Matt’s Blog

Phew, it’s been a long week. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get home from work before 8pm any day this week. Considering I leave the house around 6:30 am those are some brutal hours or, as they say at The Empire©, a good work/life balance. Of course I must take some responsibility for this. I had a fair number of errands to run last week, and so the time that I wasn’t working had to be made up somewhere.

Speaking of errands though, here are some words that you don’t want to hear from your mechanic: “what are your long-term plans regarding this car.” Yep, it looks like the long-awaited end-of-the-road is within view for my beloved Rodeo. The details are extensive, boring and really expensive so I’ll spare you. Let’s just say it’s time to start saving for a suitable replacement. I will admit that I kind of saw this coming though, a few months back the ol’ Rodeo started making a groaning noise whenever the clutch was out, and I thought to myself: “that sounds expensive.” Well now I know to myself that: “yes, that sound is really expensive.”

Here’s the thing, I really don’t have to do anything for a while. According to the mechanic the car will likely be good for another 5-10 years, which is why he asked what my “long term” plans were and not what the “rest of the afternoon looked like.” So I really don’t have to do anything immediately, but there is a catch. The noise, which is already perceptibly louder than it was a few months ago, will only get louder the longer I wait. Or as my boss says: “your car is now like a girlfriend, it will keep whining louder and louder until you spend a lot of money on it.”

However, while we’re on the topic of girlfriends, I’d imagine that the transmission noise will preclude any (undoubtedly expensive) relationships from even starting. One earful of my ride will ensure that I remain frugally single for the foreseeable future. This way I’ll never forget why I’m saving up all this money for a new car… awesome! Seriously though, now that I think about it this might work out pretty well. If the noise gets bad enough I might not have to drive anywhere saving valuable dollars on fuel. I can see it now:

Me: So, friend, do you want to go see a movie tonight.
Friend: Sure, that’d be awesome. You have suck kick-ass ideas Matt.
Me: I know, but really we should go. So I’ll drive?
Friend: Um, yeah. I’d really rather not have my neighbors hear you come pick me up, so I’d better drive instead…
Me: Sweet!

Wow, with all these positives its easy forget the fact that my car will soon be making an ear-splitting racket wherever it goes. Er, wait… no, it’s not.