Okay, I am home now, and have been since Tuesday afternoon (the day, not the Moody Blues song), I've just been too busy/lazy to post anything.
After all our big plans of going hiking while on our cross-country drive, the first time we actually found somewhere to hike was Beacon Rock, which was about twenty minutes from the house. Oh, well. It was a good idea in theory.
During the drive, the fuel door on my car was getting progressively more and more difficult to open and shut, until it finally reached a point where it wouldn't close all the way. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to put some money into fixing this, and made plans to go to a Nissan dealer after arriving back in Washington. Well, after our hike and about fifteen minutes from the house, my brakes started squealing, which just made me laugh, and I added it to the list of things that they had to look at when I took it in. So Wednesday morning, Mom and I took the car into the dealer, told them the situation, and then walked over to the mall to shop for things we didn't really need. A couple of hours later, we call the dealer and find out what the deal is. It was quite the list. 1) Some of the paneling/hinges on the fuel door were warped, and the whole assembly would have to be replaced. This is a custom job. Price: $390. 2) Leak in the oil pipe/tank (I was only half paying attention). Price: $140. 3) Leak in the power steering. Price: $160. 4) Front and rear brake pads are worn and would have to be replaced. Price: $440. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked and not all that happy about hearing that my car had over $1000 worth of necessary repairs, so I told him I needed some time to think about it, and we went back in to pick up the car and go home. Well, when we got there, he explained that most of the damage (brakes, leaky pipes, etc) were due to the excessive amounts of rust in the undercarriage due to 12 Ohio winters, where they salt the roads. So the car didn't have $1000 worth of repairs; it was actually much higher. So now I'm shopping for a new car. I'm going for a compact sedan, if anyone has any suggestions for which one I should get.
Other than the whole car debacle, not much has been going on around here. I'm actively (in theory) studying for the boards, step 2 of the USMLE (there are three steps; step 2 has two parts). I'm taking the clinical skills portion in LA on the 15th, and the clinical knowledge (multiple choice written exam) in Portland on the 21st, so most of my time these days is spent reading my cardiology textbook, my case books, and doing practice problems online. It's quite intimidating, and I don't feel ready for it at all.
4 comments:
YAY you're home... oh, and by the way, I didn't realize you weren't going to be in Ohio until after August... so your wedding invite got sent there... so I suppose you'll have to RSVP on your parents' invite... oops!
In theory, my mail is going to forwarded here, but either way, I'll make sure you know I'm coming :)
$440 for brake pads??
Drive it up here and OK Tire will do it for about 1/3 of that...and a little body shop could probably do the gas tank door for a lot less too. I have days when I think Dayna is right -- women get taken on car repairs. Lots of rust is another thing; part of buying a car that was born in the cold areas of the country perhaps.
We thought it was pretty high for brake pads, too, so we called a few other places, and they all said the same thing. Unfortunately, putting on new brake pads won't do much if what they're attached to is rusted. I knew my car's days were numbered, so the thought of having to buy a new one wasn't too much of a shock, but still something I would have rather avoided.
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