On Automobiles and more grousing about spending money like we're rich

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that the drive train might be going out in one of our vehicles. Fortunately, that was not the case. It was just that the rotors were rusted so it kind of felt like driving with the brakes partially engaged.

We got that fixed to the tune of something like $1500, felt lucky about that, then three days after we got the car home, the "check engine" light came on. It went back out, we thought we were getting a reprieve, but then it came back on.

That tine, it was the emissions system. Everything physically was working okay, but we had to replace a sensor and get a firmware update, which was another $700ish.

NOW... when Mal and I were coming home yesterday, my car overheated. I pulled into QuikTrip to buy some coolant, then I called James to come follow me to the garage. I drove slowly, with the windows down and the heater way up, idling at stop lights, and made it to the garage without the car heating up again.

Apparently, I managed to keep it from damaging the radiator but a few things needed repair: the thermostat, the radiator cap neck (which melted a bit from the heat and prevents the cap from staying securely on), a cool flush, and an oil change... for just under $1000.

But, oops, when they were taking some bolts off, the bolts broke and fell into the housing, which has to be replaced. They're not charging us extra labor for that, but the housing is another $400.

Like, I'm buying stuff that's $.50 off the usual price trying to make our money last longer (which I do when James is working, but we also have money coming in, unlike now) but we just keep having to spend thousands of dollars... on repairs, on our auto insurance renewal (and, of course, the price went up because of a $700 claim), our city's water company started charging more (they should!).

James said he's averaged applying for about 10 jobs per week since he got laid off. That's well over 500 applications. I've applied for jobs and have been told I'll be invited in for an interview at one, but that was weeks ago so I'm not holding my breath. 

I will say that I'm having some luck at cobbling together side gigs like mystery shopping, marketing research, and now I'm getting into pet-sitting (kind of). 

What's kind of funny, though, is that I'm trying to get Mal to take some classes next semester to learn how to skate or swim or other stuff. And that would cost money. But I guess we're lucky because Mal says he teaches himself his own skills, so he declines. 

Speaking of Mal... He had 2 teeth pulled the last time he went under anesthesia for dental work in April 2023 and we were told at the time that it might be years until he lost more teeth. It was! However, in the past 10 days, he's lost 3 molars! And another one is loose. 

He still hasn't lost his canines, which feels wrong. But his mouth is a wonderland of weirdness, anyway.

They wanted to do braces pretty quickly, and he'll probably still need them eventually;
but his teeth have moved on their own A LOT in the past 2 years!

UPDATE: After I posted this, Mal lost his second molar of the day!!

UPDATE 2: It ended up being just over $1800. Le sigh. 

MY DAY DID NOT GO AS PLANNED, and I'm not alone

This morning, the younger of our two old cats (she's almost 15) continued to act weird as she has all weekend. She's nervous and trying to mark and pee everywhere, which is quite unlike her. I had locked her into the bedroom with James as Mal and I were heading out to meet Mal's friend as usual on Sunday.

I decided to get a car wash on the way. 

As I was pulling out of the car wash, I rear-ended the car in front of me, which I thought was pulling out so I moved forward and guess I was just zoned out. It didn't damage either of our cars, so it was fine, but it shook me up.

LATER: In thinking on this, I'm not 100% sure that I hit her; it's possible that she backed into me? She said something about how she was trying not to pull out in front of a truck as I hit her... which makes me wonder exactly what did happen. I was a little shocked that I didn't realize I was running into another car. But I digress...

When we got to McDonald's, Mal wanted hotcakes instead of his usual chicken McGriddle. One of my favorite things to do when he wants pancakes is to get their full homestyle breakfast for $2 more than just the hotcakes, and then use the other stuff to make me a breakfast sandwich.

The employee delivered the plate, and there were no hotcakes! It turned out that I had ordered the homestyle breakfast WITHOUT pancakes. So I had to order Mal pancakes separately, and instead of saving $2, I spent $3 extra. Sigh.

When we went out to the car to drive to Temple, I realized that both driver side tires were very low. Fortunately, I have a pump in my car and aired up all of the tires. The two low ones were about 15 PSI! I'm not sure when or how that happened!

At last, we drove up to Temple. We were supposed to meet my parents at a restaurant where my niece's husband works. However, there was an accident and we were running a bit late.

My dad messaged me that it was fine that we were running late, as his car had a flat tire (tyre, for my UK readers) and they couldn't loosen the lug nuts, so were waiting for AAA.

Fortunately, they were in the parking lot of my niece Hannah's apartment, so we headed that way. Between Hannah and a neighbor, they'd managed to get the nuts loosened and were well on the way to changing the tire to the spare. Hannah and I finished it up, then we adults and three kids piled into 2 cars to go to the restaurant.

We were still full and only going to see and support my... nephew-in-law?? I did get a brownie, though, and then Mal was too full to eat the cookie he'd ordered so I took that one for the team.

Then my mom drove my dad to Sam's Club to get a new tire; then I took her and the two older boys back to her house.

I called a Lyft to take me back to Sam's Club since my dad can't drive anymore (it wasn't a DUI or anything, as you were probably assuming; it is because of his "vision impairment," as he calls it). 

The Lyft driver was a chatty one. He asked how I was, and I returned the question. He said, "I'm always having a great day. Even when I'm having a bad day, I'm having a great day. Even when I'm having a bad day, it's a great day in the Lord."

As we made our way the 2 miles ($6) to Sam's Club, he told me about how a friend of his called him this weekend and said that he (the friend) had been suicidal but thought about all that he (the driver) had said and done for him, and that turned him around. The driver told me that he had many friends who'd reached the brink and told him that he'd turned it around for him. "I can do that for my friends, but I can't do it for myself... I can't turn things around for me."

I was a little concerned that his mental health + driving me somewhere = suicide with a side of manslaughter, so I said, "Well, it's really good that you know you have that kind of positive affect on people!" He said, "It's not me; it's all God. God really does just change everything for you. He can take the worst things and make them good. I just have to trust in him. I am ready to try to just take a dive and say, 'It's all you, Lord. You can take it all' and see what he'll do."

I didn't respond; I was too busy willing him not to pull a "Jesus take the wheel" during my fare.

"Yeah," he continued. "I have two little kids. Of course, I haven't seen them in a long time. Nothing happened, though. I just have a crazy baby mama."

I told him that he could just pull over as we were parallel to Sam's Club. He told me that no, he was going to take me all the way to the door. Which he did. No one died.

The tire change happened quickly. My dad bought the stuff I wanted at Sam's Club, which I wasn't expecting and was very nice.

We got to their house and I pulled the weeds in their back yard. Then I went to do the ones in the front yard and realized that actually, that lady from this morning... her tow hitch had gone through my passenger-side headlamp. 

Sigh.

I ordered another one, and that's $60 I hadn't planned to spend. Fingers crossed that I can change it out myself. AND then whatever it's going to take to get Aish checked up, blood tested, and medicated (probably antibiotics). 

Hopefully all of the excitement for the week is over now.

I'm too tired for any more!

Did I Tell You About the Car?

A couple of months ago, we said goodbye to our white Fiat 500L. It had been mal- or non-functioning for months, and in the shop for several weeks prior to that. We decided at the time to see how we'd do with just one car, since James is still able to work from home and D doesn't have a job yet.

So far, it hasn't been too bad.

James has had to carpool with us on Sunday mornings, adding a little complication to his formerly carefree Sunday brunches. He just drops us off at the McDonald's where Mal meets his friend to play every week, then picks us up. Mal's friend went to California for a few weeks last month, so James got to relive his carefree dual car days. 

We've taken a Lyft at least once (Mal hates it; he says he doesn't trust the drivers). D has needed to get somewhere last-minute when James was out buying groceries. Besides that, though, it hasn't been bad.

Plus, when we added D to our insurance, the premium doubled! I thought it might not be as bad since D was 21 instead of 16. However, when we took the second car off, the price halved, so we're back to our "normal" premium.

A few weeks ago, I had the idea to try to get to my parents' house using public transit to get to the Amtrak station. We'd need my folks to get us the last few miles, but it seemed like fun to try.

When I mentioned this plan to others, two different friends offered to drive us to the Austin train station. That was nice, but would the purpose of testing out our local transit.

So Thursday morning we left our house pretty early to be at the local bus stop by 7:05 AM to catch the commuter bus out of our neighborhood.

We got to the Lakeline Park and Ride in plenty of time to catch the 7:50 bus that would deposit us downtown at 5th and Bowie, which is only a few blocks from the train station.

We took a detour into Whole Foods to get train snacks. Mal picked some gorgeous fruit from their prepared food bar, and I got a multi-pack of chocolate bars.

We were at the train station by 8:50, which was 10 minutes before the station itself opens. When we could get in and sit in the air conditioning, Mal ate a bunch of strawberries, we used the restroom, and the bus pulled in at about 9:20.

We boarded and were on the final let of our trip just a little late, but made the time up at the only stop between here and Temple.

Door to door, this trip was almost 4 hours longer than it would have been if we'd just driven. However, we had lots of walking and breaks built in, and I got to really visit with Mal without having to focus on the act of driving.

Plus, the $30ish I spent on train and bus tickets (Mal was free as a companion to my fares) was more than gas one way would have cost me, but a lot less than the insurance and other amortized costs of owning a vehicle for the past two months would have been (several hundred dollars).

We'll eventually have two cars again, most likely. A lot depends on if D goes to the community college (which is easily accessible by the first bus Mal and I took; that bus is actually an express bus to the school), if/where they get a job, and if James ends up with a different job that requires him to commute.

For now, we're skipping along just fine. When it's so cost-effective to do so, we can deal with a little inconvenience, for sure.

PS I asked James about this and he says he vacillates on whether or not it's worth it, mostly on Sunday mornings when his custom is to go alone to brunch. I guess he doesn't love being tied to the fact that we're out and dependent on him. How rude. 

SPEAKING OF SPENDING MONEY...

Hey-o! Guess what I'm doing right now?

Blogging.

Ha, yeah, smart aleck. Guess what else.

Give up?

Okay, I'm sitting in the BK inside of Walmart waiting for my tire repair or replacement... not sure which, so it's very suspenseful. Or it will be in an hour and a half; it really just depends on when they get to it. But truthfully, I'm glad they are able to get to it today. It's 4:30 and they close at 6, so we got it in just under the wire.

Not sure what happened to the tire, but I heard it deflating in our driveway when I was outside emptying the back to go wash and vacuum it. I just thought I was hearing a neighbor in his workshop using some kind of air pump. Sigh.

I got down to the stop sign leading to the highway when I realized that the steering was hard and that I heard gravel scrape when I took off, which isn't normal.

I did use my tire pump -- Did we discuss that? I bought one because my tires like to sigh a few pounds of pressure when it drops below freezing -- but as soon as I removed the air pump, the tire started deflating again.

THEN we tried to take the tire off so I could bring it in the other car, but those lug nuts were ON.

Oh, funny story: I also found, as I looked for the repair stuff to remove the tire, that my car CAME WITH A REPAIR PUMP. So I guess I'm giving mine to James, and I don't feel nearly as clever anymore, and I've wasted probably $15 on pay-air, as well as many minutes looking for a pump that would take a credit card.

Oh well. Again, the timing was pretty good because James is home and can stay with Mal, and because it didn't happen when the car was parked at the airport and we were out of town or something.

But also, it PROBABLY happened because I drove over something that is a result of all of the construction around my house. If that ends up being the case, I'm going to take a circuitous route home until they're done. They're usually really good about cleaning up, though, so that might be a coincidence.

We got out this morning to go to "brunch" at Mighty Fine. I tried their fried avocado burger. OH MY GOODNESS. Yes, get it all the way, even with the jalapeño mayo. SO delicious.

We'd taken separate cars so I could get D's Christmas present. You'd be surprised, but it fit in my wee Fiat 500L.

1) Yes, I know my car is dirty. I was on my way to wash and vacuum it when I realized the tire was flat.

2) Either it's just SUPER HOT AND HUMID or I'm having my first hot flash today. This morning, it was in the mid-60s, but felt so so gross. I'd dressed for like actual fall, and had a flannel shirt on over this tank top. I shed the flannel at the restaurant, took off my socks, and rolled up my jeans so they looked like pedal-pushers. I'm sure I look like a dork all the time, but I refuse to be uncomfortable. I don't see how kids who wear hoodies all of the time manage. I was about to freak out.

After grabbing the bike at Target, I went to Kohl's to pick up my free clothes. Yeah, you heard me. Remember the air fry oven thing we bought? I got $45 Kohl's cash back for purchasing it and ordered a few shirts online. I elected to pick them up at the store to save the $8 shipping, but NEVER AGAIN. This was easily one of the worst retail experiences I've had in a long time.

I placed the order, got the notice that my stuff was in, and went to pick it up. Apparently, they only had 2 of the items that I'd ordered for same-day pickup. Two were actually out of stock and canceled, and one was being shipped to the store. Well, duh. I wouldn't have gone to pick it up if I'd known there was more, and probably would have canceled the order altogether.

Also, when I went to pick it up, they'd moved the pick-up area away from the customer service desk and into the middle of men's sportswear, where there was nothing but a VERY mobile stand that Mal could barely look at or it would zoom across the carpet. The lady wasn't super enthusiastic about retrieving my order, and it took long enough that I easily could have just shopped myself.

Regardless, I went home and ordered two more shirts to replace the ones that had been canceled. I got one pick-up notice immediately, but had learned my lesson. It took a week, but then I got a notice for the second one... only. And a few days later, the third. So I went in today, and waited for my turn (they're extremely busy, as you might imagine... also, they've moved pick-up back to the customer service desk), and found out... THEY CAN ONLY SCAN ONE BARCODE AND PICK UP ONE THING AT A TIME.

Like, I get if I'd made a bunch of orders that I'd get multiple pick-up emails and have to deal with it. But initially, I only made ONE order, which resulted in FOUR DIFFERENT pick-up times and emails. So this woman scanned my first one, went back to get it. Her counterpart scanned my next one and went back to get IT. Then when she got back, she scanned my third. He brought the last two up, and I asked if he'd informed her. I imagine he did not and she's still back there searching for my shirt.

What is wrong with you, Kohl's? This is not a way to do business. $8 for shipping seems like a bargain now. Maybe that was the point?

I'd planned to go by World Market to get the rest of the kids' stocking-stuffers, since we'll be busy and traveling soon so this is my last time alone to prepare for Christmas. But I was so hot and irritated, I went home to put on shorts and then go wash/vacuum the car and hit Dollar General, which has the LEGO-esque gummy bricks that Mal loves. I was going to go to the drug store for James, too... but, tire squash.

Don't be jealous of my relaxing Sunday. I'm just glad I got so much sleep last night; I was ready.

Also, after having eaten that avocado sandwich, I don't feel like I'll ever be hungry again.

OH! Update on the septic: We didn't build over it. It's basically ON the property line, which should mean it wouldn't pass inspection, but it did. Maybe it got grand-fathered? Anyway, we're pouring root kill down it every three months now because where it is is ridiculous. The end.

ALSO, also... there's a lady here I often see at the McDonald's across the way. I suspect she's maybe homeless, and she's also extremely clean. But her clothes are worn in a way that it seems like she'd replace them if she could. I've tried to speak with her before, but she's quiet. It might just be that she's lonely. About half the time, she sits in the kids' area at the McD's, which I'd never do on purpose if I didn't have a children. I've dropped off gift cards to her before, but wish I could think of a better way to reach out. Any ideas?

Just One Thing.

It's hard to believe this month is only half way over. There has been a lot so far in 2019!

The check engine light came on in the SUV, and after having put more into repairing it last year than we did in purchasing it, we decided not to have it fixed. Or even checked. Because $150 for a diagnostic check (to be more specific than just having the codes read) is still more good money than we wanted to throw after bad.

We sold the SUV dirt cheap and bought a new vehicle. That we still don't have. The dealership managed not to tell us it needed a special-order taillight and a pair of tires before it could pass inspection; that is, until we were already at the dealership. I was unimpressed but we like the car, the price was right, and we needed something.

We could have brought it home, but I didn't relish the idea of taking Mal back down there to wait in the service center for two hours while they did the necessary repairs. Still, they'd told us it would be Tuesday. Tuesday, they told us it would be Friday. When I balked at that and pointed out that it would have been courteous to have informed us that it wasn't inspection-ready any of the many times we communicated before going in to test drive it, the salesman said he'd push them to have it ready today.

The taillight didn't even come in today. Now he's promising it by 1 PM tomorrow. Or a loaner. Just something. But it's WAY DOWN THERE in Austin, and I am not driving down two MORE times.

Just a note, people in the automotive business: THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HATE BUYING CARS.

When I was picking out the car, I selected a couple through Chase, and then the dealerships reached out to me. On Friday night, I told one guy we were looking at the car we ended up buying the next day. He asked what kind of car it was, and proceeded to tell me how terrible those cars were because they're so expensive to repair and that the least failure will total it out. I informed him we already have one and like it very much.

Then today, someone else called. I informed him that I'd already purchased a vehicle. And since we've already been through this, when he said, "Do you mind if I ask what model?" I said, "As a matter of fact, I do. Goodbye," and hung up on him.

***Two days later***

Re: The Loaner.

Yeah, the second taillight still did not come in, and ya girl lost it via text. I told him to cancel the contract, which he informed me had already funded so they couldn't. In hindsight, they probably knew it'd be a week before the parts came in, and only said "Tuesday" because that was the second business day after we applied for the loan, at which time the loan would go through and we wouldn't be able to reverse it without penalties. SLEAZY.

Due to my going off, he offered to send a porter to pick me up so I wouldn't have to pay a Lyft $30, which I was more than willing to do to pick up my very own permanent car. I ignored him while he sent multiple texts telling me to give him the "okay" because the porter was standing by. After I'd done some research, I asked him a couple of questions and said, "Please just answer those and don't send anyone."

After THAT, he offered to follow the porter over to our house and bring the car to me.

Well, why didn't you offer that in the first place, big guy?

Squeaky wheel and all, we have a Nissan Altima in the driveway that we might not need or use at all, but at least it's available and I won't have to pay $30 to drive down there whenever the car is finally ready.

OH! A kicker here: When he dropped off the car, the salesman said to me, "You know, between two tires and two taillights, they've spent almost $1000. They are barely making any profit off of this car."

SURPRISE! I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR PROFIT MARGINS!

All right. This was going to be a post about many things, but it's really long, so that's it for now. More stuff soon.

Disney Pixar Cars Movies and Music, Entry 3 of 3

It's interesting: The third installment of Disney/Pixar's Cars franchise is easily my favorite. The soundtrack is probably my least favorite. One reason might be that for this outing, they didn't include the score, so the run time is only half an hour and a lot of our drives are that long or longer, so it feels even more repetitive.

Digressing a moment, Mal really enjoys listening to the scores. He wants to know the name of each movement, and then later when he plays those scenes at home, he also hums the score.

That's a couple of bars... repeated... from the final race scene in the first Cars movie (yes, he's playing with Cars 3 vehicles).

I would recommend Cars 3 to literally anyone, but it will pack the greatest emotional punch if you've seen the other two movies. It will pack maximum gut-wrenching if you've viewed the other movies multiple times and these are starting to feel like people to you, and how much longer until we move on to the next thing I think I'm going crazy

...

Where was I? Oh yes... Even as a stand-alone, this movie has very ambitious and relatable themes, especially to those of us of a certain age.

I'm going to digress AGAIN, because it seems like my wont this evening. I've read extremely disparaging reviews of Cars. One mentioned that the entire franchise is a victory of marketing over art. I think that art is subjective, but in my experience, Cars is every bit as emotionally-satisfying as, say, Toy Story, without being quite as "Hey! I'm tugging on your heart-strings right here! Feel it!" (And we won't talk at all about "Up," which I like, but good gravy.) And maybe I feel protective of it because my child loves it so much, but here are some things we've discussed because of the movies:

1) That "bad guys" aren't always "mean." He notices that ***no spoiler here*** is extremely personable throughout one of the movies, and asks me, "Is he a nice bad guy?" So we've gotten to talk about how people who have bad intentions can be charming and seem nice, but that doesn't mean they're good people.

2) Death. Oh, gosh, death. Probably because Paul Newman died, Doc Hudson dies between Cars and Cars 2. Mal has told me that Cars 4 is about when McQueen is dead, and Cars 5 is about when Sarge and Carla Veloso are dead. I've had to point out that Doc doesn't "come back," even though he makes appearances in the third movie. He's represented on old film and in McQueen's memory. Mal understands enough to know he doesn't want to die. He's asked about James's and my grandparents. He's being able to work through these scary and complicated issues because of a few animated films.

3) Concentration and frustration and anger are different emotions but might look the same on someone's face. This comes up from the way the cars look when they're really racing hard. There are times McQueen is having run racing, and his concentration is underlied by joy. But sometimes, he's just trying his hardest and it doesn't look great... Oh, also, somehow animators MAKE A VEHICLE HAVE THIS RANGE OF "FACIAL" EXPRESSIONS, so you can pipe down about "artless." Anyway, we've talked about how to think about a situation to try to figure out what a person (er, automobile) is feeling. In other words, empathy.

There are other things, like the scenarios he creates when he's playing with the toy Cars. Like he'll make good guys decide to be mean, or bad guys take a new lease on life and are kind. Or one car will give another one a pep talk to get them to do something they're scared of. Again, it's all play/work through some pretty deep experiences. I'm grateful to the franchise for those opportunities.

Back to the actual Cars 3 installment...

Lightning McQueen isn't as young as he used to was. He finds that the newer-generation cars are simply physically faster, no matter how hard he pushes himself. After a huge set-back that causes McQueen to miss out on the end of a racing season, he is faced with the reality that his career might be over, and has to decide where to go from there.

After having seen the movie once, going back and watching his training scenes and realizing what is actually happening... I'm seriously tearing up writing this. It is so simple and elegant and beautiful. The relationships that develop among several generations of cars throughout the story are hopeful. Comforting. The things McQueen learns about his mentor, and the end of his racing career... whooo. I can't. I can't talk about it. Let's move on.

Nathan Fillion is in the movie, too, so there's that.

I've seen reviews that talk about how this is an interesting examination of how aging athletes deal with their futures, but, I'm telling you, it's applicable to every career, to everyone. I can't say anymore because I'll spoil it.

This is too long for me to go into much detail about the soundtrack, so I'm just going to list it and then share my favorite song.

Kings Highway - James Bay
Truckaroo - Brad Paisley
Thunder Hollow Breakdown - Brad Paisley
Glory Days - Andra Day
Ride (feat. Gary Clark Jr.) - ZZ Ward
Drive My Car - Jorge Blanco
Freeway of Love - Lea DeLaria

The two songs by Paisley are instrumental, and a lot of fun. It's amazing how different "Glory Days" sounds from the 1980s song it covers. "Ride" is the one Mal started singing first, and he loves it best. I was skeptical of an Aretha cover, but "Freeway of Love" is pretty good.

My favorite song I have been unable to find a correct lyrics listing for anywhere online. But the parts that mean the most to me are at the beginning, when he speaks of feeling the "outstretched hands of time" with foreboding. Then he decides that he's going to be purposeful and do what he has to do, so everything changes. "I shake the outstretched hands of time." Then later, the bridge: "When I lay on my pillow at night, I think about what's still going right and thank the stars up above there's still things left that I love." <3 <3 <3 Same, man. Same.

A Day in the Life of My Little

Usually, Mal wakes up with his computer, like some grown-ups do coffee. But today, he jumped headlong into playing, and just did not stop all day. So here are some pictures of the way his days usually go. Spoiler alert: There is lots and lots of Disney's Cars.

A lot of times, after he's played Cars, he adds in other stuff. Here, we're playing fire station Cars.

Here, he's acting out a racing scene from Cars 3.

At this point, we'd gotten dressed and were playing Cars for a minute, then would read "A Very Hungry Caterpillar," comparing the pictures in the book to our refrigerator magnets. We read it at least half a dozen times.

Then Mal brought in the "marble maze" he does with his dad's carboy and funnel.

Mal is making a "pathway" with the bulldozer, then he used the marbles as a track outline to race the... yes... Cars.

Outside break, because it's a GORGEOUS day!

He was "hiding" from me.

We moved to the back yard to play for a while.

We ended up at Veteran's Memorial Park for an hour.

Then we went to the sculpture garden.

We met James at Logan's Roadhouse for dinner, then James took Mal to Target to get some soda, and Mal talked James into buying... MORE CARS.

So when Mal got home, we had to get out the Paw Patrol track to use as a racetrack.

He did finally watch TV for about half an hour, then took James into his room to play for a while. He finished up the night by playing "Cars get stuck in the 'mud'" (play dough).

When he was finally ready to go to bed, it took about 4 minutes. But most days, it's non-stop from wake-up to falling to sleep!

Thanks for spending our day with us!