Crazy end to the week....

Car trouble reared its ugly head this week. See earlier post about what happened to the car. I made 15-20 calls to salvage yards on Friday. Most offered $100-200 if they offered a bid at all. The highest offer was $600. I was awaiting return calls at the end of the day Friday when Lena suggested I put it on Craigslist.org. I hadn't considered that but it was a great suggestion. I decided to shoot high and price the car at $1,000. I knew it had to be worth more than $600. We had 4 emails in 30 minutes and I started lining up appointments for this morning. The first viewer bought it for the full asking price.

I've purchased many items on Craigslist, but that was the first item I've sold. I was impressed. I was actually pretty excited that it sold so quickly and for what we were asking.

The flipside is that I wonder if I should have asked for more... ha ha. Nah, actually I think that was a fair price. Through family, vacation, and friends we should have access to a 2nd car should we need one. That'll buy us some time to process what to do now.

As much as I'd like to be a motorcycle commuter, it isn't fair to put all the daycare drop-off and pick-up on Lena. Nor the grocery shopping and Costco runs. And, we have to put the stroller in the front passenger seat of my car because it doesn't fit in the trunk. Do we buy a large sedan? a small SUV? New? 3-yr old? Well-used? We don't know. But the cool part is that neither of us are stressing about it.

We are blessed to be in the position we are in to be able to have time to make decisions, both be employed, and have the luxury of a 2nd car.

- Derek

The day I hoped would be a 1-1.5 yrs away came today

No, we're not pregnant with another child.

I had dreams of getting another 50,000 miles from the Passat with only oil and oil filter changes. I would have been happy with another 18 months... even just 12.

I had a terrific lunch today. I had a lunch date with Lena and Karis. Truly the highlight of my day - scratch that - highlight of my week. The food was only average. But the company great. =)

I was floating into the office telling my co-workers how happy I was. Only moments later I received a call from Lena.

"The car died."

My heart stopped. "Are you okay? Where are you? (side street? freeway?) Where are you? (Which lane of the freeway?) Where are you? (inside/outside of the car?)"

Thankfully California provides free towing off of the freeway and a tow truck was there in about 5 minutes. I arriving shortly thereafter having borrowed Kerr's car (I had ridden motorcycle to work). I put Karis in the borrowed car and followed them off the freeway. I had never been stopped on the freeway before. Not a safe feeling I tell you.

Our insurance will cover $100 towards a tow. The referral tow from our insurance agent hung up on Lena when she said she was going to call around on pricing. Nice. The relationship between our mechanic and a towing company he uses provided nice savings. $45 with 5 miles free and then $5 per mile thereafter. Google maps says it was 16 miles. For you non-mathematicians... that's $100. Cool, huh?

I dropped Lena and Karis at home. When I walked in the door at work, the mechanic called. I thought this was good news that he called so quickly. He said he thinks it's the timing belt (which I thought was bad - thinking not expensive part but lots of labor to change). He said that the timing belt replacement was very reasonable. Phew! Then there was the "But...."

Apparently, the 1.8L Turbo 4 cylinder VW engine is a unique construction with timing belt. If it goes out, it leaves the top of the engine separate with the bottom. In our case when the car "died," the pistons kept moving while the 20 valves did not. This means (in my inexperienced explanation) that the pistons beat the heck out of the valves.

Bottom line, we're looking at minimum of $2,500 to repair. The Passat isn't worth too much more than that. Bummer.

What to do? What to do? Mechanic asked us to let him know by Friday.

I'm leaning towards one car right now. It's not rainy season. My mother is visiting for 10 or so days starting next week. Then we're gone on vacation for two weeks. Take time and let our heads settle.

The best part, for me, is that through this I am not getting stressed. Normally anything financial freaks me out. I'm thankful for a safe wife and child.

Please be praying for wisdom and good options regarding a 2nd vehicle.

Thanks.