NEEDLING

Last night after work, my battery in my car went out. Work was finally over, I was going home, knowing there was a movie – 1941, by Spielberg – waiting in my mailbox from Netflix, and it’d been such a hellish last few days, that I was looking forward to having a drink, and just chilling in front of the television. To put everything in context, let me explain a few things. Last week, my breaks went out, and I had to replace them. This weekend, my water pump went out, and I decided to get it replaced as well, though looking back, I should have just left the heap of metal at the mechanics. All in all, this has cost me a lot of money. That plus the cost of my dog’s trip to the clinic a couple of month back has cost me every penny I’ve made this summer plus every penny I will make in the following two months. I was in front of the mechanic, he had just announced the price: 500 bucks, and I was looking at him asking him, “isn’t there anyway we can make this a little less, I mean, I’m completely broke, to pay you I’ll have to max my credit card.” He just shook his head looking as sorry as he could look, telling me there was nothing else he could do, but that hopefully, when they’ll get in there for good, they won’t have to replace as many hoses and such, and that they’ll be able to lower the price. Five hours later he called me back to tell me the car was ready, and that the final price for parts and labor was: $499.14. In front of that mechanics, who seemed to be a good man, and who had a face I could trust, I decided to go along with it. To be fair to him, there’s no way in hell he could have predicted an altenator fall-out. he did however warn me that there was no way for them to know whether I had blown a gasket or not, since I’d overheated my car several times, and there wasn’t enough pressure in the water-cooling system for them to know this until AFTER they’d replaced everything, and that if there was something wrong with the rest of my engine – things not fixable – then I’d still owe them for the parts and labor regarding the water-pump. ALL THIS SAID... and this is why it is not good to be a die-hard optimist, I still went along with it, and said: OKAY, thinking... this will be it, it’ll last me till Christmas, it’s got to, then I can either buy another car, or get a job bike-riding distance from my place. When I got in my car last night after nine hours at my favorite liquor store, that I turned the ignition and that NOTHING happened... I’d been pissed, ranting for three days now, black circles forming under my eyes, not able to hold a conversation without going on a rant about how much life sucks... that I finally for the first time in what seemed like weeks, put my head down on my steering wheel and started to laugh.