Tag Archives: car

Driving To Nowhere (or Just Getting Out Of My House)

Posted on September 23, 2020 | Comments Off

Over the past 6 months, I’ve done some random drives around LA. These drives do have some practicality. I need to make sure I drive my car every so often so that the battery doesn’t die. It’s not horrible if the battery dies because I can call AAA (or ask a neighbor for help). But I’d still prefer not to do that. Sometimes I have to drive places for real errands, so I don’t have to do these random drives all the time. But when it’s been over 2 weeks and I haven’t driven anywhere, I usually take my car to just drive with no purpose so that it gets some use.

But these drives also are a bit for my mental health. Looking at just the walls in my house can be maddening. I have said this several times, but I am very lucky that I love where I live. It’s not perfect and it’s small, but I’m very happy. And I have made improvements over time that has made my home even better for me. And even though being so isolated and lonely is a struggle, I also know that I am lucky that I don’t live with a roommate or partner that annoys me. My home is a safe and peaceful space for me. But it is only about 400 square feet and I need to see things outside of it.

So going on drives changes what I am seeing. Even if I’m not driving to somewhere that is scenic, any change is nice. Seeing crowded normal city streets is a change. It is also weird because I do see people doing things that I don’t know if they are safe (like eating at restaurants or not wearing masks), but I try not to focus on those things. I just try to enjoy being outside my house and feeling grateful that I have the ability to drive somewhere in a car that is safe.

I had to do one of these random drives this past weekend. I will be driving my car this week, but I had realized that it had been a while since I had driven and I didn’t want my car to have a dead battery when I actually needed it. And even though I just had gotten a car wash for the outside of my car not that long ago, my car was very dirty. With the fires and changing weather, my car was covered in dust, pollen, and ash. I don’t know if it’s worse than normal or it seems that way because I’m not driving most days so everything is just sitting on my car. But I decided to do another drive-thru car wash to get my car looking a bit cleaner when I did my random drive.

I can’t remember ever getting my car washed so close back to back, but I guess when I’m not spending money on much else it doesn’t matter. And the drive-thru car wash is much cheaper than the nice car wash place that I normally go to. So 2 of the cheap ones still are less than 1 of the nice ones. I guess that makes it not as bad.

I’ve seen jokes online about how humans are like dogs now. We pace around our homes looking for things to eat, we have to be reminded to stay away from others, and we look forward to car rides. I guess this is pretty true (although I don’t need the reminder to stay away from people). Going for a drive really is something that brings me joy these days. It isn’t a chore, it’s an adventure. Even when I’m just driving around the neighborhood and going for a car wash. I’m sure that once I’m driving more regularly again, going for a random drive won’t be as interesting to me and I doubt I’ll do them that often because technically they are a waste of gas. But for now, I see more random car drives in my future so I can continue to change things up.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged car, driving

Random Driving Around LA (or Anything Is Entertainment)

Posted on August 6, 2020 | Comments Off

Before the pandemic, I didn’t drive my car a lot. I work at home and my workouts are very close to my house. But I did drive most days, even if it was for a quick thing. I went to Orangetheory 4 times a week and I was usually doing errands at least 3 days a week. And there were other things like auditions or going to union events that required driving. It was pretty unheard of for me to go an entire week without driving somewhere.

But once the safer at home orders started, my driving became even more limited. I wasn’t going to my workouts. I rarely ran errands on my own because I was getting groceries and supplies delivered to me. I did have to drive for some specific things, but I easily went a week without driving at all. And because I don’t want my car battery to die, I have to make plans to just go out and drive my car from time to time. I don’t always have to do this if I run errands or have appointments that I have to drive to, but it has happened a few times over the past few months. If I know I’ll be going 2 weeks without driving, I do a random drive. And that’s exactly what I did this past weekend.

I debated about driving around to see something fun or going to the beach again, but since it was the weekend and I know more people are out and about, I didn’t want to have to worry about traffic. I ended up not really driving anywhere. I drove around Culver City and the surrounding neighborhoods. I wanted to be driving for at least 15 minutes and I did that. I know I did just waste gas, but I’m also not getting gas for my car that often. I usually fill my car up once a month, but now I think it’s only been twice since March. So I can afford to waste a little.

While I was driving around, I noticed how dirty my car was. I do have a parking space at my house, but it’s not covered. So my car gets dusty or covered in pollen after a while. Since my car is gray, it doesn’t show that much. But while I was driving it really was bugging me. My normal car wash place is somewhere that you get out of your car and the employees take it through the car wash and do the detail work, but I didn’t feel comfortable going there. I wouldn’t mind someone else driving my car, but I didn’t want to have to sit in a waiting area with other people for my car to be done. And I didn’t want to go to a place where you wash your own car (again, I didn’t want to be out around other people). So the best option would be a drive-thru car wash where I stay in the car.

I actually haven’t done a drive-thru car wash in LA, so I had no clue where to go. I posted on social media asking for suggestions of places to go, and one of my friends told me about a car wash that is only a few blocks from my house. I’ve driven past it hundreds of times, but never looked into it. But since it was recommended, I decided to go there.

And honestly, it was fun doing it. It was a lot cheaper than my normal car wash place (but also not as great of a car wash and the inside of my car didn’t get cleaned) and it was so fun sitting in my car going through the car wash. They have different colored lights inside so the soap looks really pretty. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because I don’t have anything else going on in my life, but that’s ok. This entertained me and that’s what counts. The car wash was only a minute or two before it was done and I was on my way back home.

Considering that this was just a drive to make sure my car battery didn’t die, it was a fun way to spend a bit of time. I did some exploring around my neighborhood, got my car washed, and now I know that my car won’t be dead when if I need to use it this week or next week.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged car

Not Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents)

Posted on February 26, 2020 | Comments Off

I try to get my taxes done by the end of February each year. First, I want to get them done so I know what happened with all my crazy tax situations so I don’t have to stress out about them. But also, the place I go to for my taxes has cheaper rates if you do your taxes before March. I’ve been pretty lucky with my tax situation since I have started getting them done locally instead of having my parents’ tax guy do them. There are several weird things about my taxes and what I can deduct so it’s good that I go to someone who specializes in situations like mine. Plus, my tax preparer, Daphne, has become a friend so going in to see her is always fun!

I had my appointment on Monday evening, so I gave myself plenty of time to drive there in traffic. Traffic is always bad and people are always driving crazy, but this time it was just so much worse than normal. I saw 4 car accidents happen right in front of me! Most of them were from dumb mistakes like not looking at their blind spot when changing lanes or turning on an unprotected left when a car was coming straight. I was lucky that nobody hit me, but it made me even more cautious than normal while driving there.

I got to my appointment early because of how much time I gave myself to get there, so I had some time to relax before the stress of seeing what will happen with my taxes. I have been very lucky with getting money back when I pay my estimated payments correctly and with the deductions that I am allowed to take because all my jobs are independent contractor work. But this time, when I was preparing for my appointment I felt like I didn’t have as many deductions as I normally do. So as I prepared my forms I thought that perhaps this time I would owe money instead of getting money back. Fortunately, I still had some money saved from what I set aside with each paycheck, so I had money to pay if I did owe.

I try my best to be super organized with my taxes and paperwork when going into my appointment, and I know that Daphne really appreciates that I do that. It makes her job a bit easier when everything is ready for her to enter it into the system and she doesn’t have to search for something or ask me what I meant by something I filled out. I will also say, the packet that everyone who goes to the office I go to needs to fill out before an appointment helps too. And I have started to organize my things throughout the year in a similar system so when I fill the packet out I can do it quickly.

Because things were so organized, Daphne was able to see quickly that I would owe money. And she and I decided to investigate a bit because it said I owed about $1000 and in the past, it was so different even if I did owe. I thought maybe I didn’t have enough deductions because there were a few things that I usually spend money on that I didn’t in 2019. But when we compared my deductions, I was very close to the same amount in 2018. But then we realized there was a significant difference in my income and how much I paid in estimated taxes.

I made a lot more with both of my jobs in 2019. I had gotten a small raise with my customer service job and I had more hours on my contract with my data entry job. Obviously, both of those things are good and making more money is a good thing. And my estimated payments this past year were the lowest I paid since I started doing them correctly because of my lower income in 2018. So I made a lot more and pre-paid a lot less. Those combined meant I owed the $1000 form said I did. It all made sense once we figured that out.

And I do appreciate that Daphne took the time with me to figure out why I owed this year. Because entering my information was so quick, there was extra time in my appointment to do that investigating work. I’m sure that I could have figured it out on my own eventually, but it was nice to not have that question in my head when I left and feel more confident knowing what happened while I was still sitting there with someone who could explain it to me.

I will be paying the money I owe soon (I’ve got almost 2 months to pay it and I want to work on a few budgeting things first) and then I’ll be done with all my 2019 taxes. But I start paying my estimated taxes for 2020 in 2 months, so I’ll be doing that and working on making sure that I do everything I can to bring down how much I owe.

I left my appointment feeling good even though I do owe money. It’s something I expected and it didn’t upset me. But just like on my drive to getting my taxes done, my drive home was filled with seeing car accidents happen in front of me! I saw 2 very small fender benders that didn’t seem to have much damage. But when I was on the freeway close to my house, traffic stopped and the car in front of me didn’t see that. They hit the car in front of them at full speed and I was very lucky that I was able to slam on my brakes and avoid the cars. I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t follow other cars that closely. Both of the cars in that accident looked like they were totaled and there were pieces of the cars all over the freeway.

I have no idea how to connect the car accidents with getting my taxes done but seeing that many accidents made me think about how sometimes we might get a bit lazy with following the rules you should follow when driving. Sometimes we follow too close, don’t look in our mirrors enough, speed, or think that we have the right of way when we don’t. It was a good reminder to be a cautious driver just like I am cautious with so many other aspects of my life.

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Posted in Saving, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged car, money, taxes

Unexpected Car Shopping (or New Year New Car)

Posted on January 10, 2017 | 1 comment

As I mentioned in my New Year’s Eve post, my car died as I was leaving the party I went to. It was a really weird situation with what happened. I was driving home and I started to hear a ticking or clicking noise coming from the front of my car. Maybe 10 or 15 seconds later my car completely shut down and died. All the warning things were flashing in the front of my car and alarms were going off and then everything shut down. White smoke started to come out of my engine and I could smell something that smelled like it was burning. I had no power, no electricity, no lights. It was so scary but fortunately the freeway hadn’t gotten too crowded yet so I was able to drift over to the side of the freeway.

I got my car as far to the side as I could (there wasn’t a full shoulder for me to pull over into) and immediately called AAA. I told them I wasn’t in a safe situation because I couldn’t get the lights on in my car and I was still a bit into the slow lane and they promised to get a tow truck out to me as soon as possible. After being in a dead car for about 20 minutes, I could finally get my emergency flashers on and my lights would occasionally turn on. I just sat in my car with my seatbelt on (I was worried someone would hit me and I wanted to try to stay safe) and tried to stay warm as it was cold out and the heater in my car was dead too.

The tow truck got to me and I was towed home. The next day, even though my mechanic is open on Sundays, the mechanic was closed for New Year’s Day. I took Ubers to and from Orangetheory and limited my errands to stuff I could walk to and stuff I could carry home. I told my parents what happened and they were feeling hopeful that maybe this would just be another repair and it would be ok. But because I was in the car when it happened, I felt pretty certain that this was a bad sign and that there was no way we could repair my car for a reasonable cost. I started looking at used cars online and seeing what types of car I would consider. When I told my parents about that, they told me to look at Subaru Crosstreks because they are a good car, not too expensive, and while they are smaller and shorter than my Escape they still have a decent amount of room.

On Monday, I took an Uber to and from the gym again and once I was home and showered I called for another tow truck so I could get my car towed to my mechanic. I had warned my mechanic I’d be coming by and he warned me that this might be the end of my car. But I still wanted him to see it just in case I was overreacting and there was some hope left.

And as I expected, the car was done. In order to get it to work again, I would need to buy a new engine for it. And even doing that doesn’t mean I won’t have more problems in the next year or so. I called my parents to run things by them and they agreed that I needed to just get a different car. I’m so lucky that they were able to help me with buying a car so I didn’t have to get something that was super cheap and might not last that long.

I had called the Subaru dealership and they were able to meet with me that day. And even though my Escape wasn’t working anymore, they could give me a little bit of money as a trade in (it was more of a courtesy so I could get the car off of my hands). While I was waiting for a tow truck to bring me and my car to the dealership, I texted a couple of friends to see if anyone could meet me at the dealership to help me with car buying. I’m not great at making huge decisions like that and I wanted a friend with me. Fortunately, my friend Dani was free and was happy to help me out.

I had looked at the dealership’s used cars online the day before, so I knew what options I really had. I wanted to look at a few different cars and try a couple of types of cars as well, but Dani was willing to make sure I asked all the right questions and didn’t get taken advantage of by the salespeople. The first car I drove was a 2014 Crosstrek that was a really cool bright blue color. It was a nice car to drive and had some really nice features. It had about 40,000 miles on it so it was a used car but not super used. There was another 2014 Crosstrek on the lot, but I didn’t drive it because I didn’t realize that the technology in the car was the lowest end and was pretty outdated by then.

There was one 2016 Crosstrek on the lot and that was the next car I drove. It was much sportier than I’m used to, but it was really fun to drive. It didn’t have all the features I was looking for, but that was ok. Dani helped me to realize that having a GPS built into the car isn’t that important when I can just use my phone. And Dani (who rode in the backseat during the test drives), told me that the 2016 was a much nicer ride for her back there. And while this car was used, it was pretty close to new. It only had 5,000 miles on it and was only owned for a few months by the previous owner (they got into a situation where they didn’t need a car anymore which is why they sold it back to the dealership).

The last car I checked out was a Forester, which is closer in size to what my Escape was like. I love being able to sit up high, but the Forester was just too much car for me. I don’t need that huge of a car right now. And if I do end up needing a huge car later down the line, then I’ll look at them then. But for now, I needed a car that worked and wanted something that was fun to drive and perfect for me getting around town.

After some conversation with my parents (since they were funding the purchase I wanted their opinion and approval) and debating back and forth with Dani who was a great voice of reason for me, I ended up going with the 2016 Crosstrek. It is the better deal considering that it is basically a new car. I got a really great deal on it because there are some scratches on the car. But I don’t mind the damage because as my dad put it, I’d probably get scratches on it eventually. It’s a city car and it’s not meant to look perfect.

After deciding on the car, Dani had to leave and I was there for another few hours doing all the paperwork involved with a car purchase. We had to do the release of liability for the Escape and there were dozens of pages for me to sign for the Crosstrek. But about 8 hours after calling for the tow truck to bring my Escape to the mechanic to find out if it’s dead, I was leaving the Subaru dealership with my new used car!

This was not at all how I thought the beginning of my year would go. Even a week later, I’m still a little overwhelmed by the entire situation and what happened. I don’t believe it at times. My Escape was a great car for me for so long and I’m still sad that it died. But I’m so happy with my Crosstrek and how nice it is! I have personalized plates that have been on every car I’ve had and I did get them off of my Escape when I left it as a trade-in. I can’t put them on my Crosstrek yet, but once I do I think the car will feel more like mine and that I will finally be able to wrap my head around the entire situation.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping, Tough Stuff

Tagged 2017, car, money, New Years, shopping, Subaru

Thanksgiving Prep (or So Little Time)

Posted on November 29, 2016 | Comments Off

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I knew there was a lot of stuff I had to get done and I was really trying to plan things out the best I could. Of course, things never work out the way you think they will. I’m just glad I got all my prep work done before I left last week!

The main part of my Thanksgiving prep was getting the food made that I knew I was bringing. I only was bringing 3 dishes with me, but when you have a tiny kitchen making 3 dishes can seem overwhelming! Especially when I don’t have multiples of the kitchen things I was using!

The first thing I made was banana bread. This has become a tradition over the past few years and I’m glad I’m able to make it to help out. It’s a pretty easy recipe to make and I happened to have some bananas that were overly ripe that I could use. I had almost all of the ingredients that I needed for the recipe at my house (except some of the dairy and the blueberries) and it was a quick thing to put together and get into the oven so I could make the 2 other things I needed to make.

The other dishes I was bringing were dips. I made the feta dip that is a tradition with the family (usually my mom makes it but it is now my thing to make). This is another easy thing to put together, but it is something that I usually don’t have the ingredients for in my house. But once you have everything you need, you just throw it all in the food processor and it is done! The other dip I made was a white bean dip that I found online. It was another really easy thing (just white beans, garlic, parsley, olive oil, and lemon) that was a food processor dip. The only complication I had was I only have one food processor bowl. So I made the feta dip, washed and dried the bowl, and made the other dip. Between the dips and the bread, I got everything done within about an hour.

thanksgiving-food

Packing was something else I tried to plan out, but it ended up being something that I was doing while I was working the day I was going to be driving to San Diego. My family now does casual Thanksgiving and that does make things easier with packing. But because I have lost a pretty significant amount of weight lately, I’ve been realizing that many of my clothes don’t fit anymore. So I grabbed all of the things I was thinking of packing and was trying them on between customers. I guess I should just feel lucky that my work is online chat and phones and my customers can’t see me!

Between packing and cooking, I felt like I had enough on my plate. But I also ended up having my liver MRI the night before driving to San Diego. I was at the hospital for a few hours getting it done so that was a bit of a time suck. The MRI itself wasn’t too horrible. Once the IV was in and I was in the machine, it was about 45 minutes. And at this hospital, you can listen to music while in the MRI tube. They had Pandora as an option and I requested the Broadway station. All the songs that played were things that I knew, but the best moment was when I heard my friend AJ singing on the “Heathers The Musical” soundtrack in-between 2 songs from “Hamilton”! That really made me happy and forget about all the stuff I had to do to prepare for San Diego the next morning.

And because all that craziness wasn’t enough leading up to San Diego, on Monday morning as I drove to my workout the power steering in my car died. I’ve never driven without power steering before and I knew that it was something that needed to be fixed before driving down. I took my car into the shop around 10am on Monday and discovered that the power steering in my car isn’t the standard one used so it would be tough to find a replacement part. They were hopeful that my car would be fixed by Friday, but that meant I wouldn’t have my car for Thanksgiving. Fortunately my mechanic offers free loaner cars so I got one of those and drove that to and from San Diego. As I’m writing this, my car still isn’t fixed. They got the replacement part in on Friday, but it’s still not fixing it. I’m hoping I’ll get my car back this week, but at least I have a loaner car to use so I don’t have to pay for a rental.

My Thanksgiving prep did end up being a bit stressful, but it all worked out in the end. I got everything done that I needed to (plus some things I wasn’t expecting) and I had an awesome Thanksgiving trip. But my Thanksgiving recap won’t be until tomorrow’s post!

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Posted in Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged car, food, health issues, liver, recipe, scheduling, Thanksgiving

Trying To Help (or An Adventure In My Car)

Posted on May 5, 2016 | Comments Off

The other night, I was driving to my friend’s birthday party. To be honest, I was planning on writing about the birthday party on this post. But what happened on the way is more interesting and was a lesson for me.

I wasn’t that far from my house when I got stopped in traffic. The cars weren’t moving that much and I assumed that there must be an accident ahead. I wasn’t worried about how long it would take me to get to my friend’s party, so I wasn’t thinking too much about it. Traffic finally started to move slowly, and after a few minutes I was able to see what the issue was.

The street I was driving on was a pretty major street (2 lanes in each way). Besides the cross walks at the streetlights there are also some crosswalks not where there is a light. There is a cross walk button for pedestrians to push so lights flash and cars stop. The lights weren’t flashing but there was a woman in the cross walk.

She was maybe 5 feet off of the curb into the street. She wasn’t moving forward or back like she was trying to cross (or scared to do so) but she was swaying and blocking traffic. Cars were stopping thinking she was trying to cross, but she wasn’t moving. And cars had to go around her to be able to drive so that was causing a traffic jam.

When I drove by her, I could see that something wasn’t right. I don’t know if she was drunk, high on something, or mentally unstable but clearly she wasn’t ok. I was able to pull over about half a block away from the cross walk and called 911. I felt weird calling 911 because I wasn’t totally sure it was an emergency, but I was terrified that a car would hit the woman and I knew I had to do something about it.

The 911 operator was pretty amazing. I was able to give her the exact location where I was and since I could see the woman in my rear view mirror I was able to give her a full description. While I was on the call with 911 the woman started to walk back and forth on the cross walk and occasionally stopping in the middle of the street (and almost getting hit by multiple cars). I’m sure that I was making the 911 operator nervous because I kept saying under my breath “don’t get hit by a car” and “stop doing that” while the operator was getting the information over to the police.

I kept apologizing for calling 911 because this might not be an emergency, and the operator kept reassuring me that I was doing the right thing and that I shouldn’t worry (I was also worried about getting a ticket because where I pulled over my car was parked illegally).

After being on the phone for maybe 5 minutes, the woman stopped crossing back and forth and stayed on the side of the street that I was parked in. I relayed that information to the 911 operator and then noticed that the woman was walking down the sidewalk toward me. The operator said not to do anything and just to keep updating her on where the woman was.

Then all of a sudden, the woman stopped at my window. She was looking in and staring at me and eventually was knocking on the window. I started to freak out little bit, but the operator said to not engage with her and to just stay on the phone and update her as needed. Then, before I knew it, the woman was pulling on my passenger door trying to open it.

I totally freaked out at that moment. I’m so grateful that my mom taught me to always lock my car doors as soon as I get inside so this woman was not able to get into my car. But I was still terrified and I know the 911 operator was trying to calm me down. All I could do was just keep saying “why is she trying to get into my car?” and watch the woman as she kept trying the front and rear passenger doors. The 911 operator told me that the police were on their way with the sirens on and they should be by my car soon.

After less than a minute of the woman trying to get into my car, I saw the lights of the police cars coming down the road and when they stopped behind my car the woman was still pulling on my car doors. Once they got her away from my car, the 911 operator said that I could hang up with her and that the police would probably need to talk with me.

I told the police exactly what happened and why I called 911. They took notes on my statement and took my name and phone number and sent me on my way. I took some time to calm down (I didn’t know it at the time but I started to cry when the woman was pulling on my car doors) and when I finally drove away the police were talking with the woman by the cop cars.

I have no clue why this woman was trying to get into my car. I have no idea what was happening or if I totally overreacted and there was a reason for her to be in the middle of the street. All I know is that if I had heard of a woman getting hit in a crosswalk on the news that I would feel terrible that I didn’t do something. So I had to do something. By the time I got to my friend’s party, I was still shaking a bit and coming down from the excitement of the drive over. I kept thinking that maybe I had done the wrong thing (I still don’t know what happened with the woman). But the more I think about it, I know I did the right thing. Worst case, the woman explained to the police why she was doing what she was doing and she was sent on her way. But if she was in need of help, someone had to get the help to her.

I know that we all drive past things that don’t look totally right and don’t think twice about it. I was lucky that I had the time to pull over and call 911 about this, but hopefully if you encounter a similar situation (or if I encounter another one) you will be able to help out as well.

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Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged car, driving, help

Adventures In Car Repairs (or It’s Better Than New)

Posted on December 4, 2015 | Comments Off

When I was driving down to San Diego, I was about half of the way through the trip when suddenly I heard a horrible noise coming from the bottom of my car. It was so loud that it covered up the noise of my radio. I thought that maybe I blew a tire (that’s happened before) so I pulled over to the side of the road and contacted 511 (which is the highway roadside service).

When the 511 guy arrived, I explained that I heard a horrible noise from under my car and had no idea what caused it. He looked at all my tires and under my car and couldn’t find anything. He said that maybe I had hit something and was dragging it but it’s gone now.

I got back into my car and continued my drive, but the horrible noise continued. I even called my parents and asked if I should take my car to a mechanic that night to have it fixed in the morning. They told me not to, so I went straight to the rental house.

I had done some online research and some people reported a similar noise to what I had and it was a rock caught in the wheel. So my dad and I tried to dislodge anything that might have been in there the next morning and it seemed to make the noise go away considerably.

The rest of my trip in San Diego the noise continued to happen in my car, so when I got back to LA I took it to the repair shop that I now use (they are the ones who fixed the water pump in my car when I was towed home from San Diego).

At first, they thought it might be a $4000 repair and I freaked out. My car may not even be worth that much, but it’s cheaper than a new car. I told the shop that I’d wait until they knew what the problem was because I knew that I’d be panicking at home waiting for what they had to say. About an hour later, they told me that they had some somewhat good news.

It wasn’t the $4000 repair, but instead it was an issue with my wheel that they had mentioned to me last time I was there (it didn’t need to be fixed then so I didn’t do it). They also noticed that my axle was looking close to breaking, so they encouraged me to fix that too.

All of these things were adding up, so I asked them if they could do any sort of deal for me since it was a lot of work and I don’t have a lot of money. They quoted me a price that was expensive but I could deal with (thanks to the Hanukkah check I had gotten from my grandma at Thanksgiving), and I left my car at the shop overnight to be fixed.

The next day I was able to pick up my car. They honored the price that they had quoted me even though the repair ended up being more expensive (the bill reflects about $150 discount on the price). And not only is the noise gone from under my car, it drives better now than it did when I got it in 2008 (I bought it used)!

It’s funny that this happened to my car when it did. I was talking with my dad at Thanksgiving about having to get new tires soon for my car and how much that would cost. My dad asked me how much longer I was planning on keeping my car. Honestly, I want to keep my car for at least another 3 or 4 years (preferable more unless I win the lottery or something). So he said that putting money into the car is just what you have to do to keep it going. And my dad knows about that since his car is a 1992 Subaru SVX and he just decided recently that he might get a new car soon.

I know that these are all things you have to deal with as a responsible adult, but my financial situation really doesn’t allow for these sorts of things. I’m working on budgeting right now, but my priority on my budget is getting my credit card debt eliminated. That’s not going to happen anytime soon (unless again, I win the lottery), but I’m taking baby steps toward it. This repair isn’t helping that goal, but it is helping me not have to spend more money down the line on more expensive car repairs or a new car sooner than I want to get one.

Comments Off on Adventures In Car Repairs (or It’s Better Than New)

Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged car, money, repair, San Diego

LA Adventure (or How To Enjoy A Day Without Your Own Car)

Posted on July 30, 2014 | Comments Off

On Sunday, I was car-less. It’s not the end of the world, but I already had a bunch of plans for the day and I wanted to make sure that they could all still happen.

Fortunately, it all worked out for me.

My plans were with my friend (and neighbor) Amber. We were going to go see “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” at the DGA followed by burgers at The Counter (which is conveniently across the street from the DGA). I originally was going to drive, but since I didn’t have a car, Amber volunteered to drive us around for our adventures for the day.

The only issue in our plan was on Saturday evening after I got my car towed back to my house, Amber let me know that her car was overheating as well! But since her car seemed to be able to cool down easily, we figured we could be ok driving around.

First stop was the DGA. I’ve been there plenty, but this was Amber’s first time seeing a movie there. It’s pretty amazing and I love seeing my friends’ reactions when they go for the first time. It so pretty inside and all the audience members are so respectful (I’m spoiled now and find it hard to see movies at regular movie theaters without getting annoyed by audience members talking or texting during the movie).

My quick review of “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” was that it was pretty great! I really enjoyed the first movie and I got really excited to see the next movie after seeing the 3 short films that were created that are supposed to take place in the 10 years between the films.

My only issue with the movie was how the female characters were used. Both ape and human female characters seemed to be filler and didn’t have much of anything to do. That’s just sad.

After the movie we headed across the street to get our burgers. I love The Counter. I pretty much get the same thing every time.

And I did figure out how to make this burger part of my day without going over my calories for the day. So even though I consider this a cheat meal, it still fit nicely into my day. And yes, it was super delicious.

After eating, Amber and I headed on a little LA adventure. Or at least, we attempted one.

We were going to head up to the Griffith Observatory because Amber has never been there. We headed up the road at Griffith Park when Amber’s car started to overheat again. Since the entire way up to the observatory is uphill, we agreed that it wasn’t worth trying to get her car up there (she found out afterward that the issue with her car was it was low on coolant, so it wasn’t a hard fix).

After our failed attempt to go to the observatory, we headed back. Amber was going to be in a music video that evening and she needed time to get ready. And I was going to spend the rest of my day cleaning my house and doing laundry (what else do you do when you can’t get around town?).

Considering how tough my Saturday was, this was the perfect Sunday. I got my car to the shop (and found out that the fix wouldn’t be too expensive), saw and awesome movie, and went out for a fun lunch. It really helped get me back into a positive mindset.

And I really needed that because Monday would be another day that would challenge me in practicing gratitude. But that post will have to wait until tomorrow.

Comments Off on LA Adventure (or How To Enjoy A Day Without Your Own Car)

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged car, friends, Los Angeles, movies

Day Trip To San Diego (or Driving Disasters)

Posted on July 29, 2014 | 3 comments

This past Saturday I went down to San Diego to spend the day with my grandparents. I hadn’t seen them since Thanksgiving, so I was way overdue for a trip down there.

The drive from my house to my grandparents’ place usually takes exactly 2 hours from my door to their door. There’s always a little traffic, but I usually can time out my drives to be when there’s the least traffic.

My drive down was pretty bad. From my house until Disneyland I was going at full speed. Then all of a sudden, traffic was ridiculous. I averaged about 20-30mph for the rest of the drive. It took me 4 hours to get there, and once I did arrive I was pretty exhausted.

As soon as I got to San Diego I picked up my grandpa to take him to the grocery store. That was a very easy and quick errand and we were back to my grandparents’ place within 30 minutes. Then I got to spend some nice quality time with my grandparents just chatting about anything.

We discussed my job situation, Tucker (who my grandparents haven’t met yet), politics, and lots of other random stuff. What I found most interesting was my grandpa talking about his time in WWII and the Korean War. I only learned recently that he was in WWII (it’s not something that’s ever really ever been discussed in my family) and I only learned on Saturday about my grandpa being a part of the Korean War. I know that my grandpa has been working on a book of all of his stories, and I really hope that he gets to finish it. There are so many things about him that I don’t know.

I also got to go to dinner with my grandparents. It was nice, but nothing too fancy. After dinner, it was time for me to drive home.

There was no traffic on the road when I started so I figured I’d be home in 2 hours.

Wrong.

After about 30 minutes of driving, my car chimed and in the dash it had a warning that said something like “Hot Engine Temperature”. I’ve had this warning once before and it went away after a minute of driving a little less aggressively. So I thought it might be the case again. Instead, after a few minutes of driving, the car chimed again and the warning now said “Stop Car Now”.

It’s never a good sign when your car says to stop. I pulled over to the shoulder of the freeway and then my car shut off by itself. The first thing I did was call my parents. I’m not sure what they could have done from a distance, but that’s my reaction when anything bad happens.

My dad told me to tell my car cool down for a minute and then to drive to an exit and get a tow back to LA. Fortunately, when my parents renewed my AAA membership they got me AAA Plus. That allowed me to get up to 100 miles of free towing (my old membership only had 5 miles of free towing).

When I called AAA, the guy who answered the phone knew exactly where I was from my description (it was an abandoned parking lot off of an exit near Camp Pendleton) so he could give the tow truck very clear directions for me.

Then I had to wait about 90 minutes for the truck to arrive. I tried to not be too upset or mad because I didn’t know what was wrong with my car but I was pretty sure I didn’t do anything to cause it. At least I had a nice view from the place I was waiting.

The tow truck finally arrived and I’ll admit that it was a little sad watching my car get put onto the tow bed.

2 hours riding in the tow truck later (which by the way I had the most awesome tow truck driver, Bob), I was home and my car was being unloaded.

I was able to drive my car into my driveway and when I did the warnings had all gone away. But I knew that there was something wrong with my car and I didn’t want to drive it until it was fixed.

Fortunately, I found a repair shop close to my house and open on Sunday! It’s called Fix Car Now and they have a couple of different locations. I took my car in Sunday at 8am and the shop gave me a ride back home so I didn’t have to wait there. At 9am I found out that the water pump cooling system for my hybrid motor (the electric motor, not the gas one) was broken. It’s a known issue for my car so they were able to get parts for it pretty easily.

It took until yesterday for them to finish my car, but I did get my car back and it’s running even better than before. My car had issues over the past few years switching from the gas engine to the electric engine. But now that my car was fixed, it’s switching as quickly as it did when I got it!

The lesson in all of this for me was to stay focused on positives and being grateful even when things seem to suck. I’ve owned my car since 2008 (I got it used) and besides having a dead battery once (the normal battery, not the hybrid one), this is the first problem I’ve ever had with this car. And since I’m not working yet, my parents were willing to help me the cost of this repair. And while I was sitting in the tow truck really mad about everything, I tried to find a really good positive about this situation. The one I came up with was technically the tow ride was saving me gas money since I didn’t drive my car home.

Even in the worst circumstances there’s always something positive you can focus on. Even if it’s something small or stupid, that’s what I need to think about and not all the negative things.

3 Comments

Posted in Family, Tough Stuff, Travel

Tagged car, grandparents, gratitude, positivity, San Diego

Are You Freaking Kidding Me?!?!?!?! (or It Feels Like “Groundhog Day”)

Posted on July 24, 2013 | Comments Off

Remember me wishing that car accidents wouldn’t be an annual thing? How about not wishing that car accidents would be a weekly thing?

Yup. I got into another accident. And before you think of me as a horrible driver, the accident last week involved someone backing up into me. So unless I could see the future, it was pretty hard to avoid that one (and it was not my fault at all).

This time, I was trying to merge lanes and a driver sped up to avoid letting me in. So I ended up tapping the rear bumper of their car. Sadly, my car got most of the damage. It’s not bad, but it’s not pretty.

The woman from the other car insisted on getting the police involved, but the officer didn’t write up a report.

I planned on handling this outside of insurance. The other driver had a small scratch on her rear bumper, so I figured it couldn’t be too expensive to fix (it was a car similar to mine, not super fancy). But when she called me later that day to tell me how much it was, the estimate from the only shop she was willing to go to was over $1,000. I would also have to pay for her rental car, which almost doubled the cost she quoted me. She also mentioned possibly needing new tires after the accident and getting her lawyer involved.

All of this was a little too much for me to handle on my own, so I’m going through my insurance now (that’s what they are there for, right?). I eventually want to get my car fixed, but my deductible is $500 so I need to save up for that. I think I can save it up by the time I go to the wedding, so if I get my car fixed then, I won’t need to worry about a rental car (my insurance will only pay 80% of the rental fee).

The only funny thing about this entire incident was when I was talking with the police officer. I mentioned how any minute, my boss would be driving by (the accident occurred on the freeway off ramp closest to my work) and he would most likely be laughing at me. And as soon as I said that, my boss drove by, and yes, he was laughing (in his defense, he says he wasn’t laughing at me but just smiling nervously).

I’m hoping that this accident is the last bit of bad luck that I have for a while. I feel like I’m due for some happy things now.

Comments Off on Are You Freaking Kidding Me?!?!?!?! (or It Feels Like “Groundhog Day”)

Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged accident, car, Santa Monica

Tag Archives: car

Driving To Nowhere (or Just Getting Out Of My House)

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Random Driving Around LA (or Anything Is Entertainment)

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Not Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents)

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Unexpected Car Shopping (or New Year New Car)

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Thanksgiving Prep (or So Little Time)

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Trying To Help (or An Adventure In My Car)

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Adventures In Car Repairs (or It’s Better Than New)

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LA Adventure (or How To Enjoy A Day Without Your Own Car)

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Day Trip To San Diego (or Driving Disasters)

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Are You Freaking Kidding Me?!?!?!?! (or It Feels Like “Groundhog Day”)

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