So I got up early and my mom met me here at 9am. She drove me to my Love's work, where I picked up the car. Then I had to get it all the way up to the mechanic - about 20 miles north. Remember, this is a seriously overheating car that we've been only driving like a total of seven miles a day to-and-from work out of neccesity and pretty much no more. Besides a guy literally almost colliding with me as he went to change lanes into, well, me, and the fact it was running really hot every time I had to stop for a light, we made it.
My mom and I then just meandered around. She wanted to go to the local mall so we did. Where she proceeded to have me shop for a pair of red sandals. She wanted to buy me a pair. Back around my birthday (may), she was going to try to get me a pair to match my purse, but couldn't find anything. So we walked around, tried on shoes and she ended up getting me this pair:
I must note I not only didn't ask for them, I actually protested that she had no reason to buy me shoes when she was already loaning me money for the car repairs! She insisted in the way she does and just took them to the register. She always has to get me something when we hang out. I think it's her way of compensating for the problems we had for so many years (with her ignoring the abuse my biological father was putting me through for years, and her abandoning me when I was 16 after the divorce to fend for myself for a year). She has a major guilt complex and I think she's trying to hard to show me she's sorry. There's no telling her no though. I'd make her cry if I didn't let her do something like that now and then. I mean I do like the shoes and I had really wanted a pair of red sandals with the white sitching, but I feel bad that she got them for me. It's a mom thing though.
After that, we ran around and did some errands that she needed to get done. The mechanic called at one point and said they were sending the radiator off-shop to see if it could be repaired. There was a crack in it. He'd let us know. We hit Wal-Mart, and Petsmart, and the post office and eventually made our way back to her house.
In the end, they radiator was cracked to all hell and couldn't be repaired, it had to be replaced. So about 4:30, we headed over there to see what was going on. Keep in mind, my poor Love was stuck at work a half an hour away from me with no way to get home at 5pm. They fixed the a/c (thankfully a small problem with a pressure switch) and changed the oil since it was already up on the lift. In the end, we have a new radiator, the a/c working and fresh oil. For a total of $320.
*sighs*
I know it could have been worse. It could have been much worse. The radiator repair was about $275ish itself, with about $25 for the a/c part and another $20 for the oil change. The guy got it done by about 4:45pm and I was able to get my Love picked up only 15 minutes late. The fact that the entire drive home, in horrible stop-and-go 5pm traffic, with the air running (oh blessed air conditioning!) and the temperature never even got to the mid point on the gauge, is wonderful. I just feel so shitty I had to charge $320 on my mom's credit card in order to do it. I know how important having one car actually working is. And I know how it was just going to get worse and cause more problems if we didn't get it fixed (let alone my inability to even get a p/t job with it broken because it wouldn't handle the extra driving), but still. Makes me feel really shitty. I'll have to pay her back slowly - maybe $50 at a time kind of thing - because I'll never have that much in one chunk (part of the reason we hadn't gotten it fixed yet was we didn't have that much money to do it). It just sucks when something that's so trivial in the world - $300 - is so monumental to you that it steers the course of your entire life. For like two months we've been just barely limping by with it broken because it was outside our means. And it's not like my mom has money. She doesn't. In fact, she's physically disabled and can't work and her disability money isn't a hell of a lot. Me taking up $300 on her credit card is going to hurt her too.
I dunno. I guess I'm just both really relieved and really bummed out about the situation. It sure is nice to have the car working again. I just wish it didn't have to be like this to do it.
Long day yesterday. Long, long day.
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 7/15/2004 04:21:51 PM ~
~
