Perpetual Ruminations

Sunday

Once again, thanks to the new schedule, I'm home instead of at work this morning. For how long, I don't know, that depends on how busy it gets at work. I talked to my wife, who is currently on the job, and it's been a slow morning, so far. Sunday mornings do tend to be slow, but the afternoons can become quite busy on occasion. So far this season, it's been typically slow on Sundays. If it holds, I may not have to go in until noon, or not at all. But, I likely will go in at noon, just in case it does get busy. I live twenty five miles from where I work, and it tends to take at least a half an hour to get there, more if traffic is heavy.

My intent is to bring my netbook along in, and if I am not required to work, I can park next to Target and use their free wifi to log onto the internet and do some work. That way, if things pick up, I am right next door and can clock in and be out to the guardhouse in about ten minutes. At the same time, I can get some work done and free up more of my time at home, after Rhonda gets done. That also depends on how busy it gets, if it's slow, she will be done by three-thirty or four, but if it gets busy, she may well be there until five or six this evening.

The next task I need to take care of is getting our van back on the road. The transmission is acting up, and we dare not drive it for fear of causing even more damage. I don't know very much about transmissions, or the modern automobile, for that matter, but was once quite handy at doing self repairs. Electronics have left me in the past, but I can still do quite a bit, if I know what needs to be done. The problem seems to be something electrical malfunctioning, and not the actual transmission. So, the first step is to talk to some transmission repair shops to find out what is likely wrong and what it will cost to fix it.

Depending on what they say is wrong, I may or may not be able to do the work myself. If it is just a module that is malfunctioning, and it's in a location I can access, I will purchase and change it myself. But, if I cannot do this, I will have to take it in and pay someone to do the work for me. Since money is limited, I'm hoping I can do the work myself. As things tend to go, it will likely cost between fifty and one hundred dollars for parts, but two or three times that for labor. Not only does this make it very difficult for me to finance, it also will mean it will be in the shop for some time, as it seems there is always a waiting period before the work can get done.

Of course, even if I can do the repairs myself, I will still need to bring the vehicle in and have the fluid and filter changed, it's past due, and I would also like to have everything checked out to ensure there are no other problems that need attention. This all will require more of my time, and since I have so little, why things are all running behind schedule.

But, if I can get it fixed and back on the road, it will save me a great deal of time that I spend now running back and forth from work. It will also save me money, in gas and mileage wear on the one vehicle we are now using double. As it stands now, I drive in for work in the morning, or bring my wife in if she opens. Then, whoever is not working yet drives back home. When the next shift starts one or the other of us drives back in for work, and the other drives back home until it's time to pick up the person at work that means  three round trips at fifty miles each instead of two if we ran two vehicles. Also, the van gets much better gas mileage than my old GMC does.

Time, it seems, is mans greatest enemy. We never have enough to get done all that requires doing. It passes very quickly when we are enjoying ourselves, it robs us of our youth and vitality, yet when life becomes difficult and we are involved in an unpleasant situation, time slows to a crawl, dragging on forever. I'm just glad that time is not a physical commodity that is similar to money, I'd be consistently overdrawn, and forever indebted! But, luckily, each new day starts the clock afresh and we do what we can with our daily allotment.