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I just want to note that the Slack messages talk about two separate crashes with the Scion, the second of which happened only last week.
Thankfully, the Scion was not totaled in the second crash, which happened while I was in Arizona with the CrossCab. As it turned out, my wife was in a huge panic and believed the car was in way worse shape than it was actually in. The only lasting damage from crash 2 is a tiny dent. But apparently, she really did get trapped in the car. That Scion just refuses to die!
Also, the pipe that burst in my apartment was actually not one of my apartment’s pipes, but one under the floor. Sadly, said pipe has been leaking for so long that there was hidden black mold in my downstairs neighbor’s ceiling. Oof.
I still think the site should find out some way of leveraging the sheer amount of driving Sheryl does for car-testing purposes, both for the long-term test content it would generate and a way to keep her in a stream of new-turning-into-newish cars. New wet belt engine or CVT people aren’t sure about? The manufacturer can put it forward for the Sheryl Challenge.
Genius.
Let me amend that. Sheryl Shallynge.
Change approved!
Long-term catalytic converter test in the real world? Check
Valve deposits based on gasoline detergents? Give her a gas card tear down the motor every 30k, check
Tire wear in the real world? Check.
Hang on….
Uh…
Do these jobs really exist? Younger me would have been stoked….
We had a bunch of test drivers at the Honda proving grounds in Ohio. It seems like a dream job until you find out it’s “Drive down this extremely bumpy road while holding an exact speed. Now repeat. Now repeat. Now repeat… for an eight hour shift six weeks in a row.”
Isn’t there a Pink Floyd song about that car’s durability?
“Scion, you crazy diamond”
I just want to say I’m sorry that life keeps knocking you down and kicking you, at least metaphorically, and that now people in an online blog think it’s funny to laugh at it.
I don’t think that’s cool.
To be clear, I approved of this blog! I laugh at all of the stupid things in life. There is never anything that happens that can’t be fixed with money and/or a hug. 🙂
I just want to know when we will be getting a “Cat Pee and Gasoline” shirt?
Oh my dear Mercedes. I can so relate. Some days if I didn’t see bad luck, I wouldn’t see any luck at all!!!!
Mercedes is a savage, and I mean that in the most endearing way
I guess . . . if you consider human pee > cat pee
Unpopular opinion: There’s bad luck and there’s consistently putting yourself in bad positions because you make horrible choices.
I think Mercedes suffers from a bit of both.
Mercedes epitomizes the expression, Press On Regardless!
Listen Mercedes, life sometimes gives you lemons but its important to keep your chin up and remember the words of Cave Johnson
Inspiring!
https://youtu.be/X5aPwmq7ZJk?si=hoO7c5AWYw_udL5x
“… but I like the way it captures the rhythm of our Slack channel.”
does it do that or just highlight the inability of the team to use threads or a channel dedicated to workshopping headlines?
The shower drain fumes have a simple fix that should work until you can get it properly repaired, under the condition that you have a functioning P-trap pipe bend underneath the drain. Get a bucket of water and pour enough in to replace the pool of water that evaporated over the 2 months.
The stagnant water stuck in the P-trap has a function: keep gases from wafting from the sewer into your house. You want to make sure this is kept filled. This also assumes you have a means to keep everything above freezing temperature.
Also, put a wet towel over the drain opening. It helps retard evaporation.
Or pour cooking oil in- parents did this in AZ when leaving for summer
Related to Mercedes’ interests, this is also a pro-tip for prepping a camper for storage. Pour a little oil in the toilet and it keeps the water from evaporating and drying out the seal.
You can use non toxic antifreeze made for plumbing.
Hold on, something important is being missed here…
They have had a broken shower for 2 months?!
It is required by law that you have a working shower/tub in IL for any rental unit.
I hope they are not paying rent if that is the condition.
I also hope they are taking action against that landlord.
And if this is how that landlord treats a couple where one’s a writer for a technical site that averages 2 million pageviews a month and the other’s a lawyer, then how do they treat all their other tenants?
The shower was fixed last year. I gave Pete like three years worth of my bad days. 🙂
What took so long was that the blockage wasn’t actually in my apartment. Since it was deeper in the building, my landlord couldn’t touch it. The apartment owners control only what’s in their units, and the building itself is managed and maintained by a separate company.
Even I tried to secretly hire a plumber to fix it and they refused. So my landlord and I had to battle the building property management company to get it fixed.
For further context, this was the same management company that illegally towed my cars in 2020, so it has a reputation.
Same sort of deal is now happening with my downstairs neighbor, who owns her unit, rather than rents it. The pipe is the jurisdiction of the management company, and it’s taking them forever to fix it.
Okay, I have a three step solution.
1. Get lots of renters insurance.
2. Have a fire.
3. New place, New stuff.
Practice saying,
“It was on fire when I got here!”
To be fair me in my sibling group chat is not that different. Amongst my siblings I am a chaos Muppet. Amongst my friends, I am an order Muppet. These things contribute to each other. My weird pseudo date cancels, so I decide to wash a chunk of vinyl, it’s cold so I put out my jump pack in my apartment lobby with a note to use it freely, the jump pack gets stolen, and then I’m listening to Nick Cave at 3am before work at 6. We contain multitudes.
There is no better time to listen to Nick Cave than at 3am, though.
Your username rocks
My best story is having the idler pulley my Jeep go out halfway up Harquahala mountain. I had all the tools I needed, just not a spare idler pulley. Fortunately, I was with a group and was able to get a lift back into Phoenix (with a slightly drunk driver who after much persuasion allowed someone sober to drive). Then I got someone to drive me back up the mountain the next day to put a new idler pulley and serpentine on.
Or maybe it was the time the radiator swung back into the fan (because somebody forgot to secure the bottom tightly, mind you, I do all the work on my Jeep) on the Back Way to Crown King and I had to have somebody run into town, pick up a radiator and a couple of gallons of coolant while I pulled the old one on the trail and then replaced it.
Good times…
I had a pulley going in my old XJ, which I was fairly certain was coming from the water pump. Me and my co-worker were in disagreement.
As I was parking at college, the noise changed. I popped the hood and found the water pump pulley cocked sideways and grinding on the pump housing.
But I had an exam, so I decided that was a problem for 3 hours later (we used CAA to get it back to the shop after)
I guess it’s all relative, b/c at first when I read the headlines, I was like “how did she get covered in cat pee?! That seems like it would involve something really terrible, to be immobile long enough for that to happen…” I’m relieved to hear at least that wasn’t part of it.
Did SWG have any tips for getting the hood open? I’m curious what kind of Macgyverism I might mentally file away.
Take one sock, a paper clip, and a Swiss Army knife…
And this is why you all must do everything necessary to keep Mercedes here. Everyone who loves cars has stories along these lines. (OK, maybe not as many, maybe not as consistently.) But her attitude reminds us all that crazy things happening with cars is what gives us the best stories (EXCEPTING those with bodily injuries). Like when I blew the sidewall out of my tire at 9 PM on a very dark road with no cell service, but with a cool bar a quarter of a mile away. My buddy and I waited around until after midnight for a tow, and things just kept going from there. His attitude: “This sucked” My attitude, “This is a great road trip story!”.
I get the feeling this could be it’s own weekly series, running indefinitely.
Mercedes Monday or Streeter Saturday.
Some weeks, both!
Its not like Mercury Monday happens frequently anyway.
Shots fired.
That’s Edgar WRIGHT, tyvm.
Keep this up, you’re gonna get red on you. 🙂
Yow! Is she related to Joe Btfsplk? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Btfsplk