One Door

What's that old saying?  "One door opens as another one shuts."  That seems to be the recurring theme of 2010 for me, at least financially.  Today one door shut (the repair of the furnace) as another one opened (Ken had two flat tires on his car.)  It seems like we just can't catch a break with unexpected expenses right now.  Are we cursed?  One of the things that really annoys me about Ken's car is he's had an ongoing issue with one of his tires.  It just won't keep air.  He's had the tire replaced.  He's had the rim replaced.  Nothing seems to fix the issue.  When he went out to his car this morning and found the tires in the state they are, he totally lost it.  Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the car today because he was heading out to the other side of the state for work,  Poor guy had a five hour drive with nothing to do but stew about his car.  Now he's got to deal with the lousy dealership again.  We have two dealerships in the area and both of them suck ass.  Fun.

But right now I don't care because I have heat in my house again.  This wasn't the ideal way I had hoped to spend a day off, but I don't have three layers on right now and it feels great.  The repairman didn't get here until just after 3 this afternoon.  I wish I knew it wasn't going to be until then.  I would have worked a half a day.  But he finally showed, it was a quick fix and he was gone.  I did notice as he went over the bill with me that the part I needed I was being charged $320 for.  When I spoke with the other repair guy on the phone when he went to order the part, I was quoted $250.  Then he called me back to say the company he was getting the part from was going to charge him shipping and he wanted to tell me that he, in turn, was going to pass that charge along to me.  I didn't care.  I needed that part.  So $30 for overnighting it added on brought the part up to $280.  Where they got the $320 from is anyone's guess.  Once the repairman was gone, I called the office and talked to the billing guy.  He was really agreeable and told me he would put through a credit for the difference and send me a receipt.  I at least expected him to say he'd look into it and get back to me.  But I like this way better.