Of Batteries and Blessings
You run into a problem.
You have to ask yourself, "If I can solve this problem by throwing money at it?"
If you answer yes, then it's not a problem, it's an inconvenience.
That's not to say that it makes you feel that much better, but it definitely keeps things in perspective.
Last night I went to a friend's house to watch "The Black List" and chat. Then I got into my car, turned the key, and... FLASH! the lights went on and then the whole car went completely dead. Now, I've had my fair share of car not starting issues and I'm pretty decent at trouble shooting. I figured that it had to be the battery. My friend popped her car out of the garage and got the jumper cables.
However, after we opened the hood we realized that this wasn't going to be solved by a simple jump start.
We fiddled around a bit and determined that this was not something that either of us could fix. So, I put out a call to my friend who is mechanically inclined and called into work.
My friend determined that the battery was probably completely compromised and we decided to just buy a new one rather than try to wrestle this one back to life. While my bank is holding my paycheck hostage (long and different story), I do have a savings account (thank god!) for small and minor emergencies. A transfer of funds later, one new battery and a couple of hours... running car!
I'm not thrilled with having to drop $100 on this, but I'm glad that I had the money to do so. Of all the smart things I've done in the past year, getting a savings account is the best thing. And I've got vacation time to cover the missed work today.
I also enjoyed a nice morning of sleeping in and spent a great deal of time cleaning the apartment. Now I've got a some laundry going. I'll be able to go to kung fu and then fighter practice afterwards. So, yeah, today could've been so much worse. And while it wasn't a cheap day, it was still ok.
You have to ask yourself, "If I can solve this problem by throwing money at it?"
If you answer yes, then it's not a problem, it's an inconvenience.
That's not to say that it makes you feel that much better, but it definitely keeps things in perspective.
Last night I went to a friend's house to watch "The Black List" and chat. Then I got into my car, turned the key, and... FLASH! the lights went on and then the whole car went completely dead. Now, I've had my fair share of car not starting issues and I'm pretty decent at trouble shooting. I figured that it had to be the battery. My friend popped her car out of the garage and got the jumper cables.
However, after we opened the hood we realized that this wasn't going to be solved by a simple jump start.
We fiddled around a bit and determined that this was not something that either of us could fix. So, I put out a call to my friend who is mechanically inclined and called into work.
My friend determined that the battery was probably completely compromised and we decided to just buy a new one rather than try to wrestle this one back to life. While my bank is holding my paycheck hostage (long and different story), I do have a savings account (thank god!) for small and minor emergencies. A transfer of funds later, one new battery and a couple of hours... running car!
I'm not thrilled with having to drop $100 on this, but I'm glad that I had the money to do so. Of all the smart things I've done in the past year, getting a savings account is the best thing. And I've got vacation time to cover the missed work today.
I also enjoyed a nice morning of sleeping in and spent a great deal of time cleaning the apartment. Now I've got a some laundry going. I'll be able to go to kung fu and then fighter practice afterwards. So, yeah, today could've been so much worse. And while it wasn't a cheap day, it was still ok.