for a tow truck to come and pick up the van later that morning.

In the mean time, i started my honeymoon planning. Had my handy list of main events with me and i researched on smaller activities that Annie and i could do in between. i even made a detailed schedule of everything that we will do, down to where we can buy breakfast. Researching for the right place to go is tough. It's almost like learning another culture and translating their jargon to understand what certain things are. For example, car rentals are called car hire. In fact, renting any form of transportation is called 'hiring'. Weird... And they like to use the word, 'Darling', a lot. Even weirder...

Okay, so as i waited for the tow truck to come, Ben contacted me and came over to help with whatever i needed. He was on a 4 hours break from school, so he could afford the time. When the tow truck arrived, it was an easy transfer. Just signing some papers and off it went to Mike Harvey. From there, Ben and i decided to catch lunch at the Vietnamese place around the corner. We did a lot of catching up on just about everything. His recent trip to Vegas, ministry issues, life in general, kids, work and the good stuff. It was time well-spent. We talked some more after our meal and outside my home before he left for class.

Back at my desk, i carry on my work with the honeymoon planning. That is until Mike Harvey called and informed me about what has transpired. Apparently, the transmission that the Odyssey was about to get was going to be out of production. With that, there is no guarantee that parts for it will be out if it decided to give out again and i don't think dealerships can give warranties out to components that are going to be out of production. Honestly, i think Honda realized that Odyssey transmissions for this generation is going to fail regardless, so putting a warranty on the same transmission will only spell a loss for them. To make matters worse, the price that was originally quoted was at $2,500, which is a lot of money, was bumped up to $3,688. At this point, i was stressed out and looking around for the best option.

i told the service rep to hold off on the repair until i called him back on my decision. Remembering that my mechanic quoted me the same price of $2,500 for a rebuild transmission, i wonder what the best thing to do is. i'm also thinking that this should be something that my parents need to be involved in since the van is my Dad's. i called Ben for his 2 cents and he suggested dumping the van 'as it' on Craigslist, asking for a fraction of what its worth. i made other calls, but ended up with voice mails. Finally called my Mom, even though it was their 7:00am. Felt bad that i woke her up, but this is something urgent and i need more information of what to do in order to make the call. With a quick conversation lasting 10 minutes, my Mom told me to fix it at the lowest possible cost and sell the van for as much as we can get. With that i made the necessary calls.

Starting with Mike Harvey, i told the service rep that i can't go with the option that he has. i requested for the van to be tow with the same company to my mechanic to have him take care of it. It was a quick call, but it was extremely unsettling because of the uncertainty of what is going to happen between that moment and the end of the whole ordeal. It took quite some time before the tow truck driver called and told me that he will not be able to get to the van on time before the dealership closes, so he'll get it the next day at dawn. i told him i appreciated it and ask him what he could do in terms of the cost of getting it to the mechanic's. i was thankfully that he could do it for half the cost prior, so i didn't have to pay full price again. Call the mechanic to inform him of what will happen tomorrow.

i felt some relieve when everything was set for tomorrow. i know i have to work tomorrow and i can't monitor the whole transfer, but after work, i have to make a quick trip to settle the paper work. With practically half the day spent on this gone, i went back to planning the honeymoon. Researched paid off, but still needed Annie's opinion, so a lot had to wait before putting it on the itinerary. i was thinking about signing on to Google chat to talk to her about it, but sorry Honey, i wanted to focus hard on getting all the information. No TV or music to distract, but my full focused attention on it.

Dinner was the same random Jambalaya i made last night. i took a break and watched whatever TV had to offer. Mostly reruns of old shows and movies. Nothing interesting. After dinner, did the dishes and took a shower. After the shower, i called Annie for her opinion and she helped clear out a lot of what we can and cannot do. Good to know and now i can plan easily. We had a lot to work on and the rest of the evening was spent separately. For the most part, at least. We had to conference call my Dad and inform him about the details of the banquet. Even so, the mysterious list of things to do doesn't look like it's shrinking.