2 Grand Am's and 2 Co-Workers

Ok, that is a really poor title for my story but hopefully it was bad enought that it grabbed your attention.  Now that I have it, let me tell you a little story. 

Once upon a time there were two Stardock employees, Pat (me) and JR.  I've been working at Stardock for several years and JR recently joined the team a few months ago.
Both of us our ASP Web developers and ironically we both drive Pontiac Grand Am's.  After JR had been working with us for awhile and I got to know him better we began to have some lengthy conversations about our cars and some of the problems we have experienced with them.

One of our fist conversations about our cars began when JR was having trouble with his window not rolling up properly.  It would randomly get stuck half way up.  Interestingly enough I had the same problem with my rear window a couple years ago.  Being a bit mechanically inclined I ended up taking the door apart and cleaning all the connections and oiling the motor. I was lucky enough that did the trick and fixed the problem.  But now I was also experiencing a similar problem with my driver side window, however, I had been too lazy to do anything about it. I just try to minimize how often I roll it down.  JR, not wanting to do his own mechanical work, took his car to the dealership and ended up paying several hundred dollars to have his windows fixed. OUCH! Glad I didn't pay to have mine fixed.

So now our friendship has grown and we continue to discuss problems that we have between our cars. Our problems have included window motors, brakes, inconsistant idiot lights coming on and broken turn signals.  Most of the problems experienced have been shared by both of us.  So it seems that there are definitely some design flaws with the Grand Am's where the problems are consistent enough to span several years, as my car is a couple years older than JR's.

Ok, I'm just rambling on now.  Time to get back to the story.  As the day was winding down and everyone was getting ready for our regular Tuesday after work basketball game (that's a whole story in itself) JR told me that he was not going to play this evening because he had to have his car checked out because his Battery Light indicator came on during his drive to work.  He wanted to go straight home and have someone look at the problem so he could have it fixed before tomorrow because he had to pick his sister up from the airport.  Ok, I can live with that excuse and I didn't give him much grief about chickening out on basketball night.

So at the end of the day I head over to the rec-center and enjoy a good game of basketball with the rest of the Stardock team.  After the game I hop in mar car and proceed to drive home.  Not two minutes into my drive MY BATTERY LIGHT COMES ON!  "JRRRRRRRR!!!!!!  You cursed my car!"  That's it, no mister nice guy.  JR must be punished for putting a hex on my car!

After a 45-minute drive home (whew, wasn't sure if I would make it) I did some tests on my car and have determined that the problem is most likely the alternator has gone bad.  But my wife is not home and I don't want to risk taking my car out so I can't go get a new alternator tonight.  It will just have to wait until tomorrow.

So now I'm wondering how things went with JR.  So I gave him a call to find out about his situation.  Well, as luck and revenge would have it, JR didn't make it home.  He managed to get 3 miles away from home before his car gave out on him.  (snicker) He had to get his car jumped 3 times before he was able to make it all the way home. (insert evil laugh here, MOUAHAHAHA).  JR happened to run into someone who offered to fix it for him at a decent price.   But being the cheapskate that I am I will end up doing the work myself and save a few dollars. 

So what was the lesson learned here?  I don't know but when I get my hands on JR I may have to strangle him!  It's all his fault! And he knows it.  I'll just have to make sure his workload is doubled (insert evil laugh again).

Thanks JR.  Oh by the way, did I tell you how I just spent $500 last weekend having my front bearing hub assembly's replaced!  MOUAHAHAHA!!!!