Devestating Repair Fees and Juvenile Grackles [Blog-Diary]

Well, I got to the car repair place pretty early. My appointment was for 9- but I arrived at like 8:15. Not that it mattered- they took my car in anyways. Infact, the fact I showed up so early probably helped. Apparently my brakes are shredded [15% on the back, around 30% on the front], so that explains the screeching noise I heard when I'd brake sometimes. Metal on metal. Yikes. Not only that, but the air conditioning issue isn't an easy one to fix. Of course, the labor costs on AC repair are always pretty hefty due to how buried in the car the parts are, but they have to replace two fairly expensive parts as well.

The resulting price has just about killed me. Thankfully, I have the money in my account to pay up front (I don't want to finance anything if I can help it, interest fees are hell), so I can get it repaired. It just sucks that the padding of money I just got has instantly dissipated into an expensive as hell car repair. Like, yeah- that's kinda what the money is there for, but still... Auuugh. 

Thankfully, my grandmother is a saint, so I can call her and ask for some more money. I'm so incredibly thankful for her, and now that I can drive on my own I'll hopefully be able to come over more often and start helping out with maintaining her home. I'm just hoping this car stops being such a money pit. I bought it because it seemed like a really good nick- good mileage for it's year, just needed some new tires and some general maintenance... And now, with that maintenance and this repair combined, it's more than I paid for the darned thing in the first place. I could have just gone for a pre-repaired car instead of this thing and saved a lot of trouble if I'd known. Hindsight's 20/20...

Either way, the mechanics said that after these issues are fixed, she should last me a long time, which was my initial goal. It's a good car, it's just that the timing of all these issues are unfortunate. It IS like 15 years old, so it's to be expected, I suppose...

After I texted my mom about the hell that is car repair prices, I walked over to the grocery store to pick something up to eat. I had a handful of trail mix for breakfast before I left because I didn't want to wake up any earlier than I had to in order to cook breakfast, and I'm also pretty much out of food. I've basically been mooching off of my roommates meal swipes every night to pig out at the dining hall for the past few days. I can't say it isn't financially effective...

I walked outside and sat at a bench outside the grocery store. I saw a juvenile female boat-tail grackle as I started eating my sandwich. She was still ruffly around her neck, and had some greyish feathers sticking up from her head. She watched me from various angles for like a half hour while I ate- cocking her head, hopping towards me and then back into the bushes... I should have taken a picture, but I was too absorbed in the moment (and my sandwich). So that was nice at least. I also saw a local ice cream place I didn't know about as I was walking there, and it opens at like 1. So if I'm still stuck here by then, I might stop by there and check it out.

I suppose I should get back to my school work now. At least being here is giving me a good excuse to get ahead for the week...