Woke up this morning to a solid rain that has just started to let up. Oh well, I'll hit the roads tomorrow since Annie is going to be up super early to catch the Super Shuttle to BWI for her flight to Arkansas.
As an aside, I always find it interesting that when you're traveling to an urban area, like Los Angeles, for example, you always reference the city, but when you're traveling to a rural place like Eureka Springs, AR, you usually just say the state name. Maybe it's a recognition thing: why say the name of a town noone's ever heard of and then have to explain where it is, etc? Just saying Arkansas conveys the general theme of remoteness.
Anyway, last night Annie drove the car to an audition in Annapolis and when she got home she said that as she was driving up Charles St, she heard something pop underneath and then the car got really loud. Sounded like a busted muffler or exhaust pipe to me, which is not wholly unsurprising, as I've heard rattling for a few weeks now and the potholes in Baltimore and Washington are murder on a car if hit constantly. Sure enough, the muffler has broken off from the exhaust pipe leading into the engine block and is dangling beneath the car. When I started the Jeep, it sounded like I had a souped up engine in there! Pretty cool except that carbon monoxide leaks into the cabin when your exhaust pipe breaks.
So, best case scenario is that they just weld the muffler back to the pipe and put a new coupler on the pipe (I'm willing to bet the old coupler broke months ago and sped up the pipe breaking). I'm taking it in to the shop for an estimate on Thursday morning. I've got some money saved in an emergency fund for this type of thing, but it still sucks to have to put more money into a 14 year old car. But I don't want a car payment right now, so an annual offering to the car gods will have to suffice.
Needless to say, the car won't be used extensively going forward. It just can't stand up to the pounding of being driven between Baltimore and Washington on a daily basis. The occasional use won't hurt it because it's in good shape for being so old, but daily commuting is out of the question, I think. With gas prices so high, I think that's economically practical as well as it now costs $50 to fill the tank!
Not having the Jeep starts a domino effect. I was supposed to attend a training class in Owings Mills tomorrow afternoon but had to cancel since I have no reliable transport, and now I'll have to move Annie's dresser on Saturday without the use of a rented dolly, as I can't drive to go rent one. Luckily, there's nothing else I need the car for between now and the Baltimore 10-Miler in late June so if the estimate comes in high, I can wait for a few weeks to save some more cash.
On the whole, yesterday was an annoying day, to be sure. Hopefully today will be better.
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