Recently I feel I'm doing much better getting with the program. Like this morning I got a rental car. I had to leave my Honda Civic in for maintenance. So I sprung at last for the compliance bushings. Yeah bushings. Had a coupon. Well didn't quite have it but I referred to it. That worked. So the bushings, yeah. Like they cost 15 cents or something (what do you know there isn't even a sign for cents on the keyboard, dollars yes, but no cents) but in order to get to them, that's a lot of man hours. So I had to leave it in all day. And the dealership is about five miles from me, yeah I say dealership now, so I got a rental. I didn't have to pay for it though. Because a white Fiat would not be my choice of car. The Fiat is pretty cool actually, it can kind of go both ways, manual or automatic, the key goes both ways too. Yeah so I had another problem with my key, my Honda Civic is seven years old and I never got the thing you point and your car pops open or locks I got it today though for the Fiat, it has a key folded into it, I used that, couldn't get the distance thing to work. Anyway I haven't been able to unlock or lock my driver's door for months. Made getting in and locking the car quite a heave. I think I've finally got carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist from bending it back at unnatural angles from the back door to lock the front. Felt like grit in there but apparently it's the barrel slipping in the lock. Then there was another issue with the timing belt, and then the alignment, I left the valves till later because it all adds up to like a hefty percentage of the value of the car. Assuming I could sell it that is. Or do without it or whatever. Anyway I got a rental, because all this would take all day, the dealer covered it, but they still took my credit card and put a hold on it for $200 and I had to inspect the body of the car and sign a lot of stuff so by the time the guy talked about the special insurance (by that time we had talked a bit, he went to the same school as my daughter and was on the wrestling team, she wasn't but she knew a lot of wrestlers, they bonded because of having to work, you know, two jobs, which is not exactly the dominant Ivy League experience), I was like What do you think, Brandon and he was like You know, it makes a lot of sense. I just went with it. Time was I would have bailed before it got that far. Long, long before. Hey I'd be stomping off into the snow, fuming. A hold on my credit card? Not on your nelly! Liability for damage? Just give me back my car!!! Things change. I'm much more mellow now about money, about what I deserve. Hey what's $16.69. If it will bring me peace of mind. Am I prepared to pay a little to make sure I am not worried I will have to pay a lot? Absolutely. I'll pay a lot to make sure I am not worried I will have to pay a lot. Most things you have no choice about. The thing about this $16.99 is that I could but didn't have to do it. I could be a man, hey pony up the dough, you got it, what's the problem, $16.99, that's like, a big donut or something in some cities. And I could be a woman, hey you deserve it lady, why should you worry your pretty little white rental Fiat-driving little head? I didn't even read the fine print. I'm not gonna read it. Left it in the glove compartment of the car.
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