Long Time No Post
Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted in here, so let's remedy that.
A lot has happened the past couple of months. To start with, last month I lost the Sapphire Vixen. Yeah, my blue Hyundai Veloster that I was so excited for is gone. To make a long story short, it was stolen on the 9th of last month, recovered about a week later in Jefferson County, Missouri and towed to St. Louis County. Thankfully, it was okay, but the place that towed it was trying to charge me a tow fee to get it out, and of course me not able to pay it I couldn't get it out. So I contacted my dealership for help and they were willing to give me a hand with the fee, so I asked the towing company to bring the car (to which I gave them the key) to bring it to the dealership so I could pick it up there. On the way there, though, it got hit by someone trying to catch a red light. From what I was told, it was totaled beyond repair. So unfortunately I had to get a hold of my insurance company and let them know what was going on. I was prompt about it and was ready to hear from them when the time came. In the meantime, I had to utilize public transportation to get around...that is the MetroBus and MetroLink (for those outside the St. Louis area that don't know, it's a light rail system similar to a subway). I had to spend $27 on a weekly pass for a month. That was fun, waking up hours early to get out in the cold to catch two buses to work (then walk about a half mile to add onto that). Serves me right for not tacking on that rental car coverage. Anyway, in waiting on word from my insurance, I heard back from them now saying that the party that hit my car was trying to lay claim that the tow company driver was at fault. So I was stuck in the middle of two insurance companies dicking around with each other trying to prove fault (there were no cameras at this intersection, and it was at night with hardly any traffic so there was barely any way of telling). In all of this, I got so desperate in getting into another vehicle, I had to beg my friends for donations via Go Fund Me. Thankfully, I have very good friends that kindly gave large amounts to help me get into something (with artistic_idol kindly donating the most, and her I have to give the most thanks to). Then the day I went to an area dealership, I get a call back from my insurance company telling me that everything was all cleared up, and the other party was caught in their own lie, and I ended up getting some funds that day. I used all the money that I had to get myself into a new vehicle. For this new vehicle, I decided to switch things up and purchase a minivan for the purpose of a cross country move I plan on making next year to the state of California, Sacramento area, preferably the city of Sacramento itself. So here's what I ended up getting:
Here is my new minivan, the Titanium Fox (notice I said "Fox" this time and not "Vixen"...that's because this is an automatic transmission vehicle, which makes it, in my mind at least, a male, henceforth the title of "Fox"). What we have here is an '05 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. It runs on a 205 hp 3.8L V6 engine matted to a 4-speed automatic transmission. This van has power sliding doors on both sides, power liftgate in the rear, and "Stow 'n Go" second row seats inside with fold flat third row seats. With the second and third rows stowed away, there's a great deal of cargo space in the rear, making this passenger minivan a great cargo van when the time comes. I'm not a fan of Dodges or Chrysler vehicles by any means, but the main reason I got this van was for the Stow 'n Go seats, as none of the competition has this feature. To be honest, I wanted an import vehicle so badly, like a Kia Sedona, Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, or Nissan Quest, but all the place I went to had to offer were Dodge (Grand) Caravans and Chrysler Town & Countries, so I really had no choice in the matter. Well, at any rate, I had the van for a week now, and so far he's been good to me (though I AM dealing with a Chrysler vehicle that is barely over 100K miles, so I'm expecting something to go wrong on it at some point). I'm suffering a little bit with fuel economy as I've dropped from a 31 (average) MPG vehicle to an 18 (average) MPG vehicle, but it's something I have to get used to. I'm going to have to rely on this van to get me to California next year.
So, job wise, I'm still at Illinois Central School Bus and Huskey Trailways, but there will hopefully be some changes coming to that. As Illinois Central pays very little and works you all the wrong ways, I've been looking for other jobs as well. Tomorrow, I have an interview with Greyhound. You heard right...Greyhound! I'm hoping to ace this interview tomorrow as I want to get myself out of Illinois Central and onto a better paying job (and Greyhound starts you off at $17 an hour working full time). This way, I can put my Class B CDL to much better use, and be able to travel like I want to. So wish me luck on that. If I can't get on with Greyhound, though, I have a backup plan, which is to try to get on with Huskey full time (which I can do if I so want to). So hopefully that goes well for me.
That's all I have for now. I'll see you all later.
A lot has happened the past couple of months. To start with, last month I lost the Sapphire Vixen. Yeah, my blue Hyundai Veloster that I was so excited for is gone. To make a long story short, it was stolen on the 9th of last month, recovered about a week later in Jefferson County, Missouri and towed to St. Louis County. Thankfully, it was okay, but the place that towed it was trying to charge me a tow fee to get it out, and of course me not able to pay it I couldn't get it out. So I contacted my dealership for help and they were willing to give me a hand with the fee, so I asked the towing company to bring the car (to which I gave them the key) to bring it to the dealership so I could pick it up there. On the way there, though, it got hit by someone trying to catch a red light. From what I was told, it was totaled beyond repair. So unfortunately I had to get a hold of my insurance company and let them know what was going on. I was prompt about it and was ready to hear from them when the time came. In the meantime, I had to utilize public transportation to get around...that is the MetroBus and MetroLink (for those outside the St. Louis area that don't know, it's a light rail system similar to a subway). I had to spend $27 on a weekly pass for a month. That was fun, waking up hours early to get out in the cold to catch two buses to work (then walk about a half mile to add onto that). Serves me right for not tacking on that rental car coverage. Anyway, in waiting on word from my insurance, I heard back from them now saying that the party that hit my car was trying to lay claim that the tow company driver was at fault. So I was stuck in the middle of two insurance companies dicking around with each other trying to prove fault (there were no cameras at this intersection, and it was at night with hardly any traffic so there was barely any way of telling). In all of this, I got so desperate in getting into another vehicle, I had to beg my friends for donations via Go Fund Me. Thankfully, I have very good friends that kindly gave large amounts to help me get into something (with artistic_idol kindly donating the most, and her I have to give the most thanks to). Then the day I went to an area dealership, I get a call back from my insurance company telling me that everything was all cleared up, and the other party was caught in their own lie, and I ended up getting some funds that day. I used all the money that I had to get myself into a new vehicle. For this new vehicle, I decided to switch things up and purchase a minivan for the purpose of a cross country move I plan on making next year to the state of California, Sacramento area, preferably the city of Sacramento itself. So here's what I ended up getting:
Here is my new minivan, the Titanium Fox (notice I said "Fox" this time and not "Vixen"...that's because this is an automatic transmission vehicle, which makes it, in my mind at least, a male, henceforth the title of "Fox"). What we have here is an '05 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. It runs on a 205 hp 3.8L V6 engine matted to a 4-speed automatic transmission. This van has power sliding doors on both sides, power liftgate in the rear, and "Stow 'n Go" second row seats inside with fold flat third row seats. With the second and third rows stowed away, there's a great deal of cargo space in the rear, making this passenger minivan a great cargo van when the time comes. I'm not a fan of Dodges or Chrysler vehicles by any means, but the main reason I got this van was for the Stow 'n Go seats, as none of the competition has this feature. To be honest, I wanted an import vehicle so badly, like a Kia Sedona, Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, or Nissan Quest, but all the place I went to had to offer were Dodge (Grand) Caravans and Chrysler Town & Countries, so I really had no choice in the matter. Well, at any rate, I had the van for a week now, and so far he's been good to me (though I AM dealing with a Chrysler vehicle that is barely over 100K miles, so I'm expecting something to go wrong on it at some point). I'm suffering a little bit with fuel economy as I've dropped from a 31 (average) MPG vehicle to an 18 (average) MPG vehicle, but it's something I have to get used to. I'm going to have to rely on this van to get me to California next year.
So, job wise, I'm still at Illinois Central School Bus and Huskey Trailways, but there will hopefully be some changes coming to that. As Illinois Central pays very little and works you all the wrong ways, I've been looking for other jobs as well. Tomorrow, I have an interview with Greyhound. You heard right...Greyhound! I'm hoping to ace this interview tomorrow as I want to get myself out of Illinois Central and onto a better paying job (and Greyhound starts you off at $17 an hour working full time). This way, I can put my Class B CDL to much better use, and be able to travel like I want to. So wish me luck on that. If I can't get on with Greyhound, though, I have a backup plan, which is to try to get on with Huskey full time (which I can do if I so want to). So hopefully that goes well for me.
That's all I have for now. I'll see you all later.