Hold Everything

'memba we bought a Buick yesterday? Well, guess what. Spanky from "Discount Dealer" called. Sharks! All of them! They've called us twice since our Thursday road test. We didn't buy a car from them and they're not willing to give up a prospective customer without a fight. I don't fault them for that. This is a new (to us) salesman calling. Says he has a 2002 Caravan that we need to see. "Under $10000". So I tell him that we're interested in the car if he can sell it for $8000, no more. He says he'll see what he can do. I'm interested, so we go back to "Discount Dealer" and drive the Caravan. Nice car. We like it. We haggle. We buy the car. $8250 with a warranty, 10 years or 100,000 miles. But wait, it's not warranteed for another 10 years, and it's not warranteed for another 100,000 miles. The warranty is good until the car reaches 100,000 miles or until it's 10 years old. Glad I asked him to clarify that, else I'd be thinking that my warranty is good until 2017 or 153,000 miles! That's nuts! Anyhow, we got our deposit back from the place where we 'bought' the Buick. No trouble, but he did mention that he was getting two Caravans in next week. Wonder if he'll call us? But we're just test driving, not buying, remember?

Bought a new car

Well, that was quick! After one exhausting day of car shopping we bit the bullet and bought a 'new' car today. We grabbed a 2000 Buick LeSabre from a dealer a 1/2 mile from the house. This guy has been selling cars from this location for 30 years. That tells me that he's doing something right. He isn't selling shitboxes, if he was he wouldn't have lasted long at all. So this is the new grocery getter. A four door luxury land yacht. She has all the bells and whistles you could ask for. Translated, that just means more stuff to break. It's a pretty big car as cars go these days. That's good. My wife and daughter will be using this car. I have my own. I want them to have a little sheet metal around them when they're out and about doing whatever it is that girls do when they're on the road, you know, shopping and stuff. Not really the type of car I had in mind, but when I found out that the rental, the one supplied by the other guy's insurance, wasn't totally without cost to me I decided that we need a car now. It's costing me $15 per day. Why is that? I didn't wreck the old g-getter. So we're into the second week of the rental. That's about $210 that I have to pay out so far, and counting. Since it's Friday and the new car won't be ready until Tuesday, we'll have the friggin rental for 3 or 4 more days. Then we'll be up to what, $280? That's fair, huh? Nothing less than extortion in my opinion. Let's go buy that Buick. Forget about image. We need to get rid of this 'free' rental.

Car Shopping

Well, the grocery getter is gone. The '97 Voyager that was totaled last week was towed away yesterday. Disposed of like an old pair of shoes. Junked. Off to the glue factory. Kaput. Kicked to the curb. Too bad. That car served us well for over 6 years. No major problems until the transmission rebuild last July. Maybe we could have at least given it a decent burial. But it's off to the crusher for her. Shame really. It was all paid for too!

So, this afternoon we went out car shopping. I knew before I went that there are just too many cars to choose from and too many people and places just dying to sell them to you. One of the cars that we drove was a '05 Chevy Impala. 29,000 miles with all the ususal bells and whistles. Nice car. Looked a little worn though. Drove ok. We really couldn't pick up on anything obviously wrong with the car. Back to the dealer. Took a long time for the salesman to actually let us know what the price was. Almost like it was a secret. Finally, he came clean. $13,998. But with the 'Bigshot Dealer Discount" of $3000 the price was $10,998. What a sport. We wouldn't commit to buying. We went out with the specific goal of driving cars to get a feel for what we want, not to buy a car today. When we were leaving, a senior salesman said "What if the car was $9,000. Would you buy it?" Nope. Not buying today. Hmmmm, they dropped the price $4000 in a matter of minutes. We still didn't buy the car. We took the salesman's card and left. We'll definitely consider going back there to buy. They didn't do anything wrong. They were just doing their jobs, and that's to sell us a car. And they certainly were nice enough people. We're just not buying today. Off to the next dealer.

What next?

So I sit here in front of my computers, the day after Christmas, wondering what I should do next. I am not used to being unemployed. This is a new game for me. I feel guilty, like I did something terrible. I know it's not my fault, but that doesn't ease the guilt. I feel as though I should get up early every day and go out looking for work. I feel like I should be driving all over creation, stopping anywhere and everywhere asking 'are you hiring?'. I feel as though I should take the first job that comes along, no matter what the pay is or what the hours are.

I'm going to sign up for unemployment. Guess that's one of the first things I should do. I called the DES this morning. As you could have guessed I was greeted with an automated answering service. Press 1 for this. If this is a new claim press 1. Enter your social security number. Enter your year of birth. If you are claiming dependent children you will need their social security numbers. Press 1. "We're sorry". "Due to a larger than expected call volume we are unable to take your call at this time". "Please call back later". This sucks. I wanted some time off, but not like this. I didn't even like the job I had. I was bored with it. I thought about quitting. But I didn't. I even put job applications in to a few different places. That indicates how much I wanted out. But I stayed. Need to work. At least I got some time off, but I'm not going to enjoy it that much.

Totally blown away!

It's pretty amazing to me to see just how much the people in your life care about you. It's not something that I take for granted but buy the same token it's not something that I think about often. As I stated in a previous post, I was laid off from my job last Wednesday. Merry Christmas not! Since that time I've been in contact with many of the people that I had dealt with on a daily basis. They were all surprised to hear that I was dismissed and wished me well, offering to help me in any way that they could. I've also received calls from ex fellow employees who have expressed their shock and sadness at my departure and offering well wishes. This has never happened before. This is good. People actually care about me and my family's welfare. This behavior just blows me away, for lack of a better term. I'm not used to working in a place where the people you work with and the people you service every day genuinely care about you. It's a nice feeling. It's a wonderful thing knowing that the folks that you come in contact with every day are there for you when your life is suddenly turned in a direction that wasn't in the original plans. They will help you out for the price of a phone call. We may not think often enough about who our friends really are. We're busy. There's a certain amount of pressure to perform, to act a certain way, do this, don't do that, watch what you say or you may offend. Is that what's really important? We're all moving so fast just to carve out a living that we seldom take the time to remember what's important in life. Many times we are concerned only with those things that can benefit us. But that's partly survival. It's tough out there sometimes. In the end, I may not have a job right now, but I have my wife and kids. I have my family and friends. What's more, when I find a new job I know that there will be people there that will become friends and they will grow to care about me, and I them. I've always felt that there was some truth to the phrase "it's a dog eat dog world". Just don't eat the dogs that are on your side.

The box is empty! What's up with that?

Hey, last week I ordered a little computer device that would allow me to attach different types of hard drives to a usb port, thereby eliminating the need to open the computer case to attach a drive for whatever reason. I ordered it on-line from one of the better known electronics vendors. That was Monday as I recall. Friday, I got a call from my former employer stating that there was a package there for me. I went to pick it up, brought it home and opened it. Nothing! Emptied all the packing peanuts, every single one of them, still nothing! No literature, no part, just air. That's never happened to me before. I thought my ex fellow employees were screwing with me, but clearly, the box had not been opened since shipping. So I called the vendor and explained the situation. He informed me that they would ship another to me in a few days. Great! No questions asked! How kool is that? I don't think I can handle all that's occured in the last seven days! Too much excitement for me.

What do you think you're doing?

As I reported in an earlier post, the family grocery getter was totaled last week. Well, Tuesday, the appraiser told my wife that the tow truck would be by Friday to get the van. So we need to clean the car of all our worldly possessions before we say goodby to gg. You know the type of stuff I mean, things we just can't do without. The folding lawn chairs, the road maps, the umbrella, the thingys that are hanging off of the mirror, the snow brush, etc. I also want to drain the full (doesn't it figure?) gas tank. That's about $50 worth of fuel these days. We hadn't gotten around to the cleanout stage as of Thursday morning. I happened to be at the back of the house smoking a butt ( remember I got laid off? ) when I heard the sound of a truck backup alarm. I looked toward the front of the house to see a ramp truck with chains attached to it's front bumper and the gg's rear frame. He was dragging the gg backwards so that he could get in front of it for the tow. I ran out front and confronted the young fella doing the dragging. I said, "what do you think you're doing, I haven't released this car and I was told it would be picked up tomorrow". He showed me papers that directed him to get my car today. After we both calmed down ( I think he thought that I was gonna whack him ), we agreed that there was a mistake on the date of pickup and that the car would be picked up after Christmas. So there it sits, the grocery getter, battered and broken, now devoid of any personal possessions and awaiting the evacuation of it's load of fuel. What a week it's been!

Rude Awakening

So the whole family was asleep at 4:45 am Friday, December 15 when I thought I heard a series of loud crashing sounds. Of course I awoke and since I'm on a main road in town I ran to the front window and threw open the sash to see what was the matter. There it was, my wife's '97 Voyager, up on the sidewalk at a 45 degree angle, with the left rear of the van caved in. We all ran outside to see if we could administer first aid to our beloved grocery getter. Approaching the vehicle we noticed that the left front was also severely damaged. How's that happen? The van was hit in the left rear by another mini van. My guess is that the offending mini van then spun 180 degrees and whacked the front of the g-getter for good measure. Traveling further still, the offending vehicle then proceeded to wreak havok on the neighbor's car, one house down! The offending vehicle then came to rest in the middle of the street, backwards, with the front end severely damaged. The offending vehicle operator claimed to the authorities that he was only going 35 mph! Yeah, sure you were bud. The g-getter was declared a total loss four days later by our friendly local vehicle appraiser. We'll get a chunk of cash from the insurance company (only right considering the chunk of cash we gave them) and we'll get a new or good used car. Trouble is, while we were sleeping, innocent as we were, we unknowingly incurred the need for additional expense, via a car friggin loan! That's the part that really bugs me. I don't want another expense to pay every month. Wasn't my fault the car was hit. Remember? I was goddam ASLEEP! WTF? Shouldn't the offending vehicle operator provide me with the means to replace the vehicle HE destroyed?

Holy Crap!

Wow! So it's 5:00 PM Wednesday, December 20th, and I'm closing the auto parts store that I work at. Just as I'm about to lock myself inside to count cash and run daily reports in walks the boss. She informs me that she's laying me off. I say, "So I'm done on Friday?" She says "no, right now" and "give me the keys". Tells me things are bad (no shit) and that they're closing the store for good soon. I've been a loyal employee there for 12 years. Treated the store like it was my own. Knew their customers better than they did. Ya think she could have waited until December 26th? Nah, screw that. If she did that then she would have had to thrown in a friggin Christmas bonus. Assholes.