Still very happy about being able to open my car door from the inside.  Such a small thing, but so appreciated after being deprived of it for a week and a half.  Jimmy also got me a front license plate mount ordered.

Got paid today.  My financial status has changed from “broke” to merely “poor.”  Rent paid, electric paid, ordered more cat food, ordered a surprise for someone.

Link of the Day: “The Spy Who Accepted My Friend Request”

Spam of the Day: “As catwalk in refill. An a willpower.”

Funny of the Day: Craigslist Wanted ad

Pic of the Day: The truth about Godzilla

Quote of the Day: “There is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults.” – Thomas Szasz

Tired and groggy, I drove my car to Jimmy’s shop this morning, dropped it off there, and got a ride to work from my dad. By 9:30, I had news: there was a minor leak from one of the transmission seals. Not a big deal, in itself . . . but, I also found out that the entire steering rack needs to be replaced, as there was a significant steering fluid leak and the steering rack had issues. So, looking at at least $600 . . . and then after clearing a short-term loan from my dad to be able to go ahead and get stuff done, I find out that it’s also going to need new tie rod ends, and an alignment. Yay.

Getting it done, I need a reliable, functional vehicle, but it’s going to make me poor for about the next month. It’s going to take what I have in savings (which was already mostly money I had earmarked for repaying my dad for the last round of repairs on this Acura), most of the money from my check this Friday after I pay rent, and a significant chunk of my paycheck on the 16th to pay for all this. Oy.

Weekend was pretty good.  Spent it with my Kara, we entertained ourselves inexpensively, ate very well (perhaps too well, I need to not be poor again soon so I can afford to get back on my diet), had a lot of fun and many good snuggle times.  Weather most of the weekend was dreary.  I really kinda wanted to see about playing with/test driving some cars Saturday (though Kara really didn’t seem too keen on that idea), but the weather wasn’t cooperative for that.

Entirely too broke right now.  I had to borrow money from a friend until this upcoming payday on Friday so I could afford food to make sure I’d have something other than hamburger and ramen (not the end of the world, I’ve been worse off) and be confident of having enough gas my dad’s van I’m currently driving to be able to get to and from work this week.  Heard from Littlefield Automotive earlier, $350 to get my car from them.  Then haul it to Lubbock this Friday afternoon, and see what the Saab place there says it’ll cost to get things all fixed up.  I’m worried about what they’ll say.  I hope it’s a reasonable figure at all.  Even if I end up in (further) debt to my dad for a year or more, I’d really like my car back in proper working order.  I miss it.  I do like it.  I’d really rather not have to buy something else on the cheap right now.

Link of the Day: Students for an Orwellian Society

Spam of the Day: “Colo Cleanse Plus”

Funny of the Day: Burned by a pharaoh!

Pic of the Day: Irresistable geekette earrings

Quote of the Day: “Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.” - Douglas Pagels

Yesterday, I got home from work, to find my apartment oddly quiet.  Why?  Because my apartment was devoid of power.  They’d frigging disconnected me.  By mistake/accident.  In calling them, on my cell phone, to get this mess sorted out, I got disconnected/hung up on twice.  I was spoken to rudely.  I was berated, accused of lying, and told flat out things that contradict the pink piece of paper I was holding in my hand from Bounce – the one that told me to either call them, or use their web site online to make my payment to avoid disconnection. The final supervisor I talked to was so confused by my bill from Bounce, she ended up arguing with me about what I’d paid and suggested that I was disconnected because I didn’t pay enough.  I quite simply paid what their web site’s billing section for my account said I owed.  Simple enough, right?  My current bill is really amusing.  My current monthly charges, indicated on it?  $-42.99.  Then there’s the amount due for my Next billing cycle, not due until September 8th (Currently, nothing is due – zero balance – as the only semi-intelligent rep I spoke to observed, there’s no reason I should have been disconnected) is $137.01.  Oh, but if I wait until After the due date . . . it’s $134.86.  Wait, what?  I save $2.15 if I pay my bill AFTER the due date?

Lunacy.  Insanity.  Absolute, ludicrous incompetence.  After my power is turned back on, I’m looking for a new energy provider ASAFP.  I’m done with Bounce screwing up with me.

On more amusing notes, here’s something that’s just too awesome not to link:

Automatic Pancake Machine: 200 pancakes per hour

Next up, here’s the next GenCon pic:

This girl was actually featured on an article on this year’s GenCon in the Indianapolis Star: Despite recession, Gen Con Indy drew 27,900 I ran into her as she was waiting for the elevators on Saturday as I was heading up to grab food before my DM shift, and she was en route to the costume contest.

At this point, it’s more a question to me now of, what’s the sane cutoff point of money to throw at this car?

Link of the Day: “Where I Write” - pictures of SciFi Authors and where they write. (Thanks James)

Spam of the Day: “Look at cars they drive”

Funny of the Day: “That’s sexual harrassment, Lion-O.”

Pic of the Day: Spock’s Ship “Jellyfish” done in Legos

Quote of the Day: “I’m assuming it’s either ginger, or condom flower. I’m hoping for ginger.” – Kara

No transpo?  Yeah, getting back to the terrible fucking Thursday last week . . . It rained Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Lots and lots of rain.  Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

That’s the sort of open field that dips down a little across from my apartment complex, and behind a host of businesses right along on the Loop 250 service road.  It stretches from this paved alley behind them that runs from Midkiff to my apartment complex, up to Caldera.  It was basically a humongous pond, or a shallow lake.  Unfortunately, so was a good stretch of Caldera.  I stepped out of my apartment that morning, greeted by this continuing rain, water all over the parking lot, in a rush to try to make it to work and Not end up a couple of minutes late.  I hopped into my trusty (so I thought) car, and drove across the parking lot, and saw Caldera underwater.  Hmm.

Keep in mind, this was right at pretty much 8:00 a.m., I hadn’t had been awake very long yet, and what little caffeine I had in me thus far had not kicked in yet.  I’m not fond of mornings at the best of times, unless I approach them from the “still awake from being up all night” angle.  This is the only defense I can make for the terrible decisions I made.

I decided I’d try to make it across a bit of Caldera to Crista Lane on my way to work.  This was a bad decision.  The water was really quite a bit deeper than I thought it was initially.  This is something I discovered as I was trying to begin my turn towards Crista Lane on Caldera, as my car’s engine sputtered and died.  Then, being sleepy and stupid and panicked, I tried to restart it.  Only afterwards, reading on the web, did I realize just how terrible of a thing that potentially is.

A City of Midland Transportation Services truck happened to come driving by (though the water – that truck has ground clearance of about up to my windows) right as I was getting stuck.  They radioed for for someone to come get me out.  A couple of police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck all showed up, with a wrecker supposedly on the way.  Two firemen got out of their truck, put on waders, and pushed my car out of the water up onto Crista Lane – so the tow truck ended up being unnecessary.  Later that morning, Corey pointed out a bit on the CBS7 web site about a water rescue being reported in Midland “near Loop 250 and Midkiff.”  That was probably the host of vehicles with various sorts of flashing lights that showed up for me.

While I was waiting, in the water, I took a couple of pictures.  This one, when, hrm, I felt something wet on my ankle:

Water was coming up from under the car, through whatever various holes or crevices or whatnot, and filling my floorboards.  It got to being a couple of inches in each of them.  Not fun at all.

Here’s a view from my car while I was stuck in the effing water:

Tried to do what things I could Thursday afternoon after work, Friday after work, and then Saturday, to get my car driving.  No luck.  Sunday, Kara and Matt came over, and we pushed my car back to my apartment complex, parked right downstairs.  It doesn’t start, and the electrical system is haywire.  I reached out to my dad for help, having no other real alternatives.  Finally got my car towed on a car carrier to Littlefield Automotive Wednesday during lunch.  Haven’t heard anything from them yet, going to call in a bit and see what, if any news, they’ve got for me yet.

I’ve been really severely stressed most of this week and last weekend.  Stressed about my car, about everything going on at work right now in crunch time (well, until this morning anyway), stressed about money being entirely too tight until my next payday.  Having a non-functional vehicle, and that adding unknown added costs to repair it (or possibly end up getting a cheap used vehicle if repair on it is too costly to be considered feasible) and having to work something out with my dad, probably on a payment plan basis, just added heaps of stress for me.  Some of that is why I haven’t posted a damn thing on this site until today.  It was just something that so seriously wasn’t anything of a priority for me.

So, yeah, that’s a bit to catch things up.  All I really feel like writing about it for now anyway.  Linkage commences:

Link of the Day: SDCC 2009 Hot Cosplay Chicks

Spam of the Day: “Time For a New Copier?” – from, of course, Copier King

Funny of the Day: “Try and spell shield that“

Pic of the Day: Interesting Top

Quote of the Day: “(760): I wish they had nachos that got you drunk” – another gem from TFLN

Got paid today.  Money from that paycheck has vaporized alarmingly quickly.  Cable, Verizon, Airfare to Indy for GenCon.  Yeah, that hurt.  $346 was the best I could score, even with The Priceline Negotiator working his dubious magic (not as magical as I had been led to believe).  Having to borrow some money from my Dad for 4 weeks so I can be sure I don’t starve and so forth.  Bounce Energy STILL has my account screwed up.  Called, left two different voicemails to people there (Though I don’t know if one of the extensions actually is anyone or not), filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and even griped on Twitter.  Someone at Bounce responded on Twitter and I emailed them about it, going with cut ‘n paste from my BBB complaint.  ;)  I’ve got to budget for paying Bounce still this month, once I can find out what I actually owe them, and probably replace another wheel on my car (please god/universe/karma/luck/whatever, just be the wheel and not require the tire to be replaced now as well).

Link of the Day: Key/Keyring Combo

Spam of the Day: “ Are you looking for the Fountain of Youth?”

Funny of the Day: Lit-er-al?

Pic of the Day: Super Trooper

Quote of the Day: “Life is like a road trip. Sometimes, the road is smooth, the scenery is beautiful, and the weather crisp; other times, you break down with a flat across the road from a hillbilly with 3 teeth, playing a banjo and looking at you like a dented can of Spam out of the dollar bin at the local Piggly Wiggly.” – Kara

After work yesterday, I ran by HEB to pick up the second half of my Androgel prescription.  They of course didn’t have it ready, despite my calling in on Friday and using their automated system to request the (half) refill.  Which was supposed to be ready by 11 a.m. on Saturday.  I was really not very pleased.  Got it eventually sorted out, got my meds, grabbed some Atkins stuff, some eggs, and got out of there.  I’m a poor, poor boy until payday – and that paycheck is going to have to stretch a whole bunch of different ways already.

Said “yes” to a “want some company” message last night.  Ended up watching Yes Man with Mummy Chick – I was a tad amused, because if I hadn’t said yes to her on a general sort of “sure, might as well” basis, I wouldn’t have seen that surprisingly excellent movie.  I like the core concept the movie is based around a lot.

Link of the Day: My Jello Shocks post made it onto Mancouch – It’s so nice of them to repost my entire article there, but use my bandwidth for the images. :/

Spam of the Day: “Grow Giant Snake in Pants”

Funny of the Day: Hmm.  Maybe some sort of ass-garter system?

Pic of the Day: Uh, maybe not?

Quote of the Day: “My next cast is going to have shag carpeting.” – Kara

This morning, an auspicious, lovely start to my day, I head downstairs, and notice, hmm, that’s funny . . . that (front passenger) tire looks low.  No, actually, it looks bloody flat. I hobble the car to work (thankfully it’s a very short drive), go tell James I’ve got a flat and am going to the tire place (Discount Tire, also, thankfully, very close by).  I hobble it there, park it right in front, apparently smack in the way of practically everything.  They were really busy.  I spent probably 10+ minutes waiting just to get talked to.  Told it’ll be 45 minutes or so before they can look at it and give me an assessment.  I call James, get a ride back to work.  Get a call a bit later.  Verdict?  Wheel is badly bent, they’re doubtful a new tire on it will even stay inflated.  ~$190 for a new wheel and tire.  Oh, and also, the rear passenger wheel is pretty badly bent.  It should really be replaced too.  Except I can’t right now.  I simply don’t have the money.  MAYBE I can swing getting another wheel (hopefully I won’t need another tire with it too) next paycheck.  The timing on this sucks ass.

So, went and picked up my car – $190.64 total – during the process of writing this post.  I’m past being angry now, and am just sort of weary and demoralized.  All by 10:15 a.m. today!  AWESOME!

Tried to be mostly lazy last night.  Semi-succeeded, Mummy Wrap Chick came over, we hung out, watched Vexille, fooled around.  Mixed feelings there.

Chatted online with a good friend until probably slightly too late – I’m tired and cranky this morning.  But it was worth it, very enjoyable chat.

Link of the Day: Fancy Fast Food – via @kpereira

Spam of the Day: “Kelly Clarkson brutally raped”

Funny of the Day: Well, it IS a valid point.

Pic of the Day: Just Plane Awesome.

Quote of the Day: “just fyi, Sneezing while on the phone with TXU’s bill pay system Will get you put into the spanish speaking menu.” – Kara

Saw The Proposal on Friday night.  It was cute, funny, pretty good.  Despite the whole “chick flick” stigma, it was a solidly enjoyable movie.  I was previously misinformed, however, as to the amount and extent of Sandra Bullock’s nudity in the film – definitely could have used more of that, IMO.  ;)

Additionally, saw The Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen yesterday afternoon on/as part of Kara’s Birthday celebration.  It was OK.  Some of the Bayhem-isms on the film annoyed me.  The spinning camera around Shia and Megan in one scene was really, really irritating.  It downright made Kara queasy.  The massive, excessive overutilization of Shakycam also bugs the crap out of me.  It’s not limited to this film, or Michael Bay, it seems to be used in practically everything now for action.  Such a horrible blight on the film industry.  That needs to either die entirely, or be relegated to very limited, “special” usage when it’ll actually accentuate a scene and give it more impact due to its rarity.

T2 is worth seeing.  Especially on a matinee if you can.  Does it have flaws, problems?  Oh hell yes.  It also has giant robots fighting, and a few very funny moments (Sam’s mom at college was great).

Link of the Day: Interesting and unusual car paint jobs

Spam of the Day: “Best oil for pork motor” – Seriously, I don’t make any of this stuff up.

Funny of the Day: I’m tempted to try this one, but I am skeptical of the results I’d get.

Pic of the Day: Too soon?

Quote of the Day: ”(972): they say celebs die in threes. leave it to billy mays to throw in one extra COMPLETELY FREE!” – Someone from TFLN.

Had a decent weekend.  Saturday was good, even though I had to work a half-day Saturday morning.  Got a good start on getting automatic updating working for our product, though it’s still not fully working with patches.  Haven’t sorted out why, yet, but I will.  Hung out with a friend Saturday late afternoon/evening into the night.  Worked on her very old, way slower than I thought, laptop, trying to get it updated and functional and reasonably reliable.  It informed her of a SMART disk error and impending drive failure the very next day.  :/

Link of the Day: Photos inspired by the 7 Deadly Sins

Spam of the Day: “Hey, open it up”

Funny of the Day: Kangaroo-like Pouch

Pic of the Day: I’d date her.

Quote of the Day: “If you like nerdy n’ dirty girls, she’s it, in fact, she’s kinky n’ thinky!” – Chris Gore

It’ll be a couple of days before I hear anything. Or, if is as it has been for them thus far, they never call me back, and I decide to call them Friday and ask what the hell’s up.

Link of the Day: Stem cell contacts cure blindness

Spam of the Day: “Your presence is obligatory”

Funny of the Day: This wouldn’t have been a problem for me.

Pic of the Day: Colorful map of the brain

Quote of the Day: “If you go away, On this summer day, Then you might as well, Take the sun away” – Cyndi Lauper, If You Go Away

After Monday’s frustrations and stress with the electric mess, Tuesday was another joyous day of hurry the hell up and wait.  I had a 2:45 appointment with the Dermatologist, so everything I did at work that day was harried and busy and just didn’t give me much time for slacking off productivity improving “zoning out.” I was informed that the Dermatologist would probably eat up the rest of my afternoon and wouldn’t be able to get back to work.  It actually took slightly less time than that, I got out of there right before 4:30, dropped my prescriptions off at HEB, and headed back to work and had around 25 minutes to pick up support emails that came in while I was sitting and waiting.  

Oh yeah.  Those prescriptions.  Three of them.  Apparently, I have Rosacea.  Damn my Northwestern European heritage, the Curse of the Celts.  Why couldn’t I get more love from the Comanche side of my blood for my face/skin/complexion?  The Dermatologist wrote me three scripts. An oral antibiotic (Doryx, etended, time-release Doxycycline – why some older, cheaper tetracycline won’t work, I don’t know), and two different face gels, Metrogel and Finacea.  I didn’t know how much these were going to cost me.  I figured they probably wouldn’t be the lowest-cost per my prescription plan, at $15 each, though maybe the antibiotic might be.  I figured, “well, probably be like $90 for these, maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll only be $65.  Nope.  $50 each, the max cost for a monthly supply per my CareMark coverage.  When she cute girl at HEB rang me up, I let out something like a cross between an audible gasp and gutteral profanity.  When the signature screen asked me “Is this amount: $150 ok?” I commented that I really didn’t want to click  Yes, it’d be lying.  No, it’s NOT ok.  But, resigned, I paid it.  

Today, on  the next page of happy medical adventures, I spent even more time than yesterday at the Opthamologist’s office.  They’re really big on the waiting there.  Face time with someone of medical value in scrubs?  Maybe 15 minutes total, and that’s probably pushing it.  Time in the office? Almost 2 1/2 hours.  I came out of there with my eyes numbed, tinted with yellow dye, and massively dilated.  With another prescription.  I haven’t been to the pharmacy to pick it up yet, but I hope it’s not another $50.  My checking account balance has just been taking hard shots all week long, and it’s only Wednesday.  So many potential plans have just dried up, and now it’s going to be a lean 3 weeks at least until my second pay check of May on the 15th, and I’ve already got additional expenses delayed until then.

At least I’ve got something to look forward to this weekend.  Might post something about that later, might not.  For now, it’s a secret.

Link of the Day: LED Hard Drive Clock

Spam of the Day: “We sell the best alarm-clocks for your small buddy down there.”

Funny of the Day: Obama’s First 100 Days, per Facebook

Pics of the Day: Kamamara Matsuri or the Festival of the Steel Phallus

Quote of the Day: “Always take a job that is too big for you.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick

Well, it seems, Bounce has the wrong ESID for my apartment.  Which means I’ve been billed, and have been paying for, someone else’s electricity bill.  Which also means that the amounts I’ve been billed for currently, are almost certainly wrong.  The way my luck goes, the correct amounts will be higher. :/

It is, indeed, higher.  The two bills I’ve received from Bounce, for the wrong ESID, totalled less than $80.  What does my complex want me to pay them (not counting since the end of the current bill they have, or the “5 to 7 business days” Bounce says it’s going to take to get this sorted out and have them properly handling my electric bill, like I thought they have been for the last 2 months?  $228.16.  TXU’s billing Windscape at 18 cents per kwh.  With Bounce, I’d be paying 11.8 cents per kwh.  My proper bills would be higher than the two I’ve gotten so far, but nowhere near totalling 228.16. 

This is really crappy timing.  I’ve got 2 more Doctor’s appointments the next 2 days, with those copays, plus whatever it’s going to cost for any prescriptions I end up with out of those.  I’m past angry.  I’m at sort of a simmering resigned rage.

Link of the Day: Mayan Apocalypse of 2012 May Have Scientific Basis

Spam of the Day: “The Queen and Her Jester – Role Play of the Month”

Pic of the Day: Sexual Positions (for the lonely and loveless)

Quote of the Day: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage”. – Anais Nin

Still no ketones in my urine this morning.  Irritating.

Went back to see Dr. Doctor this afternoon.  Waited for an hour and ten bloody minutes, and finally poked my head out of the room’s door to ask them if they’d forgotten about me, when finally she came in to see me and talk to me.  One of my hormone levels came back low on my bloodwork.  So that gets to get treated.  I was offered two options – come in every 3 weeks for a shot, which would result in big spikes and then falling levels of said hormone, or a gel that’s rubbed into the skin (and I guess permeates it and get into the bloodstream, like patches?) applied daily.  Opting for the latter, which the doctor thinks is the better option of the two (though more expensive) I’m going to get that filled tonight and get to start this treatment tomorrow morning.  Yet another thing I need to budget time in the morning for.

Oh yes, and she set me appointments for seeing both an Opthamologist and a Dermatologist.  I “possibly” have Rosacea, and I “possibly” have schleritis, but she’s worried about the way the redness on my skin is and how only the outer portion of my left eye seems inflamed, and listed an autoimmune condition in the tissue on my face as a possibility.  Probably not, but maybe.  Now, being someone who has watched every single episode of House broadcast, a little part of my mind started to freak out at the word “autoimmune.”   Lovely.  All of these office visits, and probable prescriptions to go along with, will of course cost me more chunks of money. 

Link of the Day: Worst. Ninja. Ever.

Spam of the Day: “Forearm Forklift – Your Solution to Heavy Lifting”

Funny of the Day: Bringing the “A” Game

Pic of the Day: Finger Arm Lickin’ Good?

Quote of the Day: “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Link of the Day: Russian Hairdresser Turns Would-be Robber Into Sex Slave

Spam of the Day: “Cobras process is fast and easy”

Funny of the Day: Way better Mac vs. PC ad

Pic of the Day: Pie Charts Adjusted to Reflect Perception

Quote of the Day: “Never knock on Death’s door: Ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!” - Matt Frewer

Why?  Because presently (with the exceptions of grossly larger food bills for whale-class folks), it’s more expensive to be healthy and slender and fit, than it is to be out of shape and overweight.  This is fundamentally fucked up.

Huge money industries are passing a stupid tax on to us as a whole because they’re going for shorter-term profits instead of more financially responsible and beneficial long-term ones.  It’d be cheaper for them, in the long run, and in turn, cheaper for us as a people, if they fiscally encouraged being healther and fitter.  I’m saying these things with absolutely no active research, no cited facts,  no specific figures to back them up. See if my chain of thought makes sense to someone other than myself:

Eating healthier costs more than eating cheaply and less healthily/unhealthily.  Yet being less healthy makes a person a higher health risk, be more expensive to care for medically.  

Bigger clothes, for the most part, cost the same as smaller clothes.  This one really makes no sense to me.  A Small shirt costs the same as an Extra Large shirt, but there’s significantly more physical material involved (which, at some point, equates to more time or labor involved as well – more stitches to sew, longer to cut, etc.  It may be a small amount per garment, but with thousands as a multiplier, it’ll add up).  Sometimes that same-cost-as thing extends up beyond Extra-Large.  Kohls, one of my more tempting places to look for clothes at, have no price differences between Small and XXL.  The only place that I can remember, offhand (I’m sure there are more), that differentiates a little here, is Walmart, where for “extended sized” it’s $2 more for some things.  This one really makes almost no sense to me.  Sure, I’m sure some folks in our quick-to-offend, self-absorbed, hypocritical, prudish society would be quick to bitch and moan about “size discrimination” or some such idiocy – but it’s a basic fact, there’s physically more (or less, depending from which side you approach it) actual, real, phsyical goods there.  Where else do you see people buying  different amounts of things for the same price?  Certainly not food – 9 chicken nuggets costs you more than 6 chicken nuggets.  Not gas – 3 gallons costs more than 2 gallons.  A queen-size mattress will certainly cost more than a full-size mattress.  

This concept is almost as if garments are being treated like intellectual property or entertainment.  You’ll pay the same ticket price for that 86 minute mediocre brainless comedy as you will for the 140 minute thought-provoking, emotion-rending drama.  280 page mass-market paperbacks may cost the same as 560 page mass-market paperbacks (not always, but it can and does happen).

So, the healthy, fit guy buying a large shirt for $20 is paying more for his clothing – per ounce, or square inch of fabric, or whatever metric you wish – than the guy who’s less healthy and bigger (we’ll presume same height for each and similar bone structure) buying the XXL shirt for $20.  

This just all seems stupid to me.  By not financially incentivizing being in better shape, healther, etc. – which tends to cost less, overall, medically –  it’s a sort of tacit encouragement for people to be lazy unhealthy drones, who have higher risk of health problems, higher cost of treatment, and thus, by aggregate, drive up the costs of health care for everyone.

But no, let’s continue overcharging the people who need less physical clothing for the same degree of decency and protection, and let’s continue profiting on cheap, processed, refined flour based and other cheapo carbohydrate laden foods.  Drive that carb addiction for short-sighted profit!

I like my car.  It’s pretty, it’s comfortable, it’s reasonably quick, and it gets pretty decent gas mileage (22-24ish city, 33-34 highway).  It’s definitely the nicest vehicle I’ve ever owned, and I like some of the Swedish Saab quirks it has.  It’s no Mercedes-Benz, but still a nice car.

Less than two weeks after buying it, I had it in the shop at the Saab (/Cadillac/Hummer) dealership in Fort Wayne.  Two trips in there to fix various issues – expensive labor for rewiring work in the rear to get all the lights back there working properly, a new Direct Ignition Cassette, new battery, new spark plugs, a couple of other minor things I don’t remember now.  $1100 more sunk into the car.  Irritating, but I still had money left from the insurance.  It was supposed to be in “great shape” other than those issues I had fixed.

Everyone who’s looked at the car in any professional mechanical capacity has said the same things about it, more or less: “It’s in great shape.”

A few weeks before I allowed my life to fully implode in Huntsville, my car developed an irritating and inconvenient problem: the battery wouldn’t hold a charge.  I thought something was draining it that shouldn’t be when it was turned off.  The battery was less than a year old, it COULDN’T be the problem.  After getting jump-starts twice (once from a friend who drove from the other side of town, once from my next door neighbor with whom I’d never even spoken before), I paid what was, at the time, very precious money for a low-end “jump box” from Wal-mart.  It got entirely too much usage.

A little more than halfway back on the drive from Huntsville to Midland, a new concern popped up: the Engine Malfunction light switched on, and stayed on.  Then over the next couple of weeks, it’d go on and off relatively randomly.  Great.  So, I needed to find somewhere I could get my Saab worked on.  I thought it should be no problem, my dad has a friend (for whom he does bookkeeping and tax preparation) who is a mechanic who specializes in Imports.  His shop is even named “World Class Automotive.”  As it turned out, he does pretty much just Japanese imports, and domestic makes.  No European stuff, and definitely not Swedish.  No Saab dealer anywhere in West Texas, short of El Paso.  DFW or maybe Austin are the closest Saab dealers.  Bloody Wonderful.

It turns out, it’s pretty damn hard to find someone to work on a Saab in West Texas.  When I bought the car, never for a second was, “I wonder how hard it will to get it worked on in Midland, Texas,” an item of thought or consideration.  After some calling around and chasing down referrals, we found one company that said they could scan the Saab’s computer and who worked on Saabs: Littlefield Automotive.  We took the car in, they took entirely too long to figure out what the deal with it was (bad thermostat and temperature sensor) and then informed us they’d have to order the parts, and that it would take “a couple of days” to get them in.  I got my car back (paid for by my Dad, who, I am certain, is keeping a penny-accurate tally somewhere), and we were going to come back in after they got the parts in – presumably the next week.

A week and a half later, we finally get a call informing us the parts are in.  This is the week before Christmas week. Well, trying to get it worked on with the shortened week before the Thursday Christmas just seemed impractical.  The next week, with a similar situation with New Year’s Eve/Day, also seemed impractical.  Now, I’d started to notice a concerning sort of grinding noise coming from the front wheels when braking, or at low speeds even when not braking sometimes shortly before Christmas.  I didn’t think too much of it, but wanted to have them see what was wrong when I took it in.  The next week after New Year’s week?  Nope, my dad had a trip to Corpus Christi that week, which he left for on Thursday, so I needed the car that weekend too.  Finally, Wednesday the next week after that, I get the car in to Littlefield’s.  Like, 3 1/2 weeks or so, closeish to a month, after the parts finally arrived.

That concerning grinding noise?  Oh, that was my front brakes being almost entirely gone.  Know what it costs to replace the parts of a Saab’s front disc brakes?  I had no idea.  I know now with a painful clarity.  $134 for a break pad set.  $119 each, x2, for Discs (aka rotors). $144 each, x2, for front calipers.  $12 for brake fluid.  $672 in parts alone.  Tack on $391 for labor (including labor for putting on the parts from before that were on order that we’d already paid for), EPA fees, and tax . . . and there’s an $1131 front brake job.  3 weeks pay for me, with what I’m currently making.  That effectively delays me a month or thereabouts on any hopes of getting my own apartment.  That’s pushing me into March (possibly late March) to move with a reasonable buffer established, maybe longer if more expenses mount up to surprise me. *le sigh*

In addition, I know that my rear brakes (which were essentially working overtime with my front brakes gone) will need attention fairly soon.  I’m hoping I can put off having to buy new tires (and possibly new wheels with them – 2 of my alloy wheels have bends in them which I don’t know if they’re reparable with any cost-effectiveness vs. replacing them) until next year, or at least late this year.

Next time, I’m buying Japanese.