There I was, cruising down 35W South Friday afternoon at about 4:30, after leaving work early at 3:45 to go to my buddy's party in Traer, Iowa. I had just merged from 494 W, and finally hit the wide open road (relatively speaking), when my car did a little shudder. And then another. And then another.
I quickly realized something very bad was about to happen, so I made an evasive maneuvar across 3 lanes of traffic and exited on 94th St. My plan was to get off a road and into a parking lot so when whatever was about to happen happened, I would at least be in a little more of a controlled environment.
I made it through the first stoplight, then the second, but had to stop at a red light at the third. And my car killed. Sweet. Across the intersection, a block away, was a parking lot. So stinking close. When the light turned green, I tried starting it up again to hopefully make it a block further. But it killed. Fantastic.
So I threw on the warning flashers and called a tow truck. Got the car towed a mile away to Twin Cities Tire, and they thought might be able to get it looked at on Saturday. My dad had to drive up to Bloomington to pick me up, and I spent the night in Lakeville. Not in Iowa. Not having fun at a party with my friends. Not hanging out with those fun people mentioned in a previous post. That was a pretty big kick to the pants.
Saturday I called Twin Cities Tire, but, of course, they said they couldn't get to my car until Monday. Fantastic. I decided that this time it may be an expensive repair, and I better take advantage of Saturday afternoon to go car shopping in case Monday I get bad news, and want to junk the car and buy a new one. I just wanted to be prepared.
We went to a couple different places and I was able to find the kind of car I wanted (Honda Civic) for roughly the price I was looking for. It was a little bit more, but comes with power windows, cruise control, a stereo (you'd be surprised how many on the lot didn't come a stereo), and a sun roof. So if the repair is more than I want to spend on a 93 Buick with 127,000 miles on it, then hopefully that other car is still there and I'm going to buy it Monday afternoon.
While buying a car is exciting and it'd be nice to have a vehicle that I can roll down all the windows, that I don't have to write down my mileage to know when to get gas, that all of the speakers work, that the right turn signal works, that I can pop my hood, that the horn works, and that gets good gas mileage.....I still like the idea of how much money I save by not having car payments or expensive car insurance.
Today I had to have my mom drive me to go grocery shopping, and then back to my apartment, where I sit increasingly annoyed that I'm trapped inside. It's raining outside, so I can't even go rollerblading or something so I don't feel stir-crazy. Tomorrow I have to take the bus to get to work, and I'll probably only work a half day because I'll need to get the ball rolling depending on when I get word about the car, and what that word is.
Oh yeah, and I just looked at my bank account and it appears that the tow company charged me $178 for my tow, instead of the $100.78 it says on my receipt, so I get to deal with that on Monday as well.
Basically, I'm in a really bad mood.
