Monday - 1/21/2012 - The first day officially driving my car!

Monday 1/21/2012

It's funny that sleeping in till 5 seems like sleeping late.
I feel so grateful to have my car back and running and licensed!

I also that I accomplished something by being able to do without my car for all this time.

I didn't manage to pay off bills and it's pretty clear that while it's expensive to have a car, the expense of the 3 hours or more each way to work on the bus is huge, it takes time out of the other things you would be doing.

I also feel our OCTA bus system is set up to keep people unhealthy.
There are no bathrooms anywhere.
If you are in the middle of say a 3 and a half hour 3 bus trip and have to go to the bathroom, you would need to buy something from a fast food place to be able to use their bathroom.
So what I did, and what I feel like a lot of people do, is to cut down on the amount of water I was drinking, trying to not need to go to the bathroom during that time.
Fast food or sodas are unhealthy, and so is going without water.
I don't know a way to fix this system, but there should be some way.

Also, the fact that you can't depend on the bus actually getting there when it says it will is frustrating.  Yes, there are those times when accidents or something happens on the road.
But, there are also bus routes that should have different start and end times for Fridays, when traffic is heavier.  You know it's going to be that way so why not calculate that into the schedule?
And some bus routes that can't possibly make their route in the amount of time given for it on the schedule.  Shouldn't the schedule be re-written to be realistic?

I could always, during this year, tell myself this was just temporary and try to enjoy what I'm doing, but it's a way of life for so many.  It has really beaten me down at times, I can't think what it would be like if you knew it wasn't temporary, knew this was just going to be your life.

I'm out of that system now and have the knowledge of how to use it as a back up in case I ever need it, but I wish we could make it better for the people who do need to use it.

I also wish we could somehow make it better for everyone to use, but with a 40 minute drive taking 3 1/2 hours if you take the bus, most people would not choose to take the bus and I'm not sure what the answer to make this a closer time exchange is, I only know that it's an issue.

Back to Gratitude!
Wow, without friends I wouldn't have been able to do this year!
Mary and Tracye and Charles all loaned me their vehicles at different times!
Mary, Jaitri and Charles all took me home at different times, often in the rain or late at night.
Everyone was SO understanding and supportive!
I have really enjoyed the social aspect of this year.  I've gotten to spend more time with friends and family than I would have in a normal year and I'm very grateful for all of you and for all of that.  💓💓💓💜💜💜💙💙💙💓💓💓

Friday 1/18/2013 - Car gets licensed today!

Friday, 1/18/2013

I'm going to get my car licensed and smogged today.
I can't wait to be back to driving everywhere!
I'm still going to hold off for the year marker (Monday) to start driving it, but I'm so thrilled that everything came together!

Wednesday 1/16/2013 - I pick up my Car!

Wednesday 01/16/2013

I have Tracye's car, but have to return it today.

I didn't get out of the house in time and decided to run errands anyway.  So I've purposely missing the bus I was supposed to take to get to work on time from dropping the car off at Tracye's.

I grabbed food to take with me, but of course didn't actually eat it.

I got involved in watching the kids play a new game so got to the bus stop in time to miss that bus by 3 minutes.

I was debating staying there to catch the next bus bus and trying to get to work a different way when 2 women walked up and started smoking with the smoke blowing right at me.  I ended up figuring out there was a different way to go that would get me there a whole 14 minutes earlier and decided to take that,  leaving the smoke behind for a different bus stop.

I got to that bus stop a hole 1/2 a minute before the bus.

A lady with baby sat next to me.  I held her bag on my lap for most of the way so she'd have a place to sit.

I thought I'd have time to munch a little bit between buses...  but the bus I was supposed to transfer to arrived right as the bus I'd been on pulled out.

I'm on my way to work on that bus.  I'll be arriving an hour late to work.  Sigh.  

My phone rings.  I don't take it because I feel it's rude to do on the bus.  But, I decide to listen to the message afterward (which I don't often do - buses being noisy).  It was the auto shop telling me that my car was ready.

I was wondering if I dare take time off work to go from work...  and if they would pick me up from work...  then I realized that I might be able to get there easier from somewhere on the bus route.  I looked at my gps and realized that right now the bus is crossing the street the shop is on, though judging by the numbers it looks like the shop is far away.

I ran a google maps thing on it and it said to get off this bus and get on another in just two minutes.  I get off at the next stop.  Before I manage to figure out if I was at the right stop  a bus came and I got on it just in case.  

It took me right to the door (well, across the street) from the auto shop!  It turns out the auto show was probably being only a mile away from where I'd gotten off the bus before.  I almost didn't have time to re-orient google maps before I had to get off.

So, now I have my car!

It drives fine!  I still have to get it smogged and licensed

What are the odds though?!  I mean I had to be on a different bus than I would normally take...  and I had to be traveling later...  but to be within a mile and easy access to the auto repair shop right when they called to say it was ready?!   Pretty darn amazing!

Saturday 1/12/2012 - Took the car to the Transmission shop

Saturday 1/12/2012

I've been worried about how to get the car to the transmission place.  I don't want to spend the money to tow it and it was still drive-able when I parked it, but the transmission was dying quickly.

I've decided to drive down there this morning.  The traffic should be light since it's a Saturday.
Charles is going to follow me in case I have problems and to bring me back home afterward.

Well, they have the car.  The trip down went fine, though I was worried the whole way.  Also, the car was pulling a little to the right all the way down so there may be something else that needs fixed too.  I made sure to tell them about it.  

They are looking at it today and will call me later.  :-)

I called Chase once again to complain about having such a high interest rate..

The girl noticed I'd been using the card again (Christmas, etc..) and asked if I would want to move my available balance to one of my other chase cards.  I never even knew you could do that!

So, I still have money on that card that still has a high interest rate.

...but the excess usable balance is now on a card with a lower (OK, not great but lower rate) oh and that card has 0% interest till August on it!

So now I'm trying to figure complex transfer schemes to see about transferring as much of the money out of the high interest account as I can...  (chase won't let you transfer money owed within chase...  but they will gladly transfer money from a non chase card, and then that one might be used to get the money out of the chase account, etc...) 

I'd much rather just pay everything off, but lower interest does make it easier to pay things off.

Thursday - 1/10/2013 - My car may get fixed!

Thursday 1/10/2013

I'm watching my grandkids today.
While they are at school I'm going to take their car and go car shopping.
I have to start figuring out what to do.
I've noticed that there are a lot of car sales places on the one street over in what I think of as the Bario section of Santa Ana.  I'm going to go there and look, just to get an idea of what the prices are.

This has been a very interesting experience, talking with these dealers.
Anytime you ask what the price of a car is, they ask you if you are going to finance it or pay cash.
One dealer finally told me, they pay a fee to the finance company when you finance the car.  So, they charge you a higher price for the car.

I'm at this really small car lot.  There is a guy here, I think he might own the lot.  We are having this weird back and forth conversation, and he's refusing to show me a car!  How funny is that?!  You'd think his business would be to sell cars.  He keeps asking me what I want for a car.  After a year of going without a car my standards are fairly low.  I keep telling him I want a car that: runs and gets decent gas mileage (I do have a long trip from home to work) and is fairly low price.  That's it.  He's refusing to show me a car because I'm not more detailed on what I want, and that is what I want.

I tell him I have a car that I love that's parked in a garage and will probably be torn apart and sold for pieces (my current plan), because it needs a new transmission and isn't worth the $3000 for a new transmission.  He tells me it isn't his place to say, but I was quoted too much for the transmission.  I tell him I got a couple different quotes and they all say approximately the same thing, and on top of that, none of them gives a guarantee and it's too much money for me to spend right now to not know if it's going to work.

He never does show me a car, not even one car.  Instead he gives me the information for the person who does his transmissions.  I get in Tracye's car and drive off confused.  Then, I look at the paper he gave me and the address is close by.  I might as well go talk to them.

At the transmission place, the guy is almost acting as if he knew I was coming.  Maybe the car dealer called him? 

I don't believe this!  He just gave me a quote of $1300 to fix the car, without seeing the car!  He also said he will give me a one year guarantee!  Wow.  I feel like things suddenly became possible!

It's odd that the price he's quoting is within the credit I have on the new card, even interest free for a bit, and 1/2 of the price of anyone else who quoted fixing the car!  And, with a 1 year guarantee!  No one else was guaranteeing anything!

I wonder if the dealership guy called and asked him to give me a special dealership rate or something.  However it went, I feel so grateful!

Wednesday 1/9/2013 - I don't see a way out

Wednesday 1/9/2013

I'm tired, run down.
Tired of dealing with the buses and the lack of sleep.
Tired of dealing with the rain.

I don't see a way out.
I've been praying about this a lot.
I felt called to do a year without my car, but now the year is almost up and I'm tired and I don't see a way out.  So, I've been praying about it.

On a lark, I had filled out and sent off a credit card offer.  Weirdly (I wouldn't give me credit right now), they did send me a card, with a $1500 credit limit.  There isn't much I can do with that, it's not enough to fix the car, or to buy a new car, and I really don't want to go into more debt.  But it's interesting to know that I can get credit and it does have a no interest period.  So, maybe it will help in some way to get a car.

Tuesday 01/08/2013 - The Experiment didn't work

Tuesday - 01/08/2013

I have declared the year of doing without my car a failure.

Not in the bad sense of the word...  just in the fact that it really didn't help to pay off the bills.

More things broke...  

I lost income because I wasn't home to post on eBay, etc...

On the other hand, I learned SO much..

and I think I became more of a grown-up person..

and I think now I'm ready to make a success of something.

So, I'm just reminding myself that Edison and Einstein and all the others had LOTS of failures before they made one great thing.

Plus there are some awesome mental changes:

a.)  I'm physically better at getting places on time / getting myself to leave at the right time / not pushing the boundaries.  (though I do have to practice more with a car and those time frames - I still know that it has changed.)

b.)  I figured out that I have a really hard time setting aside / letting go of / putting away  "for now".  This is huge and has been negatively affecting EVERY part of my life, without me even knowing it!

c.)  I figured out that I keep wanting to re-invent the wheel and not look and see what others know that could help me....  thus creating failure or at least not as much success.  (ex: eBay and the fact that I never once (until recently) listened to the radio broadcasts or took advantage of their offers to offer suggestions!)

d.)  I figured out that while I said I was doing eBay seriously, and I probably was for where I was at the time, I wasn't really doing eBay seriously.

e.)  I realized that while I might be able to get back into programming right now (and thus make the money to get the car and pay off debts), that I really like the freedom I have right now...  freedom to spend time with the grandkids, etc...  and that I still think I can make a go of this.  

I'm still committed to doing without my car for the rest of the time, but I'm starting now to try and figure out what I can do about getting a vehicle and how to pay for it, etc...

That part is really depressing.  I'm still in debt.  It would still be $3000 to fix my car and it still only cost $4000 so probably isn't worth putting $3000 into, and I still don't know where the money to fix it or to buy a new car will come from.