All the woes
Well, moreso just a chain of events. My car is still stuck in the driveway, as it has been since Sunday. With all the crazy ass ice and snow we got Sunday, I didn't take note that my passenger side front tire (the drive wheel by the way) was flat. Go to get the car out of the spot on Monday morning, and I'm stuck stuck stuck. The flat tire being where I'd get my momentum from, it was nothing but spinning a flat rubber. I was going to move my car so I could attach the new windshield wiper I bought to replace the one that fell apart when I was scraping ice off of my car the Thursday prior in the staff parking lot. Basically, I've decided I had reached the last straw. I'll be taking with a loan officer at the bank on Tuesday to get a loan to buy a car. Until then, however, I need to figure out a way to get my car semi-functional so I can still go about life until I buy a new car. I'm resined to going and buying a car powered tire inflation pump (my camping one does not have the structure to support the necessary attachment) and hopefully for a few minutes I can get enough pressure in the tire to get me traction to move out of the driveway. I'm pretty sure that tire has been having a slow leak issue anyway, so I might try to get the tire replaced. I hate having to put money into a car I'll trash in a few weeks anyway. I'm probably going to call one of those junk car place that pays money and removes the car for free. No one will buy my heap, not that it's almost at 190,000 miles, needs a belt tensioner replacement, has bad tires, oil issues, etc. I've clung to this vehicle too long as it is. Part of my issue, however, is that the car has sort of become a part of my identity, especially with all my bumper stickers and window decals, and that it's green, has quirks, and was and is my first own car in my name. Oh well, life goes on. I'm looking to get a station wagon, but those are hard to come by these days, it's either an SUV, Van, or some excessively sporty sedan. Station wagons are the best, they give the hauling space of a regular sized van, without being obscenely large and gas guzzling. I also like the way station wagons look, and enjoy being moderately low to the ground, where all cars should be for safety in crashes etc (i.e. I'm not going to be thrusting my bumper through some other cars windshield). With the snow day on Monday, this week has been crazy, especially for Marie, where at her school they had a medical emergency with a staff member on Wednesday. The woman is recovering, but she almost died (massive heart failure...went into a coma, etc.). Anyhoo, had to address some ice issues on the roof, which lead to water leaking through our upstairs hall window (because when they decided at some previous point to push that window out directly under and into the eaves, they didn't design it worth shit...so the ice jammed up, and then forced water into the window seams, as that was what was available. If the window weren't built out like that, the water would've been in the form of icicles,which would have dripped away from the house...oh well). I also shoveled off the sun room roof (had about 2 feet of snow build up). Use our little giant ladder for the first time. It is a sweet ladder. I'm ready for spring. Period. Did our taxes during the snow day, and that helped affirm that I could buy a different car. I highly recommend express1040.com as a way to file taxes and do the busy work for you. It was so easy, and all the calculations were done for us, and filed electronically with the Feds. Plus, printing off that info allowed us to fly through our online filing with the state. The express1040.com fee is only $8.95. A drop in the bucket compared to our return. Also, remember kiddies that if you are filing jointly, your Fed return will be much smaller than state. Our state return was over 3 times that of our Fed. Very nice. And that's that. Marie is sick today, and I've been running around doing chores and trying to negotiate my car our of it's driveway spot...with no success. That's it, I can't think of what else I'd want to document. Here's to the weekend.