Making A Difference

Holy freakin’ cow.  I just passed $4.15 gas at the Princeton and 747 UDF.  Geez, glad I filled up yesterday.  I just can’t catch a break.  Seems the last two years we burned through the max on our flexible medical spending accounts by, say, MARCH. WTF?  Last year my daughter Meredith broke her femur, yeah femur, while sledding.  Oh, let me rephrase that. Meredith was walking up the hill. We had just got there.  Not even down the hill ONCE.  And this grown adult RAN INTO HER.  Stopped for a second.  Grabbed the boot that flew off her foot and gave it back to her.  And then flew down the hill.  I didn’t see it because I was with my 5-year old getting ready to go down our first time.  I heard some yelling, turned around, and saw two adults with my daughter keeping her immobile.  When I got to her I thought to myself, “legs aren’t supposed to do THAT.” Surgery, $4,000 out of pocket later, and its only February.  How do I get through the rest of the year.

Fast-forward to this year.  No hospital bills…yet.  My now 7-year old daughter, Drew, is eating, living, and breathing a new puppy.  Cesar Millan dvr’d, oh, idunno, 5 times a day.  How does someone at Petsmart look at me with a straight face and say this dog, all inclusive, “is only $1,200.  But today we’re running a special for $999.”  So I need to put in a fence.  If you knew me a couple years ago you know what happened to our last dog and the electric fence.  Believe me, you know why I need a real fence.  I’m pricing material and labor thinking it will run me about $1,800.  Line up a guy to put it in.

Then the Suburban needs work.  Hmmm…the driver’s side door is going to, um, FALL OFF.  $350 off the cuff estimate.  Real cost $545. “Oh, and your catalytic converter is bad.”  $950.  And while we’re replacing that, the oxygen sensors are bad.  $350.  Distributor $720.  And a few more things.  We went in thinking $350.  We got out at $2,400.  Gotta get the fence done or I will break my daughter’s heart.  New REAL estimate?  $2,700.  Empty the little savings I have and Git ‘er Done.  Perhaps I can fit $200 in here somewhere to transfer my domain and land a nice template for a better blog.  Huh, honey, huh?  Please? She gets the Suburban, and I drive an 11-year old Sentra with 210,000 miles.  I bought it promising myself it’ll go 300,000.  Be careful what you wish for. If you’ve ever seen my car – BE CAREFUL.

Then I read in the Journal, Vanishing Act: The Law of Household Economics.  And I realize, “Thank God I’m not in this alone.”  The sub-heading?  For Every Financial Windfall, An Equal, Unexpected Cost; Tax Rebate = Appliance Repair.  Apparently the correlary goes like this: For every financial windfall that comes into your home, there will be an equal, unexpected household cost.  Oh, thanks for the heads-up.  Really.

Back to the $4.15 gas.  I have a plan.  I’m going to stick to to the man.  On a percentage basis, premium gas is quite a bit cheaper than it was even six months ago.  it’s still only a dime more than regular, and that’s a deal now.  So I’m going to feed my Sentra premium gas and see if the whole thing spontaneously combusts.

So am I alone?  Where did your tax rebate go?

- Andy

This entry was posted Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 2:33 am and is filed under Life. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.