Thursday night as Ryan was driving back from work, the minivan starting lurching and stalling between gears. When an automatic does that, you know you are in trouble.
With the van out of commission, on Friday morning I walked to the train, rode the train to the metro, then rode the metro to the Rosslyn stop, then walked to work. It was nice to get a little fresh air and exercise and to get a bit of knitting done. It was not so nice to spend 1.5 hours of my morning doing said activities. The return trip actually turned out to be even worse because I missed the train while trying to pay the extra metro fare (apparently the peak fare is not enough because they charge an additional dollar each way if you use a paper ticket, so my ticket for the exact amount that I purchased that morning was $2 short) on a machine that only took cash but them started flashing "no bills" when I tried to insert my money that took me a while to fish out of the bottom of my backpack - arghh! So I sat outside and waited an extra 40 minutes for the next train but only got a nominal amount of knitting done because it got cold when the sun dropped.
With the van out of commission, on Friday morning I walked to the train, rode the train to the metro, then rode the metro to the Rosslyn stop, then walked to work. It was nice to get a little fresh air and exercise and to get a bit of knitting done. It was not so nice to spend 1.5 hours of my morning doing said activities. The return trip actually turned out to be even worse because I missed the train while trying to pay the extra metro fare (apparently the peak fare is not enough because they charge an additional dollar each way if you use a paper ticket, so my ticket for the exact amount that I purchased that morning was $2 short) on a machine that only took cash but them started flashing "no bills" when I tried to insert my money that took me a while to fish out of the bottom of my backpack - arghh! So I sat outside and waited an extra 40 minutes for the next train but only got a nominal amount of knitting done because it got cold when the sun dropped.
Ryan dropped off and picked up both girls and then in the evening took them both to Audrey's tumbling class. Then he brought Meredith back and I put her to bed while he went back to get Audrey. It was a completely tiring way to start the weekend. And I was so glad it was the weekend, because if that was all the time I got with the girls on a weekday, I would have been in tears. But at lease this time, I knew that I was going to still get lots of time with the girls over the next few days.
The dealership called on Saturday and confirmed our suspicions, the van needs a new transmission (to the tune of $5-6k). Thankfully, Ryan's parents kindly offered to let us use their old civic for a while. It will give us a little time to figure out what kind of car we want/can afford.
It was funny in the morning on Friday, the commute was so pleasant that I figured out how much money we would save by dropping down to just one car. However, by Friday evening, I was ready to figure out a way to keep driving because I was so sad at losing that time with my girls.
1 comment:
There's nothing worse than having "best laid plans" go down the drain with expensive car repairs!! Hoping a great car comes along at an unbelievable price. Hugs.
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