When they called to make the appointment, he told them that he wouldn't be able to make it at 11:30 am, but they insisted on making the appointment then and said that that it would be fine if he was late. Well, it apparently wasn't fine because we got there at 11:50 and we were told the doctor had a procedure to do at the hospital and we would have to reschedule or come back at 2 pm. I was so irritated because I had taken off work and knew that it had been rough for Darrell to make it there on time, especially after he told them he couldn't make it then. So we decided to go to have lunch and got back at 2. The building's fire alarm went off while we were waiting in the lobby and was blaring for a while; people started evacuating the building. In the hotels I've worked at, when an alarm is activated, it is silenced and an announcement comes on to inform everyone that the cause of the alarm is being investigated. If it is a real emergency, the alarm will go on again with announcements that the building should be evacuated. Apparently that's not the case at this physician's office building because the alarm just kept going; someone said they thought security went to lunch. Huh?
The alarm finally went off and we finally got to see the doctor. It had not been a fun day so far.
Earlier I had thought my car "felt" weird but brushed it off. I was on my way back to the office and thought of stopping by the Lexus service center, but decided to just head to the office and deal with the car later, since I had been out of the office much longer than anticipated. All of a sudden, all the different indicator lights turned on in the car dash. The car suddenly felt sluggish so I decided to turn around and go to the service center. When I turned the corner onto Piikoi and stopped at a red light in front of the KHON building, I turned the engine off and tried to turn it back on (you know, like rebooting a computer), which turned out to be a really bad move because then the engine totally died. I turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened. I got the hazard lights on and tried to decide what to do. I called Darrell and caught him before he had gone all the way home. I also called the emergency number provided by Lexus to try to get help. Unfortunately, the lady on the phone was somewhere other than in Hawaii and it was really hard to get her to understand where I was, having to spell all the Hawaiian street names (Piikoi, Ala Moana, Kapiolani, and what KHON was, lol). While I was talking with her on the phone, people stopped and offered to push me into the KHON building driveway since I was blocking traffic. At first I wasn't able to even turn the wheel because it was locked up, but finally got it to move and a bunch of construction guys pushed me into the garage. There are good samaritans out there, as I found out when I had car trouble before. Even got to meet Kirk Matthews from KHON-TV news, who came out to the garage for a smoke break!
(By the way, the building is the Hawaiki Tower at 88 Piikoi St, not the KHON building. No wonder the lady on the phone was getting frustrated with me!)
A security guard came out because she had seen me in her cameras and she waited with me until the tow truck finally came, directing traffic into the garage around my car. She was super nice. The tow truck guy was pretty surly and I suspect he drove around the block a couple of times to extend his billing time because he left with my car before Darrell and I left the garage, and reached the service center after us.
Well, almost $1,000 later, my car is all good (alternator went bad). New battery, new tires, new alternator, service done in September. It's over 7 years old, but still in good shape. Hopefully this will be it for a while! This car needs to last for a few more years, until Ryan's and Darrell's cars are paid up.
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