Jan 23, 2008

shake, shake, shake...

so...i start so many posts that way. it's such a good way to start them! on to my story...last night i was scheduled to work a night shift (7p-7a). so i take my little nap from about 3:30 to 5pm. i get up, take a shower, get my lunch ready and head out the door. i'm driving along out of my neighborhood and head for the freeway. i start on the on ramp to the freeway, like usual, and start picking up speed. i hit about 40 mph and my car starts vibrating. this is weird. i think, ok, maybe i'm in a bad lane. so i move over. not so much a bad lane. the faster i go, the harder my car starts shaking and vibrating. ok, great. maybe i have a flat tire. so i decide to pull off at the next exit and check to see if i have a flat. so i start slowing down on the off ramp and my car stops shimmying. i pull off the side of the road (and i know it's not out of gas...i have plenty!!!) and get out to check my tires. all my tires look fine. i don't see anything wrong that i can figure out would be the problem. so i call kerry and tell him what's going on. he thinks i may go away so i figure it's worth a shot to see if it's still happening. so i get back on the freeway. as soon as i hit about 40 again, it starts doing it's thing. it's vibrating so much, it's making my back hurt. so i pull off the next exit.

by now, it's about 630 and i have to be to work in 30 minutes. there is no way i feel safe driving 30 miles like this and kerry wasn't quite home from work yet. so i call work and talk to the charge nurse and tell her what's going on. it happens to be one of the nurse managers charging (hi laura!) that day, so i tell her my story. i don't know what to do at this point. we discuss having kerry bring me to work, but then how would i get home? no one working that night lives down my way, so i can't bum a ride home from anyone. so i decide i'm going to have to take a late sick call/no show and just not go to work. that's great. it's always great when you call a half hour before your shift starts and tell them you aren't coming. laura assures me that things will be ok, things like this happen occasionally, and to go home and figure out what's wrong with my car. so i head back home. trying to stick to the back roads so i don't have to go over 40mph. only bad thing with that was they were all snow packed!! trade one thing for another, i guess.

so i get home and feel horrible for not going to work. kerry can't figure out what's going on, so i just will have to wait and call the jeep place in the morning to see if they can get me in. so i do. i got up this morning first thing and call them. they tell me if i can bring it in and leave it for a while, they will work it in. so i call my cute mom and arrange to have her come pick me up. then we can hang out together and go visit my brother who had emergency surgery sunday night to take out his appendix (but that's another story!). so i head out to go to the jeep place and hit the back roads again. i start going a little faster and notice my car isn't doing anything out of the ordinary. no shaking, shimmying or vibrating. WHAT??? what is going on? so i decide to be brave and get on the freeway where i can go a little faster. i hit about 80 mph and nothing. just my normal car doing it's normal thing. well this is just bizarre! was i dreaming last night? certainly not...i have the backache to prove it! weird. so i call kerry and tell him that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my car and we decide i should have it looked at anyway. so i take it to the jeep place, where my mom is waiting to pick me up. nice.

i walk in and talk to the guy who does the jeep stuff. i tell him what was going on last night, then tell him how weird it is that it's not doing it today. he just kind of laughed and shook his head. apparently this has been a common complaint the past month. people will have this happen, bring their cars in and all the sudden the cars are fine. luckily for me, it was only a chunk of ice or snow that got stuck somewhere in the tire area and screwed up the balancing. then the ice/snow melts and the problem is gone. well isn't that nice. at least i don't have to worry about something being drastically wrong with my car. so he tells me that usually people bring their cars in to the shop, they sit and the ice melts and then they are fine and that i don't need to worry about anything. hooray!! so i call laura back today and tell her what has happened and she just laughed. she was glad, too, that it wasn't anything serious!!

so i'm going to work an half shift tonight and a shift on friday to make up for not working last night! and luckily, it was the cheapest visit to the jeep dealer ever! plus a bonus that i still got to spend the day with my cute mom!!!
ps jen (hi jen!) asked what kind of car i have. this is what it looks like. it's a 2007 jeep compass.

3 peeps have to say:

Suzi said...

That happened to me a few years ago. Dh slide off the road into a ditch. I thought sure he'd messed up the axel or something but, the snow melted & all was fine. Glad it's ok & glad you spent time w/your cute mom!

Sherri Thacker said...

Only to YOU Angie. Glad it wasn't anything serious. lol I can hear your mom laughing right now!!!

Lesa said...

Glad is was a simple issue. Hope your back is better now. Too bad about the make-up shifts but happy you got to spend the day with your cute mom! Hugs