Priceless

There's nothing like a visit to the car doctor to make me realize how vulnerable and insignificant my meager savings and I are... and to remind me just how much the objects in my life can cost me.

It was not welcome news last week when Frank informed me that my recently-developed rattles and shakes would add up to at least a $1200 fix. Thinking sadly that $1200 might make a nice down payment on a new and improved transportation device instead, I started searching local dealerships and craigslist ads. My search eventually led me to a visit with Dan at Academy Motors. I figured they must be nice and trustworthy folks because they have a cross and Jesus-fish on their sign out front.

When I told Dan what kind of budget I was shooting for (let me just hint: It turns out Bank of America doesn't even give loans THAT small), he scoffed. I've always wondered what it looks like to be scoffed at, but now I know. "Huh. WELL," he grunted, as he stuck his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes... "THAT doesn't give me anything to work with." I told him we could pretend that I had money anyway, and that I just wanted to see a few of the options available, but I let him get back to the air conditioning without wasting too much more of his time.

Imagine my relief when I took my sick Saturn to Jim in Topeka for a second opinion. He sighed but managed to turn the $900 spectre into $100 and pronounced the car more-than-roadworthy.

Now that my little red darling has a new lease on life, I'm on a campaign to fix the long list of aches and pains that have been plaguing her for years. Tuesday I will pay a junkyard $45 to give my E-brake a functioning button (no longer will I have to teach other drivers the "special trick" to parking my car). Next on the list are the clutch pedal that squeaks a blue streak in hot weather, and the flooding problem that requires me to keep a cup for bailing water under my seat...

Anyway, while Jim was fixing up my car in Topeka, I biked across town and settled in for a long day of work in my classroom--my first full day back since the end of May. It recently occurred to me that, now that I have my own room (HOOOOOORAAAAYYYYY!!! All but one of my classes in one place!!!), I can do whatever I want to improve upon the aesthetics and educational potential of my teaching space. With that end in mind, I dragged the two bedraggled and mismatched bookshelves out of the building and began slathering them with black paint.

I think there is a special kind of therapy in painting--in watching dilapidation disappear behind a new fresh start, in letting yourself just get messy and splattered with paint, and getting lost in the rhythm of the motions... But I wax poetic. At any rate, the world (and more importantly, my classroom) now has one less hospital-green shelf, and that in and of itself is a beautiful thing.

Before the end of the day I had not only improved on my shelving situation, but also rearranged and hung posters, swapped the desk and the front and the table in the back, unpacked books for lesson planning, reassembled my computer, and... somehow agreed to sew a purple velour Santa suit for the school's mentoring program. Hm. Well, five steps forward and one step back isn't bad progress, right? So I'll call that an auspicious outlook for the school year, and leave you with the rest of the equation (and a nod to whoever came up with this oh-so-quotable advertising scheme):

New engine mount bolts: $100
New tires and alignment for my car: $440
Can of black paint and paintbrush: $11
Driving to and from work with peace of mind.... and no car payments.........