Oof

I've had an...odd week, I must say. Odd couple of months, honestly. First week or two into a new job and had my radiator blow a hole, needing to be replaced for a good chunk of change. A few weeks later, I failed emissions and had to wait a few weeks for my mechanic to get back from South Africa and do a major tune-up on it. Then like two weeks ago had one of my glass lenses suddenly craze heavily, with about a 1/5th of it becoming blurry. Naturally, had to drop a good chunk on an eye exam and new lenses/frames. Each of the three events cost me maybe $850-900 per. Then I scheduled a follow-up emissions test for this past Tuesday so I could hopefully pass, pay a few hundred in late fees, and make my car plates legal again.

...Aaaaand last Friday my car was stolen, right outta the driveway. Definitely a first for me. Honestly a bit of a surprise, my car being so old. But that might actually have been why, as it was too old to have any sort of anti-theft system. I think I handled it well, all told. Was informed by the officer who came that in this town they have a very high rate of recovery, though obviously no guarantee on if or when. The next day I was starting to feel a little down, but got a lift to a car dealership just to see if I could afford anything in the near future. Got out next to the car I had been looking at online, and somehow managed to drive out in it an hour or so later. Had to near max out my credit card for the down payment, but it was just perfect amount. More than that, I somehow managed, for a first time loan even, to get a really, really good rate for right now. 5 something % I think it was. Perfect timing, basically.

They did recover the old car this past Tuesday, and to add insult to injury I had to have it towed for $315. They had abandoned it, but not before taking the few nice things I had in there, such as new sun shades and a nice ice scraper, along with the battery and siphoned the gas. I couldn't tell, but there was a very good chance they took the catalytic converter as well, but even if they hadn't, the car would barely have sold for a few hundred at best for parts. I am incredibly grateful to God that they left my sun glasses though (which are usually one of the first things people steal), as they were specially designed to go over regular glasses and have side panels for peripheral vision, overall being rather unique. Grabbed those, a second, small and crappy ice scraper, and gave the tow yard my pink slip so they could deal with it. I honestly got a little choked up saying goodby to it. Car was a little trooper that had been in the family for a good 20 years and survived all sorts of things. 248,000 miles and still (after the tuneup anyway) averaging 30mpg.

Apart from the having just dropped a good $2k on the old car over the past few months, only to have to let it go for literally no money (not to mention an additional 300 for the tow, thank you), I'm surprisingly okay.

So many things over the past few months, both mentioned and not, have felt like a very distinct pattern of God breaking things for me and replacing them with new things. Overall it seems like a generally positive thing, though most of us dislike like major life changes, particularly unexpectedly. I'm honestly not even certain what to feel. I think there are some feelings in there already, but feel oddly unknown and out of sync, so I'm just kind of...I don't even know. Like the neutral beings in Futurama, I have no strong feelings one way or another...that I'm aware of.

But hey, nice new car (and debt to go with it, woo). And new glasses. And new emotions maybe.