Greed And Corruption: The New American Way

Given the recent headlines, you may think that this is going to be a post on the economic crisis that our country is facing.  Well, you’re wrong.  However, what I say in this post can be related to the problems that our economic and housing sectors are going through because the root problems are the same: greed and corruption.

I actually want to give everyone a follow-up on our recent car situation.  You may remember that our Dodge Colt finally died and that we had to buy a new car.  If you remember those facts, then you probably also remember how the fine folks at Auction Direct in Clearfield made a very valiant effort to screw us over.  At the time, it looked as though our returning the Nissan Maxima was the end of the story but it actually wasn’t.

Taking Back The Garage

Now that the basement is almost completely finished, I decided that the weekend would be spent trying to clean the garage enough to allow one of our vehicles to be parked inside.  I have always taken great pride in the fact that, unlike some of our neighbors, we could actually park both vehicles in the garage and still have room to walk around them.  When we decided to start working on the basement though, all that changed.  I still took pride in being able to park in the garage, I just couldn’t.  It’s amazing how much room sheetrock, lumber, bathroom stuff, etc. takes up.

Death’s Icy Embrace May Be Near

I think that I’m dying.  As I type this, I can barely breathe, my chest hurts, I’m sweating profusely, and I want to go lie down.  No, I’m not sick.  I’m just physically exhausted from pushing our car half a mile to our house.  This is probably confusing to you so let me start at the beginning.

Our 1994 Dodge Colt has 198,000+ miles on it and has been trying to completely die on us for the last few years.  We’ve managed to keep it going by replacing the clutch, transmission, fuel pump, and distributor.  Over the past few months, the car has been able to drive shorter and shorter distances each time we take it anywhere.  This hasn’t been too big of a deal because the weather has been warm meaning that I could drive my scooter.  Now that it’s getting colder in the mornings though, I’ve been wanting to be able to feel my fingers when I get to the office.  Yesterday I drove the car into work knowing full well that I might not get home.  I was right.  It died half a mile from the house.