Frustrations/Moving Forward
Jan. 3rd, 2010 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wlotusOn Wednesday night my brakes failed (while the car was parked, thank goodness), so on Saturday I called Roadside Assistance and arranged for my car to be towed to a shoppe down the road from me. After 10 minutes on the lift, the mechanic delivered the verdict: ruptured brake lines, thus a damaged master cylinder, and (unrelated) a broken stabilizer bar. At $90/hour for labor, the whole job came to $705. I have $350 outright, and the other $350 will come out of my savings to cover the credit card bill. That's nearly a week's worth of expenses sucked out of my savings when I can least afford to lose them. Now I am afraid to drive my car, for fear something else expensive will go wrong when I least need to spend that kind of money.
Just to add insult to injury, I think the hard drive in my iPod is dying. As important as music is to me, that is akin to spitting in my face. It isn't fatal or life-threatening in the least, but it's insulting and underhanded.
Last night T and I found a bed bug crawling across our comforter. I wasn't surprised; we'd heard some apartments in our building had recently been exterminated for them. It's just one more thing to add to the pile of "not right, today".
2010 is starting out on the wrong foot. It is fired.
If anyone is willing and able to help with the unexpected expenses, you can do so here:
I'm going to take the iPod to the Apple Store this week, to see if they can run a diagnostic on the hard drive. (I put the iPod into diagnostic mode, but the test that scans the drive for bad sectors is missing from the menu. Disk Utility doesn't pick up on anything, either; it says the iPod's hard drive and the drive on which my music files reside are perfectly fine.) If the hard drive is on its last legs, I can buy an OEM drive for just under $90 and replace it myself. It would cost a couple hundred dollars to let Apple do it, so since the iPod is already out of commission and out of warranty, I may as well do it myself.
T and I woke up early, so we're washing our bedding (separate from everything else, in hot water, colors be damned) and the rest of our laundry. We were up early enough to take over the entire laundry room: all four washers and dryers. Our things are in the dryers now, so we'll be out of there before the normal Sunday rush for the laundry room starts. When you have to share a laundry facility, that is a major accomplishment. :-)
T found a recipie online for a natural bug repellant: 10 parts rubbing alcohol (or vodka or witch hazel or olive oil) to 1 part tea tree oil. We sprayed the bed down with that last night, and I'll spray the edges of the room later today. That will help keep more bugs from migrating from other apartments into our room, at least. Later in the morning we'll vacuum out the platform that holds our mattress; I doubt the rest of the family would appreciate being awakened by us running the vacuum at 8:30 AM on a Sunday.
Later today T and I are going to visit a friend of hers, whom we have not seen in a while. I'm looking forward to that. :-)
Just to add insult to injury, I think the hard drive in my iPod is dying. As important as music is to me, that is akin to spitting in my face. It isn't fatal or life-threatening in the least, but it's insulting and underhanded.
Last night T and I found a bed bug crawling across our comforter. I wasn't surprised; we'd heard some apartments in our building had recently been exterminated for them. It's just one more thing to add to the pile of "not right, today".
2010 is starting out on the wrong foot. It is fired.
If anyone is willing and able to help with the unexpected expenses, you can do so here:
I'm going to take the iPod to the Apple Store this week, to see if they can run a diagnostic on the hard drive. (I put the iPod into diagnostic mode, but the test that scans the drive for bad sectors is missing from the menu. Disk Utility doesn't pick up on anything, either; it says the iPod's hard drive and the drive on which my music files reside are perfectly fine.) If the hard drive is on its last legs, I can buy an OEM drive for just under $90 and replace it myself. It would cost a couple hundred dollars to let Apple do it, so since the iPod is already out of commission and out of warranty, I may as well do it myself.
T and I woke up early, so we're washing our bedding (separate from everything else, in hot water, colors be damned) and the rest of our laundry. We were up early enough to take over the entire laundry room: all four washers and dryers. Our things are in the dryers now, so we'll be out of there before the normal Sunday rush for the laundry room starts. When you have to share a laundry facility, that is a major accomplishment. :-)
T found a recipie online for a natural bug repellant: 10 parts rubbing alcohol (or vodka or witch hazel or olive oil) to 1 part tea tree oil. We sprayed the bed down with that last night, and I'll spray the edges of the room later today. That will help keep more bugs from migrating from other apartments into our room, at least. Later in the morning we'll vacuum out the platform that holds our mattress; I doubt the rest of the family would appreciate being awakened by us running the vacuum at 8:30 AM on a Sunday.
Later today T and I are going to visit a friend of hers, whom we have not seen in a while. I'm looking forward to that. :-)
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 02:21 pm (UTC)So see what Apple can do for you if it dies. It can't hurt to ask!
I'm sorry to hear about your car repairs. I've been there...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 03:54 pm (UTC)The reason I think it is bad sectors is that I can sync all of the music, or all of the videos, but not all of both. Once it gets that full (about half the hdd space), it gets stuck. I have seen mentions online of indexing errors when attempting to sync upwards of 10,000 files, though; I need to look more closely at that and see how many files I have. I don't think it's 10,000, but I am not sure.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 04:39 pm (UTC)I'm sorry to hear about the car - repairs are the absolute worst. You've reminded me, though, that I need to get my brakes done soon - so thank you for that. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 07:25 pm (UTC)Sorry 2010 is not off to a good start. :(
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 09:39 pm (UTC)C is going to talk to his boss tomorrow. He'll let you know what he finds out.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 03:24 am (UTC)