On Junkers

As much as I grouse about my day job, not having money is even worse. For example, a week or so before day job came along, some moron rear-ended me. My car is tough -- many cars wouldn't even be running at age 15 -- but not that tough. So into the shop it went, for about $600 in tow and repair costs. It's still got a crumpled rear end that I don't bother fixing because it's purely cosmetic. Fortunately, I get day job and slowly start paying off that credit card bill, until last week I finally zeroed it out. w00t. I figure to put away some money  in savings with my next paycheck, but before that I want to take my girlfriend out to dinner. Nowhere fancy-expensive, nowhere you need reservations, just a nice Italian place with good food. You know, a date.

So I get in my car, start it up, and immediately it starts whine-squealing unhealthily. Uh-oh.

I try to get to work anyway, but after about ten minutes on Sunrise Highway, "Uh-oh" becomes "Oh no" when the engine starts smoking. I manage to get the car to my mechanic before it breaks down, but my family doesn't have any available cars for me to borrow. By an apparent stroke of luck, my brother's car is at the same mechanic, and ready to be picked up. A quick phone call secures me use of it for the day... only for me to realize that the registration is expired. Not wanting to get my brother into that kind of trouble, I instead drive home and call my job to tell them I won't be in.

My mechanic has the car fixed up by the end of the day, so that's good. Cost? $600. That's right, I'm now right back where I started. It's times like these I wonder if God doesn't just like screwing with me for his own amusement.

On the plus side, the unplanned day off gave me time to catch up on my querying, so that hopefully I can get a car that isn't a freakin' money pit someday. I'll take the silver linings where I find them.