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Monday, February 6, 2012

Craptacular Day

As G would say, "Today is a disaster."

Two weeks ago, on Jan 28 I wrote this post.

This morning, I got another flat tire.  Fortunately it was not one of the new tires but one of the old tires (although since we bought them in December 2009 they aren't really truly old.)  Instead of running errands and getting food prepared to take a meal to a friend who just had a baby, I spent 2.5 hours in a car repair shop with a snotty 2-year-old, getting nothing done.  Well, nothing except getting ANOTHER FUCKING NEW TIRE since this one couldn't be repaired.  (And I went ahead and got a transmission and coolant flush because $621 wasn't quite enough money spent on the car this month.  Why not spend a little more?????)

In the past 30 days I got....
-an oil change and air filter for $75.
- 2 new tires and an alignment for $546.
-1 more new tire, a transmission flush and a coolant flush for $385.

For a grand total of $1006 in a month on a necessary evil.  On something I wouldn't even have if this city had a subway or a monorail or a bus transport system that wasn't archaic and impossible.

Whenever an unexpected something comes up with the house, I hate it but we have to have a place to live.  We have to have some kind of shelter.

But we don't have to have a car.  If we lived somewhere else, if town planners didn't put every store 4 miles away with no sidewalks to get to anywhere, if we had a decent public transport system, if any of these applied I would not have a car.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, gets my panties in a twist more than having to spend money on a car.  A depreciating hunk of metal that pollutes. 

2 comments:

Shelby said...

I totally agree with you! I HATE spending money on a car! I remember that when I lived in Pittsburgh and when I lived in VA, we made use of public transportation all the time. It was not unusual for our car to sit untouched for days on end. I wish that Louisville had better public transportation...even sidewalks would be a bonus.

When we looked for houses we opted to live out in the country...what was the point of living closer when we couldn't walk anywhere anyway?

Kelsey said...

I have actually never thought of the car that way - in part, maybe, because I've always lived in pretty suburban-ish areas where I never could have fathomed getting around any other way.

But you are SO RIGHT. I've narrowly been thinking of it as a choice between driving and walking, but I forget that it is possible to have affordable/efficient public transportation.

Unexpected expenses of any kind are bad, but car ones do seem to be the worst - I'm sorry.