I was up early the next morning fighting on the phone with Mom. Roger’s advice was to get a second opinion and I was all “uh.... I went to this dealer because they had a connection with a rental car place. I don’t think I can even physically manage hauling it to the other Volvo dealer in town without a car rental hookup....argh....” to this. So Mom freaked out, so that was not fun. I then posted on an advice website what had happened and what the hell should I be actually worrying about and got some useful answers on that throughout the day (prioritize the sensor and timing belt, not so much the rest if you bother to fix this thing).

Mom also had me call Uncle Brad (who used to have Volvos) to ask him who he went to and he said he gave up on those because they broke down too much and didn’t really have anywhere to recommend, but there’s no need to go to a dealer and I could just go somewhere in town. He asked a friend in town where to go and she in turn recommended the place I used to go to before The Sunroof Incident. Ergh.

I then went to work, shared my freakouts with my officemates, and then Lioness, no joke, became Hero of the Day. She got on the phone and called her brother who is a mechanic in Woodland, gave me his e-mail and said to send him the list of things wrong with the car. He gave me an estimate of how much he’d charge for all of that and it was $1680-ish, which was much better, if still pretty effing steep. Then she contacted a friend of hers who is a car dealer that she has bought all her cars from and gave me his number, and he said he’d be in the office tomorrow if I wanted to come in, and if I want a used car he could do that as an option too. I said creditwise I’m assuming I can only do a used car so that works out.

So I decided to write back to the Volvo consultant saying that I can’t afford to get that done there and he was all “okay, just prioritize the sensor and the timing belt then when you get stuff done” about it. I figured I’d let them fix the antenna and then get it tomorrow and then either drag it to Woodland or just head to the dealer. By the end of the day I decided to go to the dealer because in the end, I can use my limited funds to fix this car or get another car, but if I do the first I can’t do the latter later.

I called Uncle Brad again later for car shopping advice and dealt with Mom again. Since she no longer works Fridays, she said she’d come over and accompany me to the car dealer so I don’t have to go alone.

Once again, felt pretty exhausted this night. I have wanted to go drink the last two nights once I got home, but have pretty much drunk 1/4 of a giant berry beer both times. Lioness finds this rightfully hilarious.

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