Fixed Costs
Five hundred six dollars. That's what it cost to solve today's problem-of-the-day. I kept getting reminders from CarFax to renew my car registration. They had the dates wrong, but it did remind me that I hadn't seen a renewal notice, and I was sure my renewal date was in August. It wasn’t surprising, because I don't get much mail since I moved out of my apartment and into my brother's house in an inevitable housing crisis.
Last year, I changed the address on my driver's license – with much difficulty – but only because I had to give my license number to a police evidence department to upload security footage of a robbery at work (but that's another story) and I suddenly noticed the license had expired. Oops. Apparently, the license department of the California DMV isn't connected to the car registration department because my updated address wasn't in their system.
I tried to remedy the address change online, but it wouldn't allow me to complete it. After several phone calls to reach a human, much of it on hold or waiting for a callback, I learned that renewal notices had been sent to my old address. And, because they never heard back, my renewal registration went to a collections office. I never got any of those notices either. It’s a good thing I never got pulled over.
The customer service person suggested I fill out the change of address form on their website, but I asked if I could go to a DMV in person. (Nothing on government websites ever seems to work.) I knew where the nearest DMV was located – just across the street from the place I go to do my laundry.
Following a wait in an entry line, I got inside, explained what I needed, and was handed a change of address form. Another wait to be called to a service window. Yes, I could change my address immediately. Yes, I could pay for the registration right there. Yes, yes, we know nothing is linked. That'll be $427.80. (This year’s fee, and the fee for last year, when I didn’t renew.) I handed over my debit card. The clerk said, “You have to get a smog check. You only have one day grace period, or you have to pay a fine.” I wondered if California was the only state with the ridiculous smog check requirements, but I found out others do it too. The clerk handed me a temporary registration document so I could operate the vehicle while I drove to a smog check place to have the car tested.
Across the street from the DMV, on the corner, is the Smog ‘n Run smog check and tattoo parlor, conveniently situated for one-stop shopping – smog test and tats while you wait. The Yelp reviews said, no, no, no, and I was not in the market for ink. So I decided to drive a few minutes away to the Chevron station where I get gas, because I've gotten my car smog tested there before, and there's actually a mechanic in the garage like they have back in New Jersey. The Chevron guy smog tested my car, and it passed, to the tune of $78.20.
I drove back to the DMV, waited in line again, handed in my smog test paperwork, and received a rubber stamp, a paper car registration, and a bright yellow sticker for my license plate that read December, 2025. Grand total $506.
One hot day, last month, my AC just quit. It turned on in the morning when I left for work, but when I got back in the car to drive back – nothing. California days get to be in the 100s in the summer (even though it was still spring on the calendar) and you can’t be without air conditioning. I knew I was going to have to take the car in and it was going to cost. I spent a week driving with the windows open, but knew I couldn’t avoid the repair. I researched what it could cost to repair my old car's cooling/heating system. Of course, it was a lot. I made a service appointment at Honda, figured out logistics for leaving the car there for 2 days, renting a car at Enterprise, Ubering to pick up the rental, returning it, and taking a shuttle back to Honda. I managed to do all that on my Tuesday and Wednesday days off! Price to replace the blower motor: parts and labor $579; and cost of the rental car for two days: $150. Grand total: $729 for that fun exercise. Some days, the only place I have any privacy is in my car, where I can take phone calls, or video chats, or take an online class, so not having a working cooling system was out of the question.
Since I arrived in this inhospitable place six years ago, I had to replace the entire brake system on the car when they failed just as I was cruising through a busy 8-lane, four-way traffic intersection. I just made it to the other side safely, pulled the emergency brake, and rolled into a gradual stop on the shoulder. That cost $3,000. Fortuitous, though, because a few months later, when I was driving up to another 4-way traffic stop, a truck spun out, smacked another car, and came to a dead stop right in front of me. I jammed on those new brakes and did not smash into the accident.
Another time, early on a Sunday morning, on December 24 (Christmas Eve), I drove into the parking lot of the Starbucks to get coffee before work. On the morning agenda was training a group of 20 new volunteers before the store opened. I came back to my car with my latte, and that's the moment my battery died right there in the parking lot. Crap. I called AAA. They told me someone would be there in about 45 minutes. I did some quick calculating in my head: if the truck came in exactly 45 minutes and jump-started my car, I might make it by 10:00 a.m. for the training class. It would be tight. In the meantime, if I walked the half mile to the mall, I could get the store straightened up, and then walk back to the Starbucks lot, hopefully by the time the tow truck arrived. I started walking to the traffic light to cross the big intersection. Just then, I got a text that the AAA truck was on its way. I backtracked to my car. The truck arrived and the mechanic hooked up jumper cables and got the engine started. However, he told me that I'd need another jump later because the battery was nearly dead and I’d have the same problem. Did I want him to install a new battery – he had one on the truck that would fit my car? I reasoned through spending the money: later when I got off work it would be Christmas Eve. Could I even expect a tow truck to show up then? How would I drive back to the house? So I wound up buying the new battery. A half hour later, with a $250 new Christmas-miracle battery installed, my car was purring, and I headed over to the cat rescue and got there on time.
I've pumped nearly five grand into my old Honda Civic to keep it alive, even though by all appearances it looks deathly and under the weather with the clear sealcoat peeling from the steaming sun and the once vibrant atomic blue paint faded to steely gray. It's under the weather 24/7, which is not good for cars, and even worse for people.
You CAN fix things if they're broken. You just have to throw money at the problems. But if you're broke, like me, it all adds up.
Solutions to even bigger ticket fixes are out of reach. How do you mend a broken heart? How to you repair my shattered life? The pieces of my being that crumbled apart? What's the price you pay for loving and losing?
What is the cost of grief?
