Wednesday night, driving back from Northampton, I managed to hit some debris in the road. It kicked up and damaged something related to the transmission fluid lines. Not the line itself, but the recirculation/collection pan thing. So, unbeknownst to me, the car was leaking transmission fluid for the rest of the drive home (about 45 minutes or so). Due to my exhausted state when I got home, and the 4 hours of sleep between passing out and waking to take JeT to the train station the next morning, I had forgotten all about the debris incident. When it happened, there was no indication that something was amiss. No weird sounds were made, no odd feelings, all seemed well. Until the next morning, that is.

We borrowed his Dad’s van so I could get to the train station for my first day of my shiny new job (which went well, by the way; more on that another time), and JeT took the day off to deal with the situation, which is thus:

Due to my having driven the car with diminishing transmission fluid, said transmission will have to be rebuilt. To the tune of $1600, which we will have to put on our already overburdened credit cards. (I should mention that I hate having credit cards as much as I hate having a car. Someday, we’ll live without either, but there’s no time for daydreaming now.) The work will be done by Monday, so I’ll still be able to drive out to Holyoke for my summer class, which is a relief.

Before we got the final quote for the transmission work, we were also considering the possibility of trading in the car for a new one. But since we are able to afford the work (with fake money, but still), we didn’t want to just treat the car as some disposable thing. And it’s really annoying when you want to talk to an appraiser, and all you get are salespeople on the phone trying to convince you that your car isn’t worth much, and that you’d be better off just getting a new one. Our car is going to be paid off by November, and I’m going to have to start paying back student loans soon after, so I really didn’t fancy having another car loan for another five years.

Argh. Ok, enough whinging about cars and money. I’ve got cupcakes to bake! That’s right, I’m distracting myself with sugar. Oh, and I think there’s still some New Castle in the fridge. Yeah! Beer! Cupcakes! Right, that cheered me up.