Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
The interval between the last journal and this one began with an almost solid workweek of rain! That week, John worked only one day, and that was mostly watching the crews clean up from the rain.
But then, the weather turned, and within a week the temperatures soared to the mid-90s, and by late last week even hit 100 degrees where John was working. Apparently, that day set local records as the hottest February day in history.
The big news here is that Leo's car, a 2012 Chevrolet Volt, died! He got it about a year and a half ago, but he'd been driving it for several months on just the gas engine, after the plug-in charging port failed and the dealer quoted some $3,000 to replace an electronic module, but couldn't give us any assurance that the repair would fix the problem, only permit further diagnostics.
Well, it turns out that that's the worst thing to do to a Chevy Volt, and triggers a cascade of problems terminating in a dead hybrid battery pack (the big expensive one) and a car that shuts down. A permanent Blue Screen of Death, but a car.
We got the bad news from John's Automotive, where we'd had the car towed. So John asked if they knew of a good, inexpensive used car. Good, because Leo needs something reliable. Inexpensive because, frankly, our financial cushion hasn't fully recovered from Shadow's recent $5,000 rattlesnake bite vet bill. We figured we could reach to maybe $4 or $5,000.
Anyways, John's Automotive did, as a matter of fact, know of a good inexpensive used car. It was sitting in their lot, and had been, apparently, for over six months: a lien sale of a 2012 Toyota Prius C Two, with 172,000 miles.
The Prius C had just had a new hybrid battery pack, two new front tires, and some other components installed, but the owner abandoned it without paying for the repairs. When John's Automotive found out we were the ones wanting to buy it, they added two more new tires, a four-wheel alignment, fixed a suspension issue, smogged it, checked it over, and had a full interior and exterior detail done! They even installed the four new wheel covers we'd bought! And, we paid for two sets of duplicate keys to be made, with the keyfobs.
The total for all that came to a bit beyond the most we thought we could pay, but it was still a
huge bargain, and buying from a trusted source is worth a lot. Plus, it has a new hybrid battery
pack and four new tires. We picked it up Friday! So now, Leo has a Prius C. The color is "Summer Rain."
The next day, we got a sticker shock when we went to The Tag Stop to register it and get a title, though: the DMV fees alone came to over $900 because it was a lien sale and there were late charges due on the registration which hadn't been paid by the previous owner, to say nothing of generating a new title, license plates, and transferring ownership. (When you buy a lien sale vehicle, you have to bring everything up to date with the California DMV, including penalties.)
That paperwork will be submitted to the DMV on Monday, and it can take them up to two weeks to get back with the title, registration, license plates, and tags. Meanwhile, because the car currently has expired tags, we have an official piece of paper that shows that we've actually paid the California DMV registration and fees, and the whole thing is in process. So it's totally legal to drive and stuff, but the person at the Tag Stop told him not to park on city streets because the parking enforcement computers won't catch up with the DMV until the process is completely finished.
Other new acquisitions: In addition to the air fryer and patio cushions and covers mentioned last time, we also got a new floor lamp for Ondine's office area. John got a new knife block because our old one was getting dangerous (you can see the old one in the photo of the air fryer on our Virtual Refrigerator Door), and Ondine bought a compact electric weed whacker because our old one was too cumbersome and we couldn't find refill string cartridges.
Speaking of refills, we finally had to buy some new ink for our cartridge-less Epson EcoTank printer! We actually didn't even need the refills, as it turned out, because the bottles the printer shipped with still had some left, and it's now about a third full again. Despite relatively constant use, the ink on this printer has lasted over two years, probably more like three or four! And it's been used to print out work paperwork, forms, and drafts of Ondine's novel, several times!
Ondine has been back at work for several weeks now. Her recovery from knee replacement surgery in December has been really good; she's back to doing Pilates, and wants to get back to Jazzercise. Yesterday she met up with her cousin Anita at Liberty Station, and she ended up walking over 10,000 steps for the first time since before the surgery!
John has been walking 15 to 16,000 steps every day on the job lately, so he likes to rest on weekends. He wanted to get back to shooting film, and got a camera and a couple lenses to use (Nikon N75, 60mm 2.8 micro, and 28-80 3.3-5.6), but right now film and processing is, temporarily, an expense we don't need to incur.
Roy had a cold, but he's better now. His car, John's Mom's old Toyota Corolla, just keeps plugging along. And, he seems happy with his new dumb phone, which was as expensive as a smartphone or even more because there are no deals on it, and it had to be specially ordered. It's a humongous flip phone, bigger even than a first-gen Star-Tac!
Leo has not only tutored several people in his new job at Grossmont College, but he got a second job there doing the same thing. It's with a different organization or department or something. Anyways, he had his first tutoring session on that job last week. He's very happy with his new wheels!
Shadow still has an itchy foreleg, only now it seems his other legs are itchy too. The edible dog balm Ondine bought on the internet just seems to be a lickable treat (it's made with beef tallow), so we've gone back to Aquaphor and a longish distraction like peanut butter in his bone.
Neighborhood gas prices are a low of $4.19 at one or the other of the price-warring stations, or $4.69 everywhere else.
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