Schleprock

Schleprock, according to Urban Dictionary:

1.  To cary heavy  burdens.  One who is said to be unlucky or extremely unfortunate.  Also formerly a character on the popular cartoon, “The Flintstones.”

2.  Total loser who will never amount to anything.

3.  A derogatory term for a person of Irish descent, came into parlance in New York in the early 20th century.  A combination of ‘shamrock’ and the Yiddish term ‘schlep’, meaning to haul.  Used to describe the Irish laborers by the wealthy Yiddish speakers of New York.  ‘Schlep’ meaning to carry bring or otherwise transmit something which is difficult  to move.

Personally, I fall under the #1 definition.  If it can happen to someone, it will happen to me.  I’m the unlucky number 13.  It’s almost amusing.  Think about it.  The refrigerator?  The dishwasher?  I shouldn’t mess with “things”.  At all.  I should just leave well enough alone.  Trouble is, I can’t.

So now it’s my car.  My car’s fine.  I like my car.  But I really wanted to be able to listen to the music on my iPhone in my car.  Is that so much for a girl to ask?  Apparently.  I researched methods and after doing so, settled on Icarkits.  I called the service advisor (who’s known me now for 10+ years) and got his take on it.  He was supportive.  But thinking back about my last car, maybe he should have talked me out of it.

My last car (same model as I have now, only older) had a CD issue.  It would eat CD’s–and when I say this, I mean, the whole unit had to be removed and sent to the factory to retrieve the CD’s, which is not a good thing when they are library CD’s.  The first time it happened it was under warranty.  They had to replace the whole unit. He said not to use Library CD’s. The second unit lasted about 10 months. He said don’t use home burned CD’s.  The third unit, the fourth and the fifth were all replaced under warranty (meaning within a year of installation).  On the fifth one, Stewart had to admit that it must be something about me.

“I’ve seen this happen, but never to the same person more than once,” he’d say as he shook his head.

Instead of using the 5th one, I replaced the car (as mine was now 10 years old and had 140K miles on it), hoping that my Schleprock-ish-ness wouldn’t carry over.  It didn’t, exactly.  This CD player would play intermittently, and when it wouldn’t play it would say, not connected to outside source.  Stewart was speechless for about 30 seconds.

“Again?” he inquired, completely exasperated.

“Well, at least I can still retrieve my CD’s, even if they won’t play.”

So my brilliant plan to circumvent the issue was to install a connector to plug my iPhone in.  After they installed it, it worked, but there are some weird quirks that aren’t quite right, such as flashing lights on the screen.  Hmmm…  Stewart advises me to call the company I ordered it from, and find out what the problem was, and they would correct it.  I didn’t even get that far.  The whole thing quit working before I could call.  I take it back to the dealer with contact info of company.

Stewart calls me yesterday to tell me it’s been confirmed that the interface on the unit is bad and needs to be replaced.

REALLY???????

One day I’m going to write a book titled, “The Schleprock Events of My Life”.  It will come as an 8 Volume set.

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