Sometimes it just seems that the little bit of rain that must fall into everyone’s life is turning into a deluge. With my knee/hip/back putting a serious limit on the distance I can walk I depend on my car to be able to get around to accomplish the varied tasks of the day. When the heater core/coil on my car decided to start leaking on Thursday it was a major problem; a threat to my ability to accomplish anything.

A quick consultation revealed that replacing the core was a $900 job. $900!!! If I had that kind of money to spare … but these days having that type of cash is something I can only fantasize about. Even the suggestion that something could be done for around $100 to get the car running again was well out of my reach. Fortunately the assumption of most people that the members of the homeless or recovering addict communities are stupid is totally incorrect. In fact the members of these communities have a wide variety of skills, experience and intelligence that reflects the great diversity of the people in the community. The result was that my car is currently running perfectly well, although without a functioning heater. I was only required to spend $7 (just under the actual cash I had available) for parts. Labour charges were taken care of by assumption of debt by me on behalf of the person performing the repair, a not usual financing tool in the world of corporate takeovers – or on the streets.

So I have a car that I need that now runs and although it did take all the cash I had, given my budget it was an effective use of cash. On the positive side it did ensure that I got a lot of rest and relaxation over the long weekend. R & R I really needed. So when Tuesday rolled around I was ready to go. Still I certainly hope that any further ‘rain’ hold off until I have the opportunity to acquire some spare cash – just in case it decides to deluge again.