The car door lock issue was resolved by a man with much stronger thumbs than I have who managed to get the manual inside switch to disengage the lock. I was then more than happy to receive a very courteous "explain to the middle-aged lady how her car works" talk, which helpfully told me that I was turning my key in the opposite direction to unlock it. I must be very old, because I'm used to turning the key in the direction I want the bolt to go, not the opposite directionl. I'll happily take the severe "duh" feeling for not having to have my car door disassembled with no guarantee that parts would be available to fix what might be wrong. And I'm never locking that door again. You can have the bottle of windshield washer fluid, random parking lot thieves!

Hooray for an easy solution that left your credit card unscathed! (I assume that wasn't a $900 explanation of how to lock your car?)

I offered to pay for his time, but the guy refused. So another place I can add to the list of "More than likely not going to try to cheat me" car places.

In the hospital, computers only have IE

Situations like this are a huge PITA for companies doing healthcare IT. HUGE.

I offered to pay for his time, but the guy refused. So another place I can add to the list of "More than likely not going to try to cheat me" car places.

That's how we found our current mechanic -- I had taken my Toyota to the dealer for service since I bought the Echo in 2004, until, several years ago, they told me the entire exhaust system, from the tailpipe to the catalytic converter, needed to be replaced, to the tune of $1800. But they also told me it was drivable. So I looked on the Car Talk (as in, NPR's Car Talk) forums (those people REALLY know their shit) for recommendations of local shops. The shop I took it to said they just needed to cut out a section of pipe and weld a new one in, to the tune of $90.

I told them what the dealer told me, and they said that dealers hate to do exhaust work, and so they farm it out to exhaust shops anyway and don't do the work themselves. And honestly, if the dealer had just said they don't do exhaust work but gave me a list of exhaust shops they recommend, I would have taken the Echo there for the work and then kept going to the dealer for all the other maintenance and such. But instead they lost a longtime customer who spent WAY more than $1800 there over the years (not counting the price of the Echo I bought from them) because they're shady as hell.

I am tired and unmotivated and whiny and I think my coffee is broken. Stupid post-vacation slump.

The Blue Ray player is hooked up, the first disk of Jeeves & Wooster is set to Play All, I have boxes to unpack and a leisurely lunch to eat. I may even sit on my balcony in a little bit. I shall learn to relax and be at peace eventually.

In the hospital, computers only have IE

My work software only runs on IE, and only on an older version. Supposedly we're going to upgrade this year, but I'm not holding my breath. We use Gmail for email, which is not imho optimized for business.

I shall learn to relax and be at peace eventually.

Yes. You deserve to be happy.

Yes--I have both IE and Firefox on my work computer because some of our older systems only work in IE, and some of our newer ones only work in Firefox! It's ridiculous.