Oddball Update

Your nasty, craptacular medicine of foul and filthy luck, that is.

For starters, my Trans Am. It is angry that I’m selling it. It is determined to make me feel the flames, in a not so pleasant way. I mentioned earlier, I think, that it has started dripping some kind of weird fluid. Well, I found it what it is. It’s not coolant. Whew, right? Not really — it’s the A/C compressor. Ouch. Yeah, the part that typically costs $500-$1,000 to replace. Juuusssst what I want to be doing to a car I’m only going to own for another month or two, but in the heat of Florida, if the car you’re selling has no air (or a ticking time-bomb leading to an eventual A/C failure), you can either sell at a massive discount or keep it.

I don’t want to do either, so I’m probably going to fix it. I can get the parts for a good price, but the labor is another story. Plus I don’t know if a compressor alone is enough — for instance, when replacing this part, do other parts need to be replaced as well? Granted, I’m not interested in doing a top of the line repair; I don’t give a crap if it only works for another 12 months, for crying out loud. But as it is, I can no longer conceal the fact that the compressor is on its way out the door, so I’m screwed.

The good news — if there is any — that came of yesterday’s revelation is that the mechanic at the shop gave me some advice on where to post the car up for sale. Apparently there’s a lot of younger guys living in the town just north of us, and I can put the car on a street corner there during the day with a For Sale sign on it, ask close to $20,000 and six or seven people will be out there wanting to talk me down to something more reasonable, which from the sound of it, will still be more than I expected to get for the car. Since I don’t have much time left, it’s worth a shot.

The other crappy news is that Birty Dird’s silly images site — the first project that we at Systematic Evolution slaved away on — is being taken down. Yeah, he no longer wants the expense of the monthly hosting fee for the site. GAWD. Anyway I shot him back an email explaining that I hoped he did not expect the debt he still owes us for actual construction of said site for be forgiven. Fortunately he seems to have no such delusion — and indeed, nearly $1,000 of money should be on its way to us for that very reason within a matter of days. This time he virtually has the money in is hand too, he’s just waiting for a check to clear. So, guys of Systematic Evolution, looks like your Christmases could be pretty good — there will be some money going out to you shortly, just as soon as it lands in my mailbox.

Okay, it’s 5:30 and I’m hungry — time to go get Mexican food. Not from Taco Hell.

Categorized as Rants