Other sick bed activites

The other main occupation / assignment I’ve had while sick abed has been to find us a new car, ours having been rendered either inoperable or too dangerous to have on the road. Everyday for the past three months Jim would take off for work in our 1987 Camry sans front end, and I would ask him as I kissed him good-bye if we should increase his life insurance today. He would laugh nervously and head on down to work. That is, until he took the car in to have it looked at yet again. Eddie, our long-suffering mechanic, called him at work and said the fix would cost way more than the car was worth, and by the way, to make sure his life insurance was paid up before picking it up and driving it home. So, now it sits at the curb, like an extra closet for all the coffee mugs, jackets and junk Jim can’t remember to bring inside.

Our Mazda MPV needs a new torque converter to make it through another year before the transmission gives up the ghost completely. It’s also ancient and has the most uncomfortable back seats in any van anywhere ever. Nevertheless, we are fixing the van, deep-sixing the Camry and getting another car that, hopefully, will not turn out to be another beater. I’m really tired of beaters at the moment. I don’t mind having one, but it’s not so good having two. You just can’t take off and go out of town without worrying about what could go wrong and how much more it would cost if it happens in Ludowici or Elberton instead of here in town.

We still haven’t found a car and I’m sick of looking for one. It takes hours to get to the real, honest-to-goodness price of a car, only to discover it's significantly higher than what the salesmen were “just sure” it would be. Oh, but wait! We can have the monthly payment exactly where we want it! We just have to be willing to pay on it for six or seven (!) years. On a used car. Silly us.