Fixing the Problem

On Sunday, I got a flat tire.

Well, more like Saturday, but I noticed it Sunday.

So, I was pretty much stuck for Sunday and Monday – the car -fixing place was closed for the holiday.

I took it in this morning.

The summary?

One flat tire, 90 minutes and half-a-month’s paycheck later, my car was fixed.

Turns out that one flat tire means that two are broken, alignment is necessary, and a whole bunch of other stuff is wrong.

‘Cause it can never be as simple as a fucking flat tire.

There’s always something else.

Funny how one mishap can expose all the cracks and problems beneath the surface.

Even funnier how one problem can make you curse the car, and make you forget all the good the car has done, how many good miles the car has given you, and how well the car has performed in the past. It's like all the past good is somehow erased when a problem comes up, and all you can focus on is how flawed the car is.

It’s crazy how dependent I have become on my car – there was a time in my life where I didn’t have one, and I was just fine. I would walk, ride my bike – I was forced to creative and resourceful and healthy and, well, free from the obligations of having a car. But it’s like once you get it, you just immerse yourself in it, and you can’t even go four blocks to the grocery store with out it.

But what happens when the car keeps having problems, and you keep paying for the problems, to the point that the band-aids are worth more then the whole car?

At what point do you just get sick and tired of wondering what fiasco each new day will bring with the car?

At what point do you get sick of structuring your life around whether or not the car will work, especially for those long hauls?

At what point does the cost of having a car outweigh the benefits?

At what point do you decide that there are too many cracks and problems, and you can keep taking it to the car fixers, and keep diagnosing the problems – but no matter how much money/time/tears you throw at it, you just need to say “enough” and get a new one? Or try to tackle life without one at all?

At what point?