Good Mornthing!

[blissmorgan]

Last night I went and visited my parents for the second day in a row. This time it was just me, meeting up with my dad, and we went down to the harbor to pull the boat out for the season. Even though I no longer live with my folks, this remains a thing that he largely asks me to come and do with him, and I always say yes. We've done it together often enough, the putting in and taking out of the boat, that there's pretty much no need for giving instruction any more. We each know what needs doing, and we do it efficiently.

This time we did it differently, though. Rather than dad driving the boat in to the boat ramp and then me standing knee deep in the water with one hand on a bow line and one hand on a rail to hold the craft steady in the water while he went and got the truck and trailer to back down the ramp, we began with backing the trailer down into the water, and he went and got the boat to drive directly onto the trailer. It worked like a dream, up onto the padded rails in one shot, and with the new tiedowns he got we were on the road to home in record time.

On the way home, my car started making A Noise. It was basically awful, a sort of rattling that is louder when the car is idling. I pulled into a station, checked the oil, put some in Just In Case, and did a visual check of my undercarriage as best I could in the dark. Nothing is dangling. I made it home without incident, but since I am due for an oil change anyway I will be making an appointment, hopefully for Friday. My best guess is some kind of hole or disconnect somewhere in the muffler/exhaust system. I am not looking forward to how much that fix is going to cost me.

This is coming on top of me flubbing funds availability for a Comcast payment, which they attempted to take out twice and I got hit with a NSF fee both times. Forty bucks it cost me, and I am pissed that they tried the second payment without contacting me first, and I am even more pissed with myself for mucking up that funds availability.

Between this and the car, my savings is going to be shot by the end of the week, and a nice thing I was going to do for myself is going to have to get put off indefinitely.

Jury is still out on whether or not I'm going to buy myself payday flowers, because I'm really not feeling the love for me right now.

You, though. YOU are great.

Hello, Blisstopia.<3

Comments

I'd be cranky too

[rokenford]

That fucking sucks. I'm sorry.

Re: I'd be cranky too

[blissmorgan]

Like I said - YOU are great.

I am also keeping in mind the fact that while the loss of forty bucks fucking sucks, it is not BREAKING me the way it would have six months ago.

Hullo Bliss 10-16

[darklilli]

Car noises suck. So does car doing thing you don't like.

It just seems that every time we get ahead, something pulls us back down. The universe is not a fair place. Really, I think sometimes that whatever Deity(ies) is/are out there, they just have fun yanking strings.

Hullo Bliss. I have coffee, so there's that. I also desperately need to bath-ed, so I'm off to do that. Hopefully, there's hot water.

Re: Hullo Bliss 10-16

[blissmorgan]

The Universe is super not fair. I am keeping in mind that I get paid in two days, and it should be enough to handle all these stupid expenses. The only thing I'm nervous about is whether the car fixery means I will be without it on Friday, which will prompt some car-wrangling shenanigans to get the Spawn to their dad's and myself to work Saturday morning. But I best not borrow trouble, and simply burn that bridge when I come to it.

Was there hot water? Should I share at you the video of the dude who built himself a fire-heated stone hot tub using entirely primitive methods?

[wa_bob]

Ugh. There's a lot of truth to the old saw that it's too expensive to be poor. Hopefully the fix is not expensive.

When I was younger, my parents and relatives had some properties along one of the Finger Lakes. We moved boats in and out of the water each year using the latter method. After years it became second nature to do that. It worked slick because it was so easy.

Banks can mega suck in some ways. Hopefully the rest of your day gets better!

[blissmorgan]

It is SO EXPENSIVE to be poor, and I'm just frikkin' lucky that I managed to stumble into a deal where someplace bought my old house so that I didn't have defaulted mortgage fuckery following me around forever.

The latter method mostly hasn't been a viable option because the boat ramp is usually quite busy - dad usually puts the boat in in June and pulls the boat before Columbus Day. This year it didn't go in until August first, and Columbus Day came early. So instead of having to be cognizant of other boaters and make it quick and efficient in terms of not clogging up the boat ramp, we were able to park the vehicle right on the ramp and just do the thing. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again next year.

I need to talk to my credit union about setting up a line of credit or something to handle situations like this.

credit lines

[rlg]

A credit line would be useful, just be aware that it will have a limit (I have one), and it will likely come with fees. An annual fee hits every year for $XX, and there's a per-usage fee, it's not as much, but if you have 2 bills that bite into the credit line, those fees will hit twice.
There is also interest if you don't get the whole thing cleared by the end of the month.

Re: credit lines

[blissmorgan]

I spent a bunch of time on Friday learning about lines of credit versus credit cards versus loans. The credit union doesn't have a per use fee, there's just interest that compounds daily on the used portion of the credit line. For my current situation, the loan looks like the most suitable thing, but I am still thinking about getting a credit card or a credit line set up for emergency bills like this one.

[brianhawthorne]

Let’s hope it is just a loose heat shield. That’s what louder at idle usually means.

[blissmorgan]

Is a loose heat shield an inexpensive fix? Pls tell me that it is. I need to hear these words. [/Yzma]

[wa_bob]

Loose heat shield can be inexpensive. But I don't know for sure on your vehicle :-(

[blissmorgan]

I'm taking the Chocolate Box in for an oil change on Friday and requested Investigate That Rattle as part of the service, so we'll see.