Don't look down

It sucks when you think things can't get any worse and then they do. That's how I felt yesterday with each successive phone call from the mechanics at the car dealership.

It took until Wednesday for the repair shop to even look at the car and tell us the radiator is blown and it would be $200 total to get it up and running. That didn't get finished until Thursday morning. To make matters worse, while the car was torn apart, they found out that the heads had gotten damaged in the overheating and I know from previous experience that repairs of this nature aren't cheap.

Next phone call, I hear an estimate of $800 to get the head redone and a feeling of dread washes over me. By this time, I'm starting to feel like I'm watching an airplane rapidly descending towards the ground with pieces flying off and fires erupting everywhere. I gave it a fair chance and let the mechanics finish looking at it and get together a full estimate.

Hours later, I call the shop back to check in before they close for the day and talk to the manager who has been overseeing the repairs. The final estimate breaks down to at least a week's worth of time in the shop and almost $2000 total for parts and labor because the car is past its' warranty. The imaginary plane in my head has by this time erupted into a spectacular pyrotechnics show with flames and red-hot shards of metal flying off everywhere before completely exploding into the ground with the force of a giant meteor. I ask the mechanic if we should just give up on the car and see if the salespeople can just get us another car instead.

Andrea gives me a call back shortly thereafter at work (despite me giving them my work number in the last call) and says that Daniel would be able to get us in another car Friday afternoon. Daniel was the salesman that got us the dead Elantra, and seemed to be a really nice guy, but that dealership has way too many people named Dan working for them--at least three I know of. The catch? They get to do our taxes and take the down payment out of it, just like we did the first time.

Great, Andrea and I had to do our taxes together last year because we were still together and married, but her employers didn't get the forms to her until days before the tax filing deadline. Plus, I was looking forward to filing by myself this year and claiming the kids on my return since they lived with me all year and I paid for clothes, food, utilities, etc for them, so I would get a nice return. I had plans to get them furniture for their room and some cool new toys, spend some on car maintenance, then use the rest to move into a house. Now we have to file together because I'm sure that my credit sucks too bad to be the only person on the car loan--especially since I was the co-signer on her car that was recently reposessed.

I had plenty of time to go over all of this in my head on the way home last night from work. Once again, I did the 13-mile trek from work to home in the cold after 9pm, except last night was so much colder than previous nights and the air sure felt like it had more moisture in it which only made the cold worse. I had to stop in at Target to pick up a third long-sleeve shirt to wear on the way home along with some kick-ass biking gloves to keep my fingers from freezing. At least my body is getting used to the ride. The last two days I rode my bike, there was little soreness in my legs after I got home. At this rate, I'll be doing 100-mile bike marathons and effortlessly kicking in steel doors by next month.

Anyway, here's hoping that we can get a decent car this afternoon so that I can get in some much-needed time in at work to make up for the time I missed this week. They don't have a big lot, so I'm not expecting the greatest selection, but anything has to be better than what we have (or don't have) right now. Fates be kind and get this over with quickly.

<Gratuitous Advertisement>Anyone that needs a car can buy from JD Byrider in Mesa and use me as a reference. They pay like $100 towards your car loan per buyer referred. They got me a car two years ago when nobody else would because of my credit.</Gratuitous Advertisement>