Hello, welcome to #weekendcoffeeshare. Come on in and let’s chill beside my personal AC. Today’s hot as in H-O-T, so why not grab something cold and refreshing as well?
Mother Nature has been on a fritz lately, I tell ya. First, it was the 2-inch rain on Memorial Day weekend. Last weekend was all right but then, she decided to turn the dial from frozen tundra to hot as hell in a matter of days. Did I tell you it’ll be 98-degree-Fahrenheit (37-degree-Celsius) today and 69-degree-Fahrenheit (21-degree-Celsius) by Monday?
While my summer flowers have started blooming, I have been having to drape shade cloth over my edibles to prevent them from bolting or dying from the heat especially the snow peas, which had just barely begun to flower and form pea pods. I will not let the heat force me to yank out my snow peas before I get a proper harvest.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I wrote a post yesterday about higher power intervention, which turned out it might not had been the case.
I took my car to the dealership for its first maintenance service of 2022. As I pulled up to the service gate, a person came out and greeted me, told me how brand new my car looked, and asked me where and when I bought it. After I supplied the information, he said he’s a salesman for the dealership and asked if I can allow him to appraise my car as the dealership is expanding its inventory and wanted to know if I was interested in selling my car.
“Well, not now.” I said. “This is my primary mean of transportation and I still have to go to work today.”
“I totally understand,” he said, “I’ll just give you a number today and you can think about it.”
I gave him my phone number and fully expected him to text me a number during my service because that would mean I wouldn’t have to go into the dealership after my service. Nope, there was no text, no phone call, nada. So I decided to drop by the dealership across the street from the service shop.
After waiting for over 30 minutes (which I’d never get back), a couple of salesmen finally gave me a number. It was definitely not what I expected. It was lower than the Blue Book value. What the heck?!
In that moment, I decided no deal. I’m keeping my car. I will endure the ridiculously high gas prices, which, after doing some calculations, is indeed cheaper than buying a new car. Perhaps, I’ll think again about buying a new car when the chip shortage crisis is subsided and the price of a new car isn’t so ridiculously expensive.
Finally, if we were having coffee, I would tell you I don’t think I’ve mentioned it but 2022 is looking so grim that it’s making me anxious with a sense that the apocalypse is imminent.
First, the stock market has been in a freefall since New Year, sending my retirement funds into what I call a “super negative” category. Then, I watched the impact of climate change right before my eyes. I still cannot fathom how my mom can be so ignorant as to believe Global warming doesn’t exist. Climate change is part of global warming, isn’t it?
The news yesterday said this year is seeing the worst drought in 127 years. Water is being rationing throughout the entire state as each city is allowing its residents to water lawns only 1 day per week with each sprinkler zone going for 20 minutes. Even drip irrigation is allowed only 60 minutes per week per zone, which I’m splitting the 60 minutes into three 20-minutes days, while the remaining days, I have been watering using either the water from my shower or from washing fruits and vegetables.
Third, everything is more expensive in 2022. I filled half of my tank on Tuesday at $4.75 per gallon and when I went to do my car’s service yesterday, the gas price was up to $4.89 at the cheapest station in town. When will this end?!
I appreciate you stopping by and reading this week’s #weekendcoffeeshare, hope to chat again same time next week.
This is Another Story 
Oh goodness! I’m sorry you wasted your time, but maybe…just maybe…the whole experience was a good reminder the just sit tight for a bit longer. We, too, are worried about gas prices (all prices), but are hopeful our truck will give us another couple of years to get over this wild hump before we *need to buy a newer vehicle (ours is a 2010 with over 200K miles on it). I also feel you about all the other challenges we’re facing these days. I don’t have an answer for you, but I know that focusing on what I do have control over helps me get through my days without sinking too deeply into the abyss (like weeding a row in the garden or signing a petition or making another pot of beans). I hope you find some light in your days in the week ahead!
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I feel I’m beginning to sink back into my 2020 stupor when the pandemic first hit. All I focused on was work because it seemed like work was and is the only thing I can control and it keeps my mind occupied. I even stepped away from my blog.
Everything, nowadays, feels so anxiety-driven that it seems like each time I look at the news, my anxiety level would go up a little bit.
Wow, over 200k miles. I do hope your truck will get you over this. Thank you for visiting and commenting. I hope you have a great week ahead. 🙂
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These times we’re living in are so wild. I don’t believe we humans are built for such continuous stimulation and trauma. I do hope you find a way to gift yourself some quiet moments that are just for you 🙂
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Hi YingLan,
What a bother the weather and economy have become.
We’ve just gotten past our own mini-heat wave (3 days of) and are getting kicked around by what I guess are the worse gas prices in the US. $6.10 – 6.50 are now common. Our current President and his team have been caught bragging about it and how they want it to help kill our domestic oil industry.
Great – positively brilliant of them.
I hope the next election wipes them out of power but so much damage has been done that even if that happens and we get someone from the other side – they have such a lousy reputation for doing very little of substance that I’m left just sick of it all.
That said, I would advise against a new car at all and certainly not if a car loan is needed.
We’ve done pretty good with used cars and models that have a good track records for low maintenance.
Hope you find a path that works for you.
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Yikes! Your gas prices make my worries seem so petty. I cannot fathom how some people will even be able to go to work with gas being so expensive and I heard it’ll continue to go up with no end in sight. And the stock market is falling again to new lows as I’m constantly getting notified of my stocks hitting new 52-weeks lows. I should really stop those notifications. Ugh!
I agree with you. I, too, hope next election will wipe them out and hopefully get someone who actually knows what they’re doing instead of letting the party be their puppet master and pulling their strings.
The car dealership called again on Saturday, wanting to get me into a used car but I said no. I’m not in the market for a car loan, especially, not a car loan for a car with more miles than my current car.
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The car dealers are very short on inventory of both used and new cars to sell. We get letters frequently offering to buy our car. If you sell a car now (or a house for that matter) you are looking at a lot of money to replace it. You may or may not get a good deal on your old car, but you sure won’t on a new one. Frankly, I think that salesperson saw a young woman and thought you would be a sucker. Good for you for not biting on his “deal.”
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I agree, everything cost more to replace nowadays.
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