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2006-06-07 - 10:19 p.m.

a big hunk of steel

It seems as though I am about pay out a huge load of money for a big and awkward used hunk of steel and plastic - the kind with wheels and smelly petrol and carbon dioxide emissions and constant repairs - that one uses to get from Point A to Point B. ugh. Yes. We are planning to buy a CAR.

Our landlord has a 1999 corolla with a mere 30,000 miles on it that he wants to sell. K and I have finally faced up to the reality that we may need one of these beasts to get us across the country. sigh. And perhaps it is best to buy a used vehicle from someone you know and trust.

We test drove the car yesterday, at which point it became clear that this coddled vehicle wasn't that coddled. It runs very smoothly, but I think that the oil may have only been changed TWICE in its lifetime. ?? The tires are very shaky - not the type of tires you want to drive 5000 miles over mountains across the country.

So we will probably be dragging the car to a mechanic to fix everything that has been ignored. I've also put in several phone calls about insurance and taxes needed to get across the border. In other words, it automatically becomes clear that the automobile equates with dollar drain and hassle. How do normal people deal with this? ick.

Further bureaucratic complications seem to have popped up over my position in Canada - there are problems with the start date that mean that my first month salary is more than $500 less than they promised me. sigh. I am rather irritated because I intentionally quit my job here to take on this position because of the salary budgeting that I did. It seems that it doesn't matter where you go - you get promised one thing and offered another.

Okay - off to bed.

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