cars & timing
sunday, july 22, 2012


well, look at that. it's been another month since updating. i swear, i mean to get back to whysper at least once a week, it just never seems to happen. in this case, probably not so bad since i think there would have been a lot of complaining again, and i really don't want to complain. much. things are better, there's just...bumps. in this case, there were some really big bumps, but i think we have most of them sorted out now, thanks to help from friends and family.

of course, that means it's the perfect time for something, anything, to go haywire. it's just a timing thing: get caught up, broke, but caught up, and something just has to go wrong. and it always makes me feel bad because i had the money to take care of what has now gone wrong, but now i don't because i got us all caught up. not that i would have known things were about to go south, but i still feel bad that i no longer have the funds that could have helped with it.

in this case, it's the car.

now, i've pretty much come to the conclusion that we just have bad luck with cars, for the most part. the jetta lasted awhile, it just pretty much got run into the ground. but the grand am? totaled. the car before the jetta? also totaled...the day we got it. my car before that? stolen and found stripped. current car? well, it needs lots of help and will eventually die because we can't afford everything it needs, but it runs. or it did.

the key broke. the key with the chip that makes it so the car will start. to make matters worse, saxy tried to take what was left of the key and set it up for a key ring. if the chip was still there when the key broke, it was annihilated by his efforts to make it so it would go on a ring.

there is another key. the dealer has it and wouldn't give it to us before because they need to be able to repo the car if we don't pay. so, that means we have to figure out a way to replace this key or the car is basically a lump of useless metal. and a replacement key? apparently not that cheap. and we're broke because i actually was a good girl and paid bills.

see? cars and timing. never really on our side. :P

in other bits of news: i received my first request for the full manuscript of charms. now i just have to wait until about october to hear if she wants to rep it. meanwhile, it's still out to other agents as well.

dish network charged us $350 for canceling our contract despite promises the charge would be reversed because the reason for canceling service was a line of sight issue. and in another issue of timing, they took it when we were getting ready to pay our rent. i closed the card (so i thought) to prevent any further withdrawals and tried to get our money back. it took me weeks to calm down after being told they would not reverse the charge. then i wrote the ceo. and that sunday, i got a phone call and they said the would refund the charge. and they have. i am amazed. really. but also glad, because that $350 really messed up my plans. we're staggering to our feet slowly, and we most certainly didn't need to be further tripped up.

hear that, key/car?

we also had lightning strike the building next to ours a few days ago. no injuries, but the apartment is totaled. the family spent the night at the red cross, and the complex has gotten them into a new apartment, but they've otherwise lost pretty much everything. i've started looking into renter's insurance, but we can't quite afford it yet. while i'm sad for the family, i'm just glad it wasn't us. i have no idea how we'd save the cats in that situation. :/ (and, yes, the cats were my first thought when i heard what happened. we did see all the emergency response vehicles, but we were leaving the complex and had no idea it was the apartment right across the sidewalk from us.)

boyo heads back to school august 6. really hoping i can get myself back on track when he does; i've been frustrated because i can't seem to get things done or to stay focused on getting things done. this problem seems to happen every summer, and i'm not sure if it's a "kid is home" thing or a weather thing. we've had insane rain for the past couple of weeks. the day starts off sunny then we get a deluge you couldn't see through if you were driving almost every afternoon/evening. my head has been VERY unhappy with this turn of events. and it pointed out that we have a leak in one of our windows. still waiting for someone to repair it. guess i better add that to my list of calls to make tomorrow.

we ARE caught up with CURRENT bills, for the most part. we still have closing bills to pay off and a few other things to take care of, and i'm still trying to find ways to keep things down so i can take care of other things (plus, really need to find a way to save money for glasses for everyone). one of the things we're doing is mostly a soup and salad summer. not having to buy much meat helps with the grocery bills some, though i expect that to change with the drought going on. even then, though, fruits and veggies should be lower cost than meat. grocery bill is still up, but it's mostly from higher prices at the stores.

so, all in all, things are going good. except the car. saxy missed out on one job and hasn't had a chance to look into another, but that's probably a good thing with the recent car thing. which is probably the only good timing in the whole mess.

hoping the next 6 months go more smoothly than the first 6 of this year. heck, if we can get stable on the money, we might even be able to plan christmas. wouldn't that be something?