Monday, October 20, 2008, posted by Q6 at 3:24 PM
A week or two ago, it was not a good day to be a car in our household. It's difficult enough with my 16-year-old wanting to drive everywhere, but it's even harder when we have rental cars circulating through the garage.

My car began overheating (it took someone noticing my engine fan running while the car was parked for me to pay any attention to it), and so I had to have some work done to it. It's eight and a half years old, with 115,000 miles on it. The repairs cost me roughly 25% of what I paid for it in 2000, but it's the only car I've got. The rental I used to get to and from work (I'd have taken my bike, but 9 miles each way in the rain with a raging head cold is too stupid even for ME to try) was a humongous pick-up truck. In addition to feeling like I was driving and aircraft carrier down the 405, I could feel myself polluting the atmosphere with each mile. (For those who speak auto: I thought it was the water pump, but it turns out the thermostat was stuck closed. While they were in there I had them change the timing belt and a few other services.)

Before I could even get my rental car back to the lot, my wife had a minor bumper incident with an SUV in a parking lot. Nothing to write home about collision-wise, but as you might expect the SUV won this round. They drove off with a bit of red plastic embedded in the bumper, but my wife ended up with a broken tail light and a broken bumper. (I could have done the tail light myself, but the bumper would require alignment, paint, etc. Too much for my novice skills.) Going through insurance-related collision repair centers and such, it took a little longer than mine did.

Now, both cars are safely back at home and in good working condition. Yay.