17 April 2007 - 10:53 am

Haven’t been hungry much lately. Noticed it’s been a lot of coffee, very little food, these days. Don’t know why.

Taxes are done, and in the mail. 2 ½ hours of prep, all done, all dealt with, last night. Had to go home for stamps and my check book to complete it, but otherwise done before leaving work at 8:30 last night. Phew! No more stress on that front.

Unexpected car repairs yet again this weekend. The steering was being unpredictable, once I got to Orange County, always a thing of terror when hurtling down a Los Angeles Freeway at 75 miles an hour. Of course I slowed down, turned on my flashers, pulled my car over, looked at the tires, tried to figure out the problem. Nothing obvious. Stayed on the highway, flashers still going in the slow lane. When a nasty noise started happening, I got off the freeway and decided I needed to head for a repair shop, not that it would be open at that hour. I did not want to be in an accident because my car had taken a liking to jerking unexpectedly, mainly to the right. I was going to head to the place I always take my car to get its tires and oil changed, thinking it was either a tire problem or maybe some low fluids? But I didn’t make it that far. The car began shuddering, shimmying. I had just passed a tire store, with a sign prominently saying it was open on Sundays. Considering this was happening on the way back from San Diego, and it was by now nearly 2:30 in the morning, early Sunday, I took it as a sign to stop. There was just an awful noise happening, something getting chewed and mashed, and now I could stop driving, knowing I would know more in the morning when the shop opened.

Yes, I slept in the parking lot, they would be open in five hours, the sleeping bag I always keep in the trunk pulled out and utilized.

The repair guy took the car for a spin and calmly agreed it was definitely in need of service, and they would get to the bottom of it. He asked had I slept in the car overnight in their parking lot? I said yes, it had just gotten so bad, I was afraid to drive it any further. He said I had made the smart choice. Ball bearings needed replacing in two of the wheels, and by the way, my brakes had only 2/32nds of braking material left on them. Should they replace them too? Sure, I said, I want to be driving a car I feel safe in. Another $700 for it all.

So I spent Sunday morning in Manhattan Beach, found a nice bagel/bread bakery that served coffee, next to a store called Grow that sold only produce. What a cute little mall, going back to the French system of going to your greengrocer, separate from your baker, separate from your butcher. A store for every service, because the French tend to shop most days of the week for the freshest available. Okay, so there was no butcher at this mall, but how nice! I walked up and down Sepulveda Boulevard, the ocean wind whipping my hair, the sun shining, and feeling ever so tired. At one point, the sun had moved to create shade in front of the tire store, there were chairs lined up in front, and I took one chair and placed it front of my feet, leaned my head against the concrete wall, and pretended I was in a chaise lounge, relaxing by choice on a lazy Sunday morning in Manhattan Beach. If my car had not put me there, it certainly would have been a pleasant excursion, an actual possible destination. And my car’s repairs were completed by noon. I drove home and fell asleep. All in all, a pleasant day, I decided. Except for the $700 unexpectedly out of pocket. Other than that, a very pleasant day.

Now some of you may be wondering why continue having a car that seems prone to all these repairs? Well, it is an older car at this point, 11 years old, and I think I have been lucky so far in the amount of repairs it hasn’t needed. This is the way I think of it: I made payments on this car for 6 years, and had wanted to get a full 10 years of use out of it, 10 years I had been using it. That is only four years of no payments. I plan on getting a new (to me) car sometime in 2008. When does it become not cost effective to have an older car? My thought is it is no longer worth it when what I could be paying in car payments of approximately $250 a month or $3,000 a year is exceeded by repair payments. Unexpected car repairs, that is. At this point, with the new battery, the new brakes, the new spark plugs, the new bearings, and a few other things I have paid for in these first few months of the year, I have spent $1,500 this year on the car. About $300 of that were things I normally would have expected in a year, so the unexpected part was only $1,200. And, now, I have a car I am confident about its battery, its brakes and tires for driving about in. I have no fears of those things failing me this year. My confidence in my car is much improved. Now, if the car suddenly needs an additional $2,000 worth of unexpected repairs in the next eight months, then I would need to seriously consider moving my schedule up of when to get a new car. Let us hope that does not happen. I want to hold out for some of the new hybrids that are supposed to come in 2008, that have a little more oomph to their engines, a little more sporty responsiveness.

And of course, I will need to test out whether sleeping on the back seat is comfortable on any car I purchase. And trunk space for my water bottles and sleeping bags, things I carry with me in case of anything.