What kind of tomorrow is THIS?

Lol… my hiatus apparently has some lingering power because this is much later than I planned on writing part 2 of “The Car that Hated Me”. I actually got a comment (for once!) that said something along the lines of, “Hurry up woman!”. Hee hee! Thanks for kicking my butt in gear.

So we were at the bit when we finally got our car home. We parked and then immediately ran inside to grab a bucket to collect the spew of oil from underneath our car… err well my husband did. I did the typical woman thing and lost my mind.

When the reality set in of the expense of fixing this NEW car and the utter stupidity of how it happened and the exhaustion of our big trip home… the tears started falling. And what do you know? I called my mother. Yes my poor mother had to listen to our crappy story through the middle of my heartwrenched sobs. No matter how awful situations seem to me at the time, my mother is able to cut through the drama with a knife. She always is able to bring logic and reason to almost anything.

Her advice?  

A) Your husband needs a hug. This car is his baby and he was the guy who put her on the curb. He feels much worse than you could EVER make him feel. Go hug him.

B) Call the dealership and at least get an estimate. Don’t cry over split milk until you know how much you split. (ie. Don’t freak out about the cost until you KNOW the cost!)

C) Call around for a ride to work. You guys are always helping people out when they need it, shouldn’t they do the same.

D) Once you get an estimate from the shop call your insurance. Find out what your deductible and rate changes would be if you chose to claim. Then you can decide which route is better.

See? Just pure logic. A smart individual would come up with this all by themselves. I am the weirdo who needs to hear this stuff from my mother. It’s all things I know, but in the panic of the moment all I could think of is:

A) I cannot under any circumstances afford this. We just paid for Christmas and a big road trip. We are FLAT broke. This could not come at a worse time. *cue pity party music and visions of DH and I eating ichiban noodles for the rest of our days*

B) How could DH have been SOOOOOO stupid? I mean, I even told him the curb was there! What an idiot!  Grr… he should have to pay for this by himself! Why should I suffer for his mistakes? *this should include steam billowing out of ears, lying prostrate on the floor kicking and screaming. ya know, really compassionate, loving, mature behaviour!*

C) We’re completely stranded! How the heck will we survive? Buses don’t link to DH’s work and are seriously inconvenient to get to mine. I can’t possibly afford a cab every morning and evening to get to work and I really can’t take more holidays!!

 In short, I make my own life hard. Who do you think my DH would prefer to be around- Reaction #1 or Reaction #2?? Poor guy. I suppose he was warned I was a lunatic before he married me, so it’s fair.

 Anyway, to sum up the car that hates me situation. We managed to get her towed to our dealership on Tuesday but they couldn’t fit her in for an estimate until FRIDAY. *sigh* Apparently the holidays really bring out the stellar drivers in each of us. So we finally get the estimate and we got good news and bad news.

Good news: Only the oil pan was damaged. The rest of the undercarriage went unscathed.

Bad news: The cost of replacing said oil pan? $1165.00!!! We called around to see if we could find a cheaper part used or whatever and no such luck. Our vehicle is brand new and there ARE no used parts for it. Greeeattt!

I don’t know about you, but I do not have $1165.00 just sitting around waiting to be spent. Especially not right after the gloriously expensive Christmas season. So we call our insurer, cause that’s what insurance is FOR right?

You’d think so. Our insurer tells us that we have a giant deductible and our rates will skyrocket should we choose to claim this. We would also need to file a police report (because the damage is over $1000) and have an adjuster come and inspect it. Ummm does any of this sound good to you?

So we have to pay it out of pocket. I don’t believe it using credit cards and oh, looky here January is the month our rent went up by $150.00 and we are broke. *sigh* What to do?

Eventually I scrimped and saved and did enough financial gymnastics to come up with the funds. We were eventually able to borrow a vehicle from my DH’s work to get us through the week.

So after much hulabaloo Layla (our car) is fixed. My DH is leaving work this morning to go pick her up. I hope they at least WASHED the poor girl.