Raining and Pouring

Well weather wise today it is neither raining or pouring, its more like one of those life things.

The week after christmas, BF and I got in his car to go somewhere and we were all set to go, puts the key into the ignition and it wont turn. you ever have your steering wheel lock up on you and the key wont turn in the ignition and you kinda gotta jiggle it or have some big muscles to move that mother?!?! well yea, it wasnt that convenient or easy with his car. luckily i had taken off work pretty much the week of new years so he could take my car to work until we got it to the mechanic. got it to the mechanic that friday and a few days later he calls to tell us that the ignition needs to be replaced and it will cost upwards of a total of $1000!!! unbelievable.....

now, before i get tons of comments about second opinions and blah blah blah, like EVERYONE that we know, i have to vent some frustrations here....this is why i have a blog :). apparently my bf and i are too stupid to figure out this whole car situation. everyone we have told/who has asked us about the car thing has something to say, "get a second opinion" "your mechanic is skamming you" "hes trying to make money off of you" "wow, your getting screwed" "look for recalls" "call your insurance company". all kinds of direction as to what we should do about the car and the cost of getting it fix. i see to be getting most of the flak about it from people because i am a woman and apparently am to stupid to find out information for myself concerning necessary repairs and costs of said repairs. um, yes, HELLO, i am not an imbecile. i consider my to be fairly book smart, and have some of my own brand of common sense. If i dont know about something or need more information i have this thing that i can look up information on, its called the internet. yea, i got that, and OMG i know how to use it!! My bf also seems to get the same treatment, because yes he is a dude, but (lucky of me) he isnt all that into cars and their innerworkings. concerning the mechanic, yes he is a ma and pa garage in our small town, BUT my bfs family has been taking all of their cars to this man for at least a decade and he is a good person. when i spoke to him on the phone and he told me how much the repairs would cost, he did nothing but apologize about the situation we found ourselves in and i can tell you that the prices we are paying are all for PARTS, not his labor, and trust me, i have looked up ever single one of these parts and their prices. he has made several calls to toyota on our behalf to find out information about the car and service on the repair. several of our friends has said we should call a junk yard and get the parts. i have spoken with our mechanic and done my own research, besides having a low opinion of getting parts from a JUNKYARD. because of the repair that is necessary on the car, its pretty much impossible to use used parts. because of the electrical/computer crap involved in repairing/replacing the ignition, getting used parts/using used parts would be impossible. the ignition in the car has to be completely replaced, which means new keys and new programming and all kinds of crap. plus, to me, its in the junkyard for a reason, leave it there. the last thing we need is to get "spare" parts, spend the money to get it fixed and then have the same situation 6 months down the road. this is one area where going used is just going to cause us more trouble. the only time i believe in going to the junk yard and when your repair is purely cosmetic, such as a mirror or a light (as i did with a car i previously owned when my headlight got smashed in by some idiot).

so after spending a day stressing about the cost of the car repair, bf and i have pretty much let it be. its one of those things that happens and we just have to deal, its life and shit happens, and usually when you really cant afford for it to happen. so we have been juggling schedules and working around getting each other back and forth to work. at first a neighbor was taking bf to work and then i was picking him up when i got off work. he has to be at work at 645 am and i dont have to be at work until 8am. last week and today we tried something a bit different and i got up early and rode with him to his job and then came to my office and killed time before i actually had to start working. mostly i just sat at my desk and drank my coffee while reading a book. at the job where i work there is no option for overtime so no way am i going to do any actual work before im supposed to! LOL. hopefully in a couple more weeks we will have enough saved up to get the car fixed and everything back to normal. it has been nice though riding home from work with bf, we talk about our day and whats for dinner and listen to music.

stitching wise, ive spent the majority of the last week or two working on peppermint lane by country cottage needleworks, and will prolly finish it up tonight. i think this design i will finish into a flat fold. this way i can display it on a table in the living room and then put it away after the winter as it seems to be a more wintery design. new mirabilie (venetian opulence) and new lizzie kate patterns have come out, and i want them....so hopefully i will have some extra money set aside for some stashing. my LNS, the stitching post is having a superbowl sale so i think after that sale i will go on a pattern diet. its been good though, as until the after christmas sale i hadnt gotten any real stash since july!

happy stitching!