dream | act | succeed

Monday, 15th of March 2021, an interesting day, I will not forget so easily.

And it all started so relaxed. Monday was my first day in my new position. Ok, temporary new position, to be more precise. And it all started kind of ok. Well, no, actually it already started there. Knowing that I would have an appointment at the eye specialist in the evening, I started the car not in the electric, but in the hybrid mode. And sure, once I hit an unrestricted section, the fossil fuel consuming engine sprung into life. The problem? I couldn’t start at my usual time between 6 am and 7 am, but was expected to show up at precisely 8 am. Not a big deal? Well, the traffic is a nightmare! And so, I was stuck in traffic only minutes later. The problem? The car went just not back to the electric again! And I was standing there in traffic with my engine running and running and running. What the fuck!? I just don’t understand this! Why!? JUST WHY? Why can the car decides on its own if it wants to act my demands or not? If I push the electric mode, it needs to switch off the petrol engine no matter what! Ok, maybe not no matter what. But certainly in a stop and go situation rolling around with 5 km/h.

Well, whatever. I reached work and actually, the day at work was pretty good. I have some exciting projects, a real challenge, so to speak and everything was fine when I left work a bit earlier in order to see the eye specialist in the afternoon. I drove home, plugged in the car for a little bit of recharging before heading towards the medical practice some 40 minutes later. When it was time to leave, I unplugged the car, got my stuff behind the driver seat and tried to start up the car.

Well, the Audi saying: “NO!”

A light show, combined with the weirdest of acoustic signals you can imagine, greeted me and made it very clear on the spot. Houston, we have a problem. Sure, I had some smaller sensor issues before, but this time, it was a completely different level! From the safety systems to Audi pre-sense, from the tire pressure sensors to all the other things. It went so fast, I couldn’t even read it all. The funny thing about it? The car wouldn’t me even select drive or reverse in order to at least move the car from it’s position right in front of the garage where the other cars are parked.

Being an engineer, but not a computer scientist, I switched the whole damn thing off and on again. And sure, locked the car in between doing that, in order to let the car think that it’s a new day and another chance to make things better. And indeed, after three circles of that, the car at least allowed me to move it to the side. Thank god. And so, with the time running against me, I took the car from my mum and drove to my appointment. I arrived just in time, because I am one of those people that seem to always calculate in a couple of 15 minutes for situations like this that of course never happen. Well, on this day, it was different, I guess.

The appointment was over pretty soon with a result I was already expecting. It’s time for me to get some glasses! YAY! And I seem to really need them. The way things are with my eyes these days is just far a way from being bearable.

After heading home and telling my family about the upcoming IQ increase of at least 10 points, the glasses will cause, I had finally a bit of time to check my Audi again. I unlocked the car and pretty much all of the warnings and problems were gone. Only two issues were still looking back at me on the virtual cockpit, but at least I could drive with the car again.

Having hoped that those issues would also disappear as quickly as they have appeared, I figured out later in the week, that no, no, no, they will stay and so, the new Audi needs to go back to the dealership with not even 1000 km on the clock. What a disappointment. Well, I will combine it with the change to summer tires, therefore, it will not be a total waste of time. But let’s see, maybe I get an awesome car for the days, they will need in order to fix mine.

With that all happening, I was pretty much exhausted and ready for a relaxed evening. Right? I took a shower, finally ate something for the first time of the day at around 7 pm and just wanted to do nothing. Well, something told me to check my e-mails first. Having currently four different e-mail accounts, this took a while, but was in the end worth the effort. In between advertisements and strange notifications, one e-mail got my attention instantly. The University was sending me something. I clicked on it and much to my surprise, they already congratulated me for my master degree! YAY!! They managed to do it so quickly, I was not expecting hearing from them in the next month or so. But there it was, the link to my final result. And well, what do I need to say. I got a “1.0” on my master thesis which is the best you can have! 💪 I guess, I have delivered well! And so, the evening ended with having a glass of wine with my family and celebrating the end of my suffering at University.

What a day, right? Life is just writing the best stories, I guess.

See you next time!