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Dec. 13th, 2010 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2For the last two years, with the reduction in pay at work due to the recession, my rent and other bills alone has compromised some 70% or more of my take-home pay. I haven't had a lot of money to spend on anything frivolous, though I've still managed to spend $50.00 or so every couple of months at my comic shop (but he has a lot of stuff on hold that I have yet to pay for). So I haven't gone to any movies, I don't drive anywhere, I try not to spend money.
I'd been looking forward to the end of my car payments. My last car payment was in November. That's a little over $300.00 a month that I no longer need to pay, that I'll have for other things. One of my goals was to pay down my credit card debt next, though for December I was using that money for Christmas presents.
Saturday I drove up to Seattle for a Tai-Pan meeting, and I noticed that my car was running a little hot when I sat at stop lights. This has happened to me once or twice before over the last two years, and it usually means that the antifreeze is low. My car has a plastic reservoir where you add antifreeze, with a plastic cap -- you don't add it directly to the radiator. Anyway that's gotten low before, so I borrowed some antifreeze to fill it up. It was dark and I couldn't see the fluid level, so I wound up overfilling it and spilling some.
The car seemed fine on the way home -- running at a normal temperature. But when I pulled into my parking space at home, There was a sudden, massive cloud of steam. I could hear a bubbling sound, which is what I'd heard once before when the reservior was low. So I was pretty sure something horrible had happened. It was late at night so I just went inside. I had visions of having to have my car towed, of having to replace an engine or radiator or something major that might cost hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars. I don't have any money in savings, and I don't have a lot of money free on my only credit card, so I have no way to pay for something like that without getting a new credit card or loan somehow.
In the morning when I looked under the hood, things didn't seem quite so bad. The plastic lid on the reservior wasn't attached, and there was antifreeze all over the engine. Some must have spilled out when I came to a quick stop parking the car -- that would account for all of the steam. The reservoir was low again, but I was able to drive to the store and buy more antifreeze.
It's not clear to me how big the problem is right now. I had my oil changed in November, and they should have topped off the antifreeze then, but I never looked so it's possible they didn't. I"m not really sure how fast my antifreeze level is going down normally. My car seems okay for the moment for driving to and from work, there's little chance it can get too hot in only 10 minutes of driving, but I don't trust it for driving longer distances. I'll have to have it looked at before I drive down to Longview for Christmas -- sooner if I can. But I have to figure out how I'll pay for that, how much money might be involved. It's depressing to think that, less than a month after paying off my car loan, I might have to owe money on repairs.
This kind of messed up my Christmas plans -- I can't drive around to do any shopping, I probably can't spend any money, and I may not want to drive up to Seattle for the Tai-Pan party this coming weekend.
On the plus side, I got the Tai-Pan Artist's APA printed Saturday, handed off to Gene, and I wrote enough on my fanfiction story to finish off chapter 29, and on Sunday when I was worried about my car but unable to do anything about it, I instead turned to something that I could do something about. I took the hard drive out of my dead computer and transferred all of my music and itune files to my new computer and my backup hard drive. I managed to get my iTunes music lists copied over, although I still have to go through by hand and fix most of the songs since iTunes no longer knows where the files are. But that's better than having to recreate them from scratch. I've already fixed my Christmas playlist. ^_^
I'd been looking forward to the end of my car payments. My last car payment was in November. That's a little over $300.00 a month that I no longer need to pay, that I'll have for other things. One of my goals was to pay down my credit card debt next, though for December I was using that money for Christmas presents.
Saturday I drove up to Seattle for a Tai-Pan meeting, and I noticed that my car was running a little hot when I sat at stop lights. This has happened to me once or twice before over the last two years, and it usually means that the antifreeze is low. My car has a plastic reservoir where you add antifreeze, with a plastic cap -- you don't add it directly to the radiator. Anyway that's gotten low before, so I borrowed some antifreeze to fill it up. It was dark and I couldn't see the fluid level, so I wound up overfilling it and spilling some.
The car seemed fine on the way home -- running at a normal temperature. But when I pulled into my parking space at home, There was a sudden, massive cloud of steam. I could hear a bubbling sound, which is what I'd heard once before when the reservior was low. So I was pretty sure something horrible had happened. It was late at night so I just went inside. I had visions of having to have my car towed, of having to replace an engine or radiator or something major that might cost hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars. I don't have any money in savings, and I don't have a lot of money free on my only credit card, so I have no way to pay for something like that without getting a new credit card or loan somehow.
In the morning when I looked under the hood, things didn't seem quite so bad. The plastic lid on the reservior wasn't attached, and there was antifreeze all over the engine. Some must have spilled out when I came to a quick stop parking the car -- that would account for all of the steam. The reservoir was low again, but I was able to drive to the store and buy more antifreeze.
It's not clear to me how big the problem is right now. I had my oil changed in November, and they should have topped off the antifreeze then, but I never looked so it's possible they didn't. I"m not really sure how fast my antifreeze level is going down normally. My car seems okay for the moment for driving to and from work, there's little chance it can get too hot in only 10 minutes of driving, but I don't trust it for driving longer distances. I'll have to have it looked at before I drive down to Longview for Christmas -- sooner if I can. But I have to figure out how I'll pay for that, how much money might be involved. It's depressing to think that, less than a month after paying off my car loan, I might have to owe money on repairs.
This kind of messed up my Christmas plans -- I can't drive around to do any shopping, I probably can't spend any money, and I may not want to drive up to Seattle for the Tai-Pan party this coming weekend.
On the plus side, I got the Tai-Pan Artist's APA printed Saturday, handed off to Gene, and I wrote enough on my fanfiction story to finish off chapter 29, and on Sunday when I was worried about my car but unable to do anything about it, I instead turned to something that I could do something about. I took the hard drive out of my dead computer and transferred all of my music and itune files to my new computer and my backup hard drive. I managed to get my iTunes music lists copied over, although I still have to go through by hand and fix most of the songs since iTunes no longer knows where the files are. But that's better than having to recreate them from scratch. I've already fixed my Christmas playlist. ^_^
