The Carrus Ate My Stimulus

Over the last couple of days, I have been the victim of what can only be described as a cosmic bitch-slap. (Gee, I sure hope my page doesn’t get catagorized as ‘adult’ now because I used a bad word!) Let’s see…first, I had a migraine for most of the day on Friday. I don’t get them very often, but when I do, nothing makes them go away. The only thing I can do is go to sleep and hope that when I wake up it will be gone. Unfortunately, this isn’t really an option when it’s 10:30 in the morning and I’m at work. I did what busy work that I could, and managed to hang in there until about 3pm, when I finally gave up and went home.

When I got home (and oh, what fun it is to drive home in Friday afternoon traffic with a migraine!), I checked the mail on the way up the stairs. Whoopie! I got summoned for jury duty!

Saturday things seemed to be looking up. Megan and I met my brother at the movies to see Iron Man, which turned out to be mildly entertaining, despite being a “comic book” movie. Afterwards, we headed across the street for ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. Megan was going to spend the night at my mother’s house, so I had offered to pick up ice cream for everyone and take it to my mother’s. There were a few glitches with the order, but eventually we were in the car, ice cream in hand – or rather, in a bag in the back seat.

As I started to drive, I noticed that my battery and brake lights were on. Hmmm…that can’t be good. I’ve had a squeaking belt for a little while, so I knew my car needed some work, but I had been putting it off. (Yeah, I know, I’m dumb. Don’t go there!) Well, I soon found out that I would be able to put it off no longer. As I drove down 95 on the 12 mile trip to my mother’s house, I suddenly heard a loud ‘pop,’ felt as if my rear wheel ran something over, and lost the ability to easily steer the car. Yes, the squealing belt had finally broken.

Luckily there weren’t too many 90-degree turns, so we made it to my mother’s house just fine. I wrestled the car into a parking space, and we starting walking towards the building. We made it as far as the sidewalk before – remember the ice cream? Well, the bag broke, and two of the cups hit the ground and their lids came off. I think I took that harder than the problem with the car. It was COLD STONE, for goodness sake.

I threw my purse at Megan and tried to salvage what I could of the ice cream, but 15 minutes in the car made sure that I now had a cold, sticky, drippy mess. Oh what fun!

We made it through the rest of the evening, and I borrowed my mother’s car to get home. I made arrangements to drop my car off at with the mechanic on Sunday, the plan being that my sister then drive me back to my mother’s so I could continue to use her car while mine was in the shop. The more I thought about it, however, the more uneasy I felt about that plan. The mechanic I usually use is located near my dad’s house in Gamber, which is a good 25-30 miles away from my mom’s house, where my car was parked. Not knowing if I had broken a power steering belt or an alternator belt (which runs the power steering belt), I wasn’t sure if my battery would make it 25 miles without the alternator. I certainly didn’t want to get halfway there and then have the battery run out of juice. I made the decision to take my car to the Hyundai dealership that was less than a mile from my mother’s house.

Monday morning the dealership called to confirm what I already knew, and then some. I had broken the alternator belt, plus the A/C belt was cracked, so both would need to be replaced. Then they let me know that my radiator had a hole in it and was leaking coolant *and* my thermostat was frozen. Once they replaced those items, they would be able to let me know if my water pump was damaged as well. Changing out the water pump would also necessitate a new timing belt. Can you hear the “ca-ching” of the cash register???

Today after work, I went and picked up my car. Luckily, the water pump was found to be in good working order. The total bill came to $954…the estimated amount of my soon-to-be-received ‘economic stimulus’ check: $900. So much for saving it for my trip to Myrtle Beach this July…

11 thoughts on “The Carrus Ate My Stimulus”

  1. Yes, but in reality, you only paid 54.00 for your car repairs. The cosmos actually gifted you! Top that off with the fact that Cold Stone ice cream contains tons of fat and calories and the cosmos were trying to help you fit into your pants! See! Blessings everywhere for you. You so lucky! 🙂

  2. Yes, I only paid $54 for my car repairs (or I will when I actually pay the bill)…but now I will have to pay hundreds of dollars for my vacation that I was hoping not to have to pay for at all!

  3. Yep! Stonehenge, Bristol, Sherborne Abbey, Warwick Castle, London, Bath, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Weymouth, Wells Cathedral, Glastonbury, Westminster Abbey, a cruise on the Thames and we sing at Saint Paul's Cathedral. I'm excited! July 2009

  4. I've been to Stonehenge, Bath, Wells Cathedral, and Glastonbury. England is a beautiful country. The light is different there (really); its softer than in the States.

  5. Wow… what a week. My wife is disabled with migraines, gets treated at Diamond Headache Clinic, the “Mayo of Migraines” but still that's often the best thing for her is to just sleep it off.

    A lot of times that means I need to sleep it with her (in the literal sense), but it usually does involve a lot of snuggling. So as I tell my friends Oh woe is me, I have to cuddle my luscious beautiful wife…. who will rescue me from this torment…

    Hope all those things are going better, especially given recent events.

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