Into Each Life

Into each life a little rain must fall. Of course we know that this little saying means that no one’s life is ever smooth sailing. During our lifetime we all have our ups and downs, there are the good times and there are bad times and so we all must suffer through the bad before we can enjoy the good. Unfortunately my life is full of more bad then good.

Take for instance my car. Grant you the car is old but I cannot afford to replace it just yet, hopefully in a year or so but not now. Last week while driving home my car started to make a high pitched squealing noise and since that was a Friday night I figured I’d take it into the shop the next day, a Saturday. When I first heard the noise I thought it was someone else’s car but as I pulled away from the toll the noise was not getting lower but remained the same. I turned off the radio to listen more carefully and sure enough it was my car damn it! After driving a few hundred yards the noise stopped but almost halfway home it started again. I knew then that I had better have it checked.

The next day I got my car into the shop early and after checking the mechanic told me it was the alternator belt. It took them an hour and a half to change the damn thing and once they were done I noticed the mechanics talking to each other and pointing at my engine. To me this is not a good thing so when one of the mechanics approached me I knew that something else was wrong. Sure enough the mechanic informed me that the alternator was crooked and he couldn’t straighten it, there was a screw missing and a metal cylinder which should be part of the alternator was missing. I had changed it a little over a year ago and had not had any problems and now the mechanic was telling me it needed changing again. The last time I had changed it I had gotten a second-hand one and was charged $280.00 and there was only a five month warranty. This repair had been done at another shop at which I suspected the mechanic there was ripping me off. Not surprising he was, when I asked this mechanic how much to replace it he said $118.00 for a brand new one. Once my car was done the mechanic told me that my car was leaking oil and also asked when was the last time I changed my timing belt. He told me I needed to wash my engine before he could check where the leak was coming from. I didn’t think it was too bad so I told him I would wash it and bring it back in for him to check, as for my timing belt I had to check my shit load of previous bills to find out when it was last changed.

So this past Saturday I dutifully washed my engine and took it back. Half way there the damn car stalled and I had trouble starting it. Managed to get it to the shop and told the mechanic what had happened and that the timing belt was last changed in 2007 so that had to be changed as well. He looked around and then informed me I would have to leave it at the shop for a few days because they would have to take the engine apart to check. I guess you can’t expect much from a twelve year old car which has been pretty good up till now. I left it there and today it is ready. I just went to collect it and the bill came to a whopping $2000.00 for repairs. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream but all I could do was laugh, hysterically I might add. Thank god for credit cards. The engine looks like new engine, my clutch is loose the way it should be, they washed my car and polished the wheels and best of all they screwed up the rear fender which was about to drop off.

Yep into each life a little rain must fall, but in my life there always seems to be a typhoon. If it’s not teenager problems its car problems, nothing ever seems to go smoothly. No wonder I drink. A wise Chinese fortune teller once told me that according to the life lines on my hand I would have to work my whole life. A few years later the lines had changed and he told me that once I reached the age of fifty my life would be easier. This year I’ll be fifty two, I’m still waiting!