Groundhog Day

My RV is once again being held captive, this time by the custodians of the hyper-engineered Mercedes brand in Grapevine, TX.

Around noon on Tuesday, 9/27 my service ambassador Juan informed me that the service manager recommended that I return to El Paso with my RV and have the mechanic who inflicted grievous electrical harm upon my vehicle correct the damage. The logic of this escaped me for a while as Juan detailed the damage to the wiring harness and other components. I finally grasped it by imagining a continuum of skills ranging from shade tree mechanic/Eric to highly trained, computer integrated technician/Tyler, the former being the one who worked on my over-engineered RV and the latter the sincere young man struggling to unravel the havoc wreaked on the wiring systems of the engine. Eric kludged together solutions that almost worked. Mercedes performs restorations of injured vehicles back to their computerized, pristine original states. The service manager was concerned that during the course of this particular restoration, they would uncover even further damage and the insurance company would finally bail, leaving me and Mercedes holding what is currently a bag well into five figures. Eddie, the claims adjuster who contracted with Kevin at Camping World, who subbed it out to Eric, assures me that Progressive’s obligation to me is to deliver the RV to me as it was the minute before the crash.

So I finally got the logic employed by the service manager and earnestly assured her that a) Progressive would send a rep out to earnestly assure her that they would pay for everything and that b) none of us would hold Mercedes to the original estimate as long as they walked us through the unravelling story. I am ready to set fire to the RV (just kidding all you legal types!) and have abandoned patience and moved next door to resignation. Que sera, sera.

The good news is that I have every confidence that the folks at Mercedes will do a great job. I informed the service manager that I would be fine with aspects of the repair that might not be up to the pristine Mercedes standard, but that would nonetheless be safe and not set off computerized alarms on my instrument panel. The bad news is they have to order the wiring harness from the mothership in Germany, and that it might be back-ordered and could take months, though it might be mere days, not even God can say for sure.

Meanwhile, I am going to the NC beach with dear friends and then may throw myself on the mercy of friends and family as I have already done, or find a monastery to reside in, or backpack through some other continent. You sense my indecision. I have instructed Eddie from Progressive and Juan from Mercedes to never again refer to me as patient. I am resigned, adrift, almost free of hopes and expectations.

I now regard the frivolity of Monday night with Amber and Lindsay as the pivot point between two periods of purgatory. As I hope is apparent, I have not lost my sense of humor, and I acknowledge the incredible privileges I enjoy in the affection of friends and family and the means to live sort of independently, which is a kind of contradictory and accurate statement.

I will post further developments intermittently as they develop and congeal into actuality.