"Green
Today I drive a Seat Altea XL. It's actually very roomy and pretty comfortable family car.
Murphy was right
We've almost everything set up; presents have been acquired, clothes have almost all been washed, presents wrapped, and we are preparing for Miro's kindergarten christmas fest, and Leo's karate dojo's little x-mas party that are both later today evening. Tomorrow is our planned 300 km trip to Jyväskylä, where we are to meet my wife Vera and her parents for the big holiday. (She's been studying there for a good part of the Autumn. Tomorrow is her last day of studies I reckon.)
So I was picking up Miro up from kindergarten (7 km away from home), and we were on our way to buy a small gift for Leo to take to his festivities...
And then the car AC broke. I couldn't see anything through the car windows and the AC fans had stopped entirely, the whole thing was dead. Cold tremors shot through my spine...
Why is does this always happen to me?
Ok, I took the car to the repair shop, and will have to take it there tomorrow too since the ordered new AC unit would not come until tomorrow morning. They said it would cost me over 250 €. This does not bode well with my finances. I don't think I can keep up with the costs this car is giving me.
I miss my old Green Frog, because it at least had cheap mileage. Too bad the engine block had a broken "leg" so I had to let it go. If it weren't for that "minor fault" the previous owner didn't mention when selling it, it would have lasted me a long time. I ended up selling it for 250 € many years ago. I loved that green little bugger.
Well. I managed to do today's chores somehow although having to walk altogether up to 6 kilometers because I needed to take Miro home, and then return to the repair shop to fetch my car after they had inspected it, then buying some microwave dinners and a small gift to send with Leo to his karate x-mas party. Back home, gift-wrapping, and then back to the wheel to take both boys to their separate party venues. (We didn't even have time to eat.)
It took me until well over 22:00 before I finally got the boys to bed today. And I haven't even done all the laundry and vacuuming yet. We are leaving tomorrow. Yikes! I need some sleep too, so I guess I will need to leave those till tomorrow. But I need to take my boys to school and kindergarten, I also have a teacher parent meeting in the school midday. I wonder how I can possibly do everything I need to do possibly without even having a car. I wonder if I need to rent wheels to get about. Money is also an issue.
And then my wife called. I said I still have some laundry to do and need to vacuum, and need to take car to repairs. She immediately decided I haven't washed any laundry at all. I feel so nice already, and she knows exactly how to make me feel better. I love it.
TL;DR: Car AC broke, no money, trip to boys' grandparents tomorrow, laundries, cleaning, need sleep, too long commutes, no wheels, an angry wife, and I have no idea how I'm going to accomplish everything. And it's already getting too late again.
Good night everyone, I'll try sleeping a bit. See ya tomorrow, if I can find the time.
Old cars are really awesome! I own an old bmw, really fun in the winter.
Yes, they sure are. And I still can't get how fuel efficient that '82 Golf Mk2 post-dieselified with a '87 turbo-diesel engine was. It only needed 4 liters to run 100 kilometers (that's 58.8MPG) no matter how I drove. Not many cars today can do that. My Altea XL eats 6 liters for 100 km (39.2MPG) minimum, and tops 8l/100km (29.4MPG) in the city.
Of course I have the AC and all other neat electronics eating power, not to mention the car is almost a ton heavier than the Golf mk2 was. Maybe that's got something to do with it, but I'd still prefer a car that didn't cost so much to drive. Electric would be nice.