I'm not even halfway through paying off my new car and already it's being towed to have the engine worked on, since it won't start tonight. It didn't deal well with Kelly's camping event last weekend, coming home with creaking suspension and broken power locks, and now this. He's hoping all four tires (just replaced in the spring) make it through GooCon this time. I'm sure some random thing will happen next, like the paint will fall off.

Added bonus: Our TV stopped working tonight too. Our home is a happy place right now.


Three Replies to Who's Got (Car) Trouble

Jackie Mason | August 20, 2009
[hidden by author request]

Scott Hardie | August 20, 2009
Shared car. Thank goodness Kelly started a new job last week so we can pay for this. (I didn't mention that. I really need to blog more often.) There was a thunderstorm that probably explains the TV, and anything else we haven't discovered yet. We just had the apartment complex fix the broken A/C today, but that was free.

Amy Austin | August 20, 2009
Now that my truck is paid off, I am watching it slowly fall apart, too. Suspension is shot, power windows and locks have been failing for some time now, and yes, there actually is paint "falling off" now, too (a mystery spot on back door is chipping away -- don't know how it got there). Since I completely lack the funds to fix everything that needs it, and *still* would even with a job (the one I'm currently gunning for -- meter reader for the utility company -- will likely be a cut from what I get on unemployment... which is also getting quite uncomfortably depleted), and since continued disrepair only leads to further disrepair... there is no reason to expect anything other than the steady decline and eventual junking of my truck -- something that takes a lot of joy out of having a paid-off vehicle, to be sure.

If I could even remotely consider taking on a car payment (I can't even afford the insurance that I will have to start paying for once Ed drops me from the agreed-upon period of coverage), I might take advantage of the "cash for clunkers" program currently being used to bribe us into "stimulating" the auto industry. I fucking hate being unemployed and broke. And without any net whatsoever.


Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

Breaking Monopoly

My latest pastime has been seeing if I can rig a video game of Monopoly to give me infinite money. It turns out that I can, but it's incredibly tedious, far more so than I thought. I like to play with the NES version, because it's just colorful and fun enough without being too sophisticated in its AI. Go »

More Free-Fallin'

A skydiver's chutes won't open, he falls 12,000 feet and survives with minor injuries, and the whole thing is captured on his helmet camera. (link) You have to click on the speaker to activate the sound. Go »

Amazon Appreciation

I just wanted to take a minute to thank Amazon.com. They've been my primary retailer for over a decade now, not to mention the seller of most prizes in the goo game and Oscars contests on this site. Once they started offering their Prime service ($80/yr gets you free 2-day shipping and discounted overnight shipping), they leveled the playing field against local retailers: No longer did I feel the need to save up a list of several items and buy them all at once to save on shipping. Go »

Final Chapter

The movies that are going to be written about in Brittany Murphy's obituaries are Just Married, 8 Mile, Clueless, and maybe Sin City. But the one most sadly relevant is a movie that few people saw, The Dead Girl. Each chapter of the movie shows how a different woman is affected by the discovery of a woman's body in a field, until the last chapter doubles back and shows us her haunting final days. Go »

The Dragon

This is the first of four weekly blog posts about diagnoses that have completely changed my life since the pandemic started. Let's get the gravest one out of the way first. Until recently, I never appreciated how essential the future was to your mental health. Go »

His Name is Bond

[Spoilers for Casino Royale.] One of my favorite bits of any fan-invented mythology is the identity of 007: It is held by some series fans (and me) that "James Bond" is merely a codename. When one Bond is killed or retires, another one takes his place and assumes the same name, which is why you see a different actor every decade and the man doesn't age despite having been around since the Kennedy administration. Go »