Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
So far this summer: my laptop hard drive died, my DVD player died, my cellphone started draining a full battery charge in 4 hours, and my camera went missing.
Today I brought my car in for its annual safety inspection. An inspection station is across the street from me, so I dropped it off and came home for lunch. When I went back they had found some issues.
It needs:
At least two new tires
A new muffler and lead in pipe
A break job
A new side mirror
And, new license plates because mine isn’t “shiny enough”.
$1550.
Once the “failed” sticker is on it any police officer can pull you over, give you a ticket and assign you two driving demerits.
I argued with the guy about the side mirror. He wanted to replace the entire housing because I cracked the glass scraping ice off of it last winter. I already had the replacement glass, and had just not gotten around to putting it in.
I put the glass down on his desk.
“Are you really going to charge me more than $150 to peel the paper off the back of this and stick it to my housing?” I asked.
He looked at it. He looked at me.
“I think we can take that line item off of the bill,” he said.
$1395.
That is still more than I’ve got. 5 months out of work has not helped me build up my savings. And, I just paid rent and my American Express bill that had the new computer parts on it.
But, I really want to be able to drive places when I need to.
I often walk. I try and walk. I go out of my way to walk.
But, it has been a choice.
Not to have that choice is hard to face. (I know some of you have recently faced this yourself...)
I can say things like “the sword troupe needs me to have a station wagon”, and things like that. But, those are just excuses.
Not being able to afford car repairs makes me feel like a failure as a member of society.
I have designed products that have made hundreds of millions of dollars for the companies that hired me to design them.
Why can’t I afford to keep a car on the road?
“You can open a credit line with us and get your car repaired,” the mechanic said.
“I’ve been out of work for 5 months,” I said. “I’m not sure I’d loan me the money at this point, never mind a bank.”
“Fill out the form and give it a try,” he said.
I spent 18 months getting out of debt. I took joy in shredding those cards and offers of more.
I was so proud when we made that last payment and the debt was gone. I had already lost my job, but we were still able to pay off the end of it. I really felt like we had achieved something.
The financing is through Citibank, the folks who send me the “wrong amount” check that would have reopened my account. The people who once a month send me blank checks saying “any time you want to reopen the account, just fill out a check and it’s good.”
I filled out the form.
They approved me for $1400.
The car is being repaired as I type this.
I keep expecting to see a guy with horns and a pitchfork say “gotcha!”