What?
* WARNING: Long Post *
Not much blogging lately. Things have been crazy and I have been busy. Also there is the whole problem in the fact that I am not supposed to be online at work anymore. Apparently some "computer guy" told my boss that the DSL was somehow putting too much of a burden on the server and that we shouldn't use it anymore. Although that hasn't stopped my boss from using his computer (which is also linked to the server) to get online in his office all day. As my friend Kory said it is really terrible when "computer illeterate people are in charge of computers.". My boss seriously has no idea about computers at all. He has called me (at home) several times to ask me how to sign into the computer after it restarts because he forgets. ::sigh:: Oh well.
So what has been going on? Well for starters it seems like everything we own is systematically breaking down. First our cars broke down a few weeks ago and we got those fixed. Well Virgil, the Volvo, decided he was going to crap out on us again. He is running like crap and the check engine light is blinking which Andy found out on a Volvo forum means that you should not drive the car. I'm going to attempt to make the rest of the long car story short. We were offered a van to borrow from Nancy and Al at church (thank you!) until our car was back and running and we took them up on the offer. We picked up the van almost two weeks ago though and our car still isn't working. Why? Well, we tried to get it towed using Andy's AAA card but apparently it had expired. He has his AAA through his parent's account and they had to pay for my brother-in-law, Tim, to go into rehab and didn't have the $200 and some odd dollars to pay off the AAA when it came due this month. Needless to say I'm glad they are helping Tim, but we just had no idea we couldn't use the card and it was quite a blow when we couldn't even get it to the mechanic.
So, we decided to look into how much it would be to have it towed ourselves. We found out it would be between $60 and $70. I called our mechanic to see if he had any ideas and he said that - that was probably the cheapest we would find it for. He also suggested that we try and get a AAA card on our own, which could be the same amount of money but would give us a year of coverage. I had not thought of this. So, I called Andy and told him the plan. He called AAA and eventually found out that if you want to renew your membership at our local office you can do so for $70/year for just him. So, we decided to go for that. But, Andy had to go himself and he wouldn't be able to get there before 5:00 (when they close) until Saturday of last week. So, we had to wait until Saturday. And now we have to wait to use the membership until the card comes in the mail (7-10 days) and it hasn't shown up yet. I hate to ask Al and Nancy to use the car longer. I doubt they'll mind though, but I still kind of feel bad for asking since they've already been so generous. So, we're waiting to for the AAA so we can wait for the estimate so we can see if we can fix the Virgil. I hope it isn't too expensive.
So, next our dryer broke. Kory and Amy thought that they had an extra dryer in their basement which is one of the most random things I have ever heard. On further investigation they actually had an extra washer (just as random). We did appreciate the offer though and are looking into eventually buying a cheap dryer if I can't find one on freecycle for free. Then our vacuum decide to break down as well. We have gone through 2 vacuums in less than a year which is very sad. Unfortunately the first one we bought was a refurb and the second one we bought was a special at Wal-Mart. Somehow we lucked out and both of them do not have parts made for them anymore. Andy thought he found a generic part (they both broke their rollbar by the way) on some vacuum website but once we got it - it was almost 2 inches too long. Andy tried to call them and e-mail them for a refund or a return but they would not return our calls or e-mails. So, we're stuck with a $30 rollbar that we can't use. I guess I should just put it on freecycle. Maybe someone else can use it. And lastly, our garbage disposal is broken. This is both inconveinient and gross. Gross because there was stuff in it when it broke and I don't think I was able to get all of it out and gross again because we kept forgetting it was broken and loaded it up with more stuff. ::sigh:: So I put a little mesh drain cover on it, from the dollar store, to ensure we don't clog it up more in the meantime. We just need to call the landlord to get the garbage disposal fixed but I really don't want him to come over when our house is overrun with laundry, because we have to hang dry it now in the basement which we hate, and our carpet has an amazing amount of dog hair on it. In fact I think our carpet is officially pure dog hair now. I just don't think he would really appreciate either of these things in his house.
So, eventually we have to buy a new vacuum, new dryer, and get the Volvo fixed. Everytime we think we are going to come out a little ahead financially it seems like everything breaks. I guess it is a good thing that it breaks when we have the money but I've started to become less optimisitic about the whole thing lately. I just figure that we're going to be struggling for the rest of forever and I should just suck it up now and stop trying to think we'll ever have a savings account or anything like that. I'm just a bit jaded by the events of the past couple of months, but I think I have a right to be at this point.
Not much blogging lately. Things have been crazy and I have been busy. Also there is the whole problem in the fact that I am not supposed to be online at work anymore. Apparently some "computer guy" told my boss that the DSL was somehow putting too much of a burden on the server and that we shouldn't use it anymore. Although that hasn't stopped my boss from using his computer (which is also linked to the server) to get online in his office all day. As my friend Kory said it is really terrible when "computer illeterate people are in charge of computers.". My boss seriously has no idea about computers at all. He has called me (at home) several times to ask me how to sign into the computer after it restarts because he forgets. ::sigh:: Oh well.
So what has been going on? Well for starters it seems like everything we own is systematically breaking down. First our cars broke down a few weeks ago and we got those fixed. Well Virgil, the Volvo, decided he was going to crap out on us again. He is running like crap and the check engine light is blinking which Andy found out on a Volvo forum means that you should not drive the car. I'm going to attempt to make the rest of the long car story short. We were offered a van to borrow from Nancy and Al at church (thank you!) until our car was back and running and we took them up on the offer. We picked up the van almost two weeks ago though and our car still isn't working. Why? Well, we tried to get it towed using Andy's AAA card but apparently it had expired. He has his AAA through his parent's account and they had to pay for my brother-in-law, Tim, to go into rehab and didn't have the $200 and some odd dollars to pay off the AAA when it came due this month. Needless to say I'm glad they are helping Tim, but we just had no idea we couldn't use the card and it was quite a blow when we couldn't even get it to the mechanic.
So, we decided to look into how much it would be to have it towed ourselves. We found out it would be between $60 and $70. I called our mechanic to see if he had any ideas and he said that - that was probably the cheapest we would find it for. He also suggested that we try and get a AAA card on our own, which could be the same amount of money but would give us a year of coverage. I had not thought of this. So, I called Andy and told him the plan. He called AAA and eventually found out that if you want to renew your membership at our local office you can do so for $70/year for just him. So, we decided to go for that. But, Andy had to go himself and he wouldn't be able to get there before 5:00 (when they close) until Saturday of last week. So, we had to wait until Saturday. And now we have to wait to use the membership until the card comes in the mail (7-10 days) and it hasn't shown up yet. I hate to ask Al and Nancy to use the car longer. I doubt they'll mind though, but I still kind of feel bad for asking since they've already been so generous. So, we're waiting to for the AAA so we can wait for the estimate so we can see if we can fix the Virgil. I hope it isn't too expensive.
So, next our dryer broke. Kory and Amy thought that they had an extra dryer in their basement which is one of the most random things I have ever heard. On further investigation they actually had an extra washer (just as random). We did appreciate the offer though and are looking into eventually buying a cheap dryer if I can't find one on freecycle for free. Then our vacuum decide to break down as well. We have gone through 2 vacuums in less than a year which is very sad. Unfortunately the first one we bought was a refurb and the second one we bought was a special at Wal-Mart. Somehow we lucked out and both of them do not have parts made for them anymore. Andy thought he found a generic part (they both broke their rollbar by the way) on some vacuum website but once we got it - it was almost 2 inches too long. Andy tried to call them and e-mail them for a refund or a return but they would not return our calls or e-mails. So, we're stuck with a $30 rollbar that we can't use. I guess I should just put it on freecycle. Maybe someone else can use it. And lastly, our garbage disposal is broken. This is both inconveinient and gross. Gross because there was stuff in it when it broke and I don't think I was able to get all of it out and gross again because we kept forgetting it was broken and loaded it up with more stuff. ::sigh:: So I put a little mesh drain cover on it, from the dollar store, to ensure we don't clog it up more in the meantime. We just need to call the landlord to get the garbage disposal fixed but I really don't want him to come over when our house is overrun with laundry, because we have to hang dry it now in the basement which we hate, and our carpet has an amazing amount of dog hair on it. In fact I think our carpet is officially pure dog hair now. I just don't think he would really appreciate either of these things in his house.
So, eventually we have to buy a new vacuum, new dryer, and get the Volvo fixed. Everytime we think we are going to come out a little ahead financially it seems like everything breaks. I guess it is a good thing that it breaks when we have the money but I've started to become less optimisitic about the whole thing lately. I just figure that we're going to be struggling for the rest of forever and I should just suck it up now and stop trying to think we'll ever have a savings account or anything like that. I'm just a bit jaded by the events of the past couple of months, but I think I have a right to be at this point.