Captain's Corner

Today has just been one of those days. You know the kind… nothing seems to go right. So we (the wife and I) wake up a little late, enjoying sleeping in. Then we decide to go through all the stuff titling and registering our vehicles in Texas. So we hop in our cars and drive to get our inspections. Of course the check engine light comes on on the truck on the way there. So there’s something to worry about. I go ahead and have it inspected, just so if there’s anything else wrong I’ll know up front and get it all taken care of at once. Pay attention, here’s the one thing that went right today…

The truck passes anyways… turns out it’s some secondary or tertiary, fairly unneeded sensor that went out… no rush on getting it fixed. We do our standing in line stuff… cars are now registered and titled… with one small surprise, there’s a $90.00 “New Resident Tax” per vehicle the first year. HUH? Texas charges me to move here?? Pure crap. So instead of paying around $85 per vehicle, we’re paying $185 (there were a few other assorted “first time in Texas” fees…)

Then off to what passes for the DMV in Texas (what’s known in these here parts as the Department of Public Safety… yup, they named the bereau that gives out Driver’s Licenses, Concealed Handgun Licenses, and other assorted goodies the same name as most colleges give their rent-a-cops. A short wait later in a small dingy room in a strip mall and Ann has a Texas Drivers license. I had already gotten mine a few weeks back, but that’s another story that will probably never be told cuz it was uneventful and boring.

So, we head on home. Ann in our pickup truck, and I in the Cavalier. As soon as I get on IH-30 and go to shift into 5th gear, I notice a little problem. Namely that the clutch is really stiff and it appears that I am all of a sudden in *no* gear. The engine just revs and revs and revs… Of course Ann is in her own little world and just keeps on going home. Did I mention her cell phone is sitting at home with no charge? Yeah, that’s important.

So I pull over and flip on my hazards and call the auto shop we’ve already had to use once since we’ve been here. They send out a tow truck and I settle in for a wait… During said wait I call the house and leave a message telling Ann to meet me at Trinity Auto Center. I play a short and frustrating game of Brick Breaker on the ole BlackBerry and then the tow truck is there. He takes me over to Trinity, it’s gonna take a couple of days before I get the car back. Yay.

Once home I go to put the new plates on our truck… ripping the seat out of my shorts. My only 1 month old shorts. Is there a point to this day?

Let’s recap:

Two vehicle inspections: $81.00
Registration and titling for two vehicle: $ 362.00
New Clutch on a 2001 Chevy Cavalier: $ 800

Total amount spent on stuff that I didn’t want to spend my money on on my day off: $ 1243.00

Oh, one last thing. We check the mail today and we finally got the check from what was left in our escrow account when we sold our house. Total of said escrow check? $ 1223.47. Funny how God takes care of you isn’t it?

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