The Story of Jade

So I've had car trouble. It all started with the incident on the highway, in which I had to have my poor car towed back to Newport, which set off a chain reaction of money issues, of which I've almost made it out the other side. But I don't know how much longer I can hang onto this car. She's showing her age. I might have to trade her in.

Two weeks ago I took her in for inspection. I was already running late, because the sticker expired in September, so the pressure was on. I took her to the local place where she got fixed after the towing. Going in, I knew she wasn't in perfect shape, but still hoped for the best. And she failed. The girl at the counter came back with a whole list of what they failed her for, and then priced out the fixes for me:

-- Both front tires; below wear bars; have secondary rubber showing. $73 each.
-- Exhaust manifold cracked; spring bolt and flange at I pipe rusted. $535 for the manifold; if have to replace the bolt and flange $635.
-- Rust hole in front of right rear tire. $70-$105.
-- Unsecure and broken right front bumper. $70-$105.

Which comes to a grand total of between $748 on the low end and $918 on the high end. And I'm already pushed to the limit of what my money can do for me right now, and that's a lot of fucking money right there even in the best of times. So I left there deflated and depressed, came home and did nothing. I think I took a nap.

And then I didn't do anything about the car for two weeks, except plot and plan. I discussed it all with Cooter, who is something of an amateur car-phile. I discussed the possibility that I might give her up for something else, and he's looking around for me to see what's out there in used car land. And he looked at the car, too. He agreed one of the tires isn't in the best of shape (they never are with my cars), but otherwise didn't see what they saw. He couldn't find the crack in the exhaust or anything. Now, yeah, consider the source, but this is the one area where he has a pretty good head on his shoulders. He also taped up the front bumper for me, which was cracked pretty good from me hitting a snow bank last year while trying to navigate into my parking spot out back.

And he said he knew a guy who could probably inspect it.

I wasn't sure I wanted to get into some black market inspection deal, but at the same time I'm out there driving on a bad sticker, and last year I got stopped for the sticker, and the year before that, too, so I gave it much thought.

Yesterday I went to see the guy. Cooter was supposed to set up the appointment for me. He's like, "Just call him." I was like, "What am I supposed to say? Hey, my car flunked inspection and my friend told me you'll pass it for me anyway." Yeah, I can't do that. So yesterday Cooter called me and said he could get me in. I didn't know where the place was, so he was going to come along. When I got there, though, he sent Amy with me instead. I was a little pissed. Not that I don't like Amy, because I do, but it was the feeling that he was letting me down. And I don't know the guy either, and he does, so it was like what the fuck. Luckily, Amy knows him, too.

So we get there and the guy is all right, maybe a little grumpy, and I was a little uncomfortable, thinking that this guy is looking at me and doesn't know me and why the fuck should he do anything for me. But he looked the car over, thought the tires were fine, gave a glance at the rust hole, looked at the tape on the bumper, and never looked under the hood at all .... and passed me. So I have a good sticker again, which means I have some time to play with as far as looking around for a replacement car. When I got Jade in the first place I was dealing from a place of complete desperation, because Bessie was almost dead, and that's a bad place to be dealing from.

On the drive back Amy told me that when I went back out to get the car he asked her about me and if I was a good guy that wouldn't screw him over, and she backed me up. So she did me a solid there. If I'd gone alone, I might not have the sticker.

Yup. I owe her one.