Trying to find silver linings - The Year Everything Broke
Just now, the convertible top frame of my 1965 Mercury Park Lane convertible broke. I am just done with that car. What I will do is get it all masked myself, paint it myself, put the trim back on the car and sell it. Maybe I can get $10k out of it, I just want out. That car has been a drain on me. A couple years ago I drove it to Vegas. On the way home I remember saying, “Just put the car together, the best you can, and sell it. Don’t put another dime into it.”
Yeah, so about $4k later, the car drives good. Like, it is safe, I could “feel good” about selling it and letting someone drive it, but I really screwed myself. It was a situation where I brought it into a place to have the brakes bled, for $40 ..... $1k job later, and the car was returned to me, in worse shape, undriveavle, another $1500 from another mechanic it cost to get the car driving right, again. I likely will sue, and I am gonna hafta sell the car at a huge discount, even after sinking $2500 into it. I want out.
That is REALLY a big part of it, I want out of this car. My first and last restoration of a convertible. With minimal work and my own backyard paint job ... even with the convertible top frame damage, $10kish. Below break even by a lot, but I get out. I don’t want to continue trying to solve problems with this car. #paywithlitecoin somone, please!
As the car stands right now, maybe get $6500 for it, take like a $3500 loss. Bonus, I got to enjoy owning a pain in the ass car for 10 years! I literally have scars, from working on this car. Lotta blood, sweat and tears I don’t get any credit for that.
Early in the year, some kind of power outage came in and killed the television in the bedroom. Go figure the old Sony, CRT television still works, 25 years from now will still work, one little zap and the new flat screen is dead.
That’s how this year started. Then I went on a losing streak in poker, I can’t explain just by variance. Then I quit playing poker because I could no longer count on it as a source of income and I have been suspicious for a long time that some of the games, here in Tucson, are rigged. Oh yeah, This is an amazing story, I found a coin purse, in front of a grocery store. Had $300 cash in it, this is when everything started to go wrong.
Uh, of course I turned it into lost and found. What am I a total asshole? I left my number, ya know, in case the person who lost it wanted to call me and say thanks. Nobody ever called but the store reported to me that the owner did return and retrieved the purse. LA Dodgers coin purse.
Months later, after the worst losing streak, ever for me in poker, just wrecked me, I have no more fucks to give about poker ... other stuff continued to break. Like my ipad, my car, just everything. Obviously my crypto investments were down. But on top of that Twitter banned my account and would not tell me why. Visits to my website, yah know, not right away but over 6 months, dropped 90 percent.
Oh yeah and I also had a job teaching college, but my friend died suddenly and so, that also meant I lost the job. So, yeah ... pret-ty fucked up year, all around, expecting some good karma. For turning in that purse ... and this is so weird, you wont even believe it. I am at the casino playing poker, I see the same purse and a phone sitting on an empty poker table, and I wait and confront the owner, “Did you leave that purse in front of a Food City about 6 months ago?”. Turns out I vaguely know the owner. “You didn’t even call me to say thanks?” and she claimed she did, she texted. She’s a liar. She’s like 21 years old. Whatever.
But meanwhile, like since that incident ... bad news, after bad news, after bad news ..fucking unbelievable, this whole year. Worst year of my life.
I’ve had some bad years too. I survived September 11th, both my parents are still alive ... but my older brother killed himself in 2007 ... but yeah, 2018 ... REALLY bad year for me. Partly it was, ya know despite how I disliked the political climate, I had plenty of money, I had a job lined up and .... wooosh ... whole thing got pulled out from under me. Price of crypto dropped,hits on my site dropped, everything went wrong all at once.
So, I have had this car for 10 years now. I have called it the “car that poker built.” Each time I would win like a big poker tournament, I would do something to the car. All of a sudden, this year, not just one thing stops woking on the car, problem, after, problem, after problem ... I find myself in serious debt. Shitty ass local,mechanics, return the car to me and it still aint right brotha, and a $1500 bill.
I’m just out man, you feel me? Car comes with paid mechanics bills and warantees, suspension, brakes, head gasket. Enjoy my brotha, bad ass mfckin car. For sale cheap right now. I am done.
Hey good news, the blind cat that I inherited, that rando pisses ... like all over my house ... is still alive.