Now for the rant.
My van was repossesed a few weeks ago. Very upsetting!
The bank gave us a chance to get it back since it is almost ours, and they don’t want it back.
Well, I busted my ass working long hours and extra days, and it paid off, we got the van back.
But, when we went to pick it up, it wasn’t where they told us it would be. In fact, it was two hours away!
They also told us that there wouldn’t be any storage fees, and they tacked that on also. More shit we can’t really afford.
So, the two weeks we didn’t have the van I had to rely on a friend to drive me back and forth to work, and try to find someone to do so on my extra days when she wasn’t scheduled.
Big hassle.
Anyway, my husband drives two hours to get the van, and when he tries to drive off, it won’t go anywhere!
Now thuroughly pissed he goes and tells someone that they messed up the van towing it there when it wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.
So, the guy looks at the sheet and tells him that he has it written down that Hubby told repo man that we had been having problems with it so there fore they are not liable.
Hubby says that the only problem we were having with it was it was over heating! Nothing to do with the transmission!
Sorry says the guy. No specifics, just that it wasn’t running right so not our problem.
Now, we just scrapped up the money to get the van back and now we will have to turn around and pay another $3000 for a new transmission!
Does it ever end? Am I ever not going to feel like poor white trash?
Oh, to top off Repo Day, that is also the day they started garnishing Hubbies wages for hospital bill from when that bitch hit our son.
Beagle Dave at one point in time this summer told me I couldn’t jump off the bridge here. But I am telling you it’s looking pretty good right now.
I feel like scum.
I have to beg rides off of people to work, I am walking the kids back and forth to school and it’s getting cold around here now, I haven’t left the house in three weeks other than to go to work, I couldn’t get my son anything for his birthday, I can’t get a soda for break at work let alone lunch, and it just keeps going on and on.
Kricket, I know right where you’re at. I’m there, too.
My husband hit a deer last year, with our van. This was last November. All it needs is a new radiator, which we can get at a junkyard. But we haven’t had the extra cash. We’ve got another car, but both of us have jobs. His is in the evenings. But still, he’s got to get up and take me to work, then come and get me. And he works days on weekends, then gigs at night with his band.
So I can’t get anything done in the evenings, when I’m home. I’ve got to plan a week in advance if I want to go to the freakin’ grocery store. And socializing? Just about forget it. I can occasionally, but the only day available is Sundays. And only if I’ve got gas money. And almost never with my husband, because of our fucked-up work schedules.
My son’s birthday is Tuesday. He’s only two, so he doesn’t need much, thank goodness. But I have to wait until I get paid on Friday to go get him a bed, like I’d originally wanted to. I was going to do it last weekend, but our power nearly got cut off. Out went the bed money.
Email me if you want to vent more. I know how you feel. Oh boy, do I ever.
God, I know what this feels like, except without the kids. This summer I was in a total tailspin of debt, poverty, and despair. No money for anything fun (I bitterly joked that it wouldn’t be so bad if I were spending all my substance on riotous living.) Hell, barely money for food (my roommates are godsends in this way). No translation work. My paycheque would be spent on the necessities of life before I even received it. It was as much as I could do to get enough credit scraped together under my overdraft protection to pay my damn rent.
I had to ask my folks for money, something I had never done since I moved out. That was a blow to my pride, let me tell you, but I didn’t want to totally fuck up my life so as not to take help that they were eager to give, and they haven’t been running it down to me.
Now it’s going a deal better; I’ve got about $2000 owed me in translation jobs, some of which I’m expecting soon. I was able to buy a new washing machine to replace the one that cacked (I was doing laundry at my folks’ house - thank gods it’s not too far to walk). I also bought some new clothes and I’ve even been able to go see some films at the gay & lesbian film festival (I missed the Just for Laughs festival due to lack of funds…)
A little poverty is bracing, but not that much. And yet I’m thankful that it wasn’t worse, which it could have been, as my roommates could attest. I’m just glad I didn’t go hungry or without a roof over my head.
Kricket, You are rich in ways some people will never be.
Think of the people who would pay millions for your personality, having been deprived of one of their own? You won’t have to look far to find them…
Or think of the people who would love to have your fully functioning brain; when you get back to driving again, you will see millions of people without one.
Listen: Laugh. Find something to laugh about, even if it’s bloody difficult. And keep your family laughing. And hold them close to you and keep them as warm and safe as you can, and draw strength and laughter from them as well.
I know what it’s like. You’ll do fine, you’re too smart and too tough not to survive- besides, we need you here.
All our hopes and prayers to you. I know that doesn’t pay the electrical bill, or fix the van.
Draw yourself up and spit in the eye of hard times. Throw a small party (jug of wine and some nice cheese) or something else to break out of the funk. You have my sympathies. I’ve been there too and am finally starting to break free from such privation. Do what I do, at the end of each day I take all of the fives, ones and coins out of my pocket and stuff it in a jar. It’s got a few hundred in it now for a special project that I hope will change my life forever. To quote Winston Churchill:
"Never give up!
Never give up!
Never, never ever give up!"
More true words were never spoken. Perseverance is the key, just not a lot of comfort at the moment. Oh yeah, and what BR said.
Thank you for sharing guys. On one hand it is nice to know I am not alone, but on the other I am upset to know my friends are and have gone through this and have felt like I do now.
It’s just so frustrating! I never wanted my kids to have to live like this.
I mean, they really don’t know things are as hard as they are. They think the van went to get fixed and now we have to take it somewhere else to get it fixed.
When I first met my husband I was a single mother of two. At one point in time I had the lights and gas shut off, and to this day my kids don’t know. I made it a fun thing for them. We read and ate by candle light and cooked out on the grill for every meal just like camping.
I feel they do need to know that money doesn’t grow on trees, but yet they need to be children and not worry about where the next meal is comming from. Which right now isn’t one of our worries since we share a kitchen with my in-laws since we rent their upstairs. My mother in law buys the household food for now. One worry down, so many more to go.
I do have a money jar started, and it was for a trip to go down and see Chef Troy. Even before the 11th I wouldn’t fly, so I was planing on driving down but that still takes money. The jar will remain untouched (everybody needs a dream) but it won’t be getting any fuller for a while.
Big thanks to those who have e-mailed me with support and encouraging words. I am going to reply, but with the wild hours I work I don’t get right on e-mails