Beware the ides of March, or, RIP Hans....

As if this week weren't stressful enough, this morning, as I'm racing to the train station, the car loses power. Of course I'm in the left lane. It was only by some divine intervention there wasn't a massive accident (that, and the fact that there's not a lot of traffic at the hour I'm out).

Coasting to the side of the road, trying desparately to make it down the exit ramp, my thoughts are already racing. "Great, as if there wasn't enough reason for my big boss to hate me, now I'm going to miss his monthly meeting." Try as I might, the car would not start. Put the flashers on, start making calls. Call my boss, leave him a message (not like he'd actually be in his office at 7!), call D, tell him the situation, call a tow truck.

Waiting for the tow truck, a state cop pulls up behind me. Actually, she was very nice - just wanted to be sure I was ok, and she said she could call and tell them to hurry the tow truck up. But the tow truck pulled up about 5 minutes after she did (after I had already spent the better part of an hour sitting by myself!)....Hook the car up, hop in the tow truck and off we go!

Flash forward to lunch time. In addition to my not being at work, our laptops were switched yesterday and for some reason I can't even access my email from home. Blackberry still works luckily, so I can accomplish a couple things. My phone rings, and it's the mechanic. If they ask if you're sitting down, that's not usually a good sign.

The timing belt broke and blah blah cylinder heads, blah blah blah....$3800 estimate, and that's just an estimate (they make sure to emphasize that). I was hoping for something around $1,000 - just something so I could justify the expense since I really only need the car to last one more year.

Alas, with 195,600 miles on it, it appears the car is totalled. Kelly Blue Book estimates the value at 3,000 (for a fair condition vehicle)...since mine doesn't run, obviously it's worth less. Sigh...it was a good car.