Recently
hi,hi,hi
Lizzie's got a hat
Me, me, me!
Jack
Ted's list
Christmas is Coming!
Henry!
Quote
William
Happy Holidays!
Subscribe
Car-topia ...written Dec 12, 10:33 PM by Jeff
An update to a previous post about our car: we sold it. I posted the car on Craigslist with an overlong and complete description of the car and all its defects and how it will likely eat itself and die shortly, and had an avalanche of responses. I guess I priced it too low. It sold in one day.
We took the money and put a part to buy a new bike for my commuting (mmmm: chilly!), one part for a haircut for Kate (she is now only allowed to cut her hair when we sell a car or a house), and one part set aside for eventual repairs for the BMW. (That’s not the Bavarian BMW, but the Mormon one. You know the joke I’m talking about.)
On Wednesday, I took a break midday and ran some errands with Kate. When we came out of the store, our beloved Big Black Suburban would not start. We called AAA and had it towed to our friendly, trustworthy repair shop. And then we waited.
Finally, today we got the word: $1500 in repairs to replace the fuel pump and repairs to both the front and rear brakes. We knew that those were coming, and we also asked for estimates on a couple of other things that we knew were needing fixing. Those, too, came to about $1500. $3000 total: ouchie.
We got the first set of repairs done, happy that we had some money set aside for repairs, but still smarting from the blow. I hope that with these fixes done, we’re off the hook for a while. The second half, the second $1500 are non-safety-related, non-vital-function stuff. Who really needs power steering? And I can keep dumping in coolant; coolant is cheap.
The first evening without a car was kind of fun. We were stuck; it was like being snowed in, but without the snow. We watched a show with the kids. We drank hot chocolate. We hung out together.
Kate and I talked about how much simpler life would be without a car. Couldn’t we just ride bikes everywhere? Surely it is possible. Wouldn’t it be fun?
But then Ted wanted to visit a friend and, well, I’m not ready to let Ted ride his bike over (in sub-freezing temperatures and across crazy-traffic-road to a place he’s never had to navigate alone), but I didn’t want to ride over, too. And then Kate needed to pick up a Santa suit for our ward party at a house that’s 30 minutes away by car. Would we ride our bikes there? In the snow? No, we would not.
Then we thought about trying to make it to church on Sunday, let alone the ward Christmas breakfast on Saturday morning. We’d have to get Henry and Jack and Elizabeth to ride their bikes uphill, along the no-shoulder, 50 MPH road to get to the church building. In the snow.
When we got the estimates this morning, it was a blow, but the dreamy magic of carfree living had worn off. We were happy to pay up.
So we’re back from carlessness. And we’ve learned a valuable lesson. This is the lesson: it is impossible to live with seven children and no car in Pickerington, Ohio. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
* * *
I’ve always fancied being Amish. Until I think about the details for more than three seconds. (Milking things, plowing things, handwashing things.) It takes a lot of work to be quaint.
— jhw Dec 15, 05:18 PM #
I don’t know the Mormon BMW joke. Care to explicate?
— Michele Wilbert Jan 31, 02:44 PM #