Why is it that when there is something wrong with a car, whatever seems to be wrong with it miraculously resolves itself the minute that you bring the car in to get repaired? Today was the last day I had before I needed to head back up north to house sit, so I thought I better find out what the clutch clicking noise was, as well as get the oil changed and tires rotated. Of course, when I brought it in, the clicking noise was nowhere to be heard. I spent 30 minutes trying to get the car to make the clicking noise in the clutch, but to no avail. I’m sure that the mechanic thought I was nuts yelling at my car to make a noise that it’s not supposed to make and I shouldn’t want to hear.
My gut tells me that it’s not the last I will hear of the clicking (although I’ll be perfectly happy if I’m wrong) so I decided to pass on the oil change and tire rotation as well. I’ll see if it comes back as I’m planning a couple of drives while house sitting, plus I have the drive up there. Either way, I’ll need to take the car in for an oil change and a tire rotation after this trip and I can make another attempt to figure out the issue if the clicking does come back by then.
After the car fixing failure, I decided I needed to work outside the house, but I wanted to test one of the other alternatives to the coffee shop. I opted for the library which worked out better than I thought it would. The hours are a bit short (it closes at 6:00 pm most evenings) and the most difficult adjustment was that it was too quite. I like background noise when I’m working and there just isn’t a lot of that in the library. These aren’t deal breakers and I think I can still work effectively there, so I think I’ll make that my first default choice when going outside to work from now on when visiting my mom.
The next morning I needed to head up north for the house sitting job. It was overcast and drizzling when I left, so the plan was to drive directly to the house without stopping, but as I drove north, the weather began to improve (a bit strange since the opposite usually happens). By the time I hit the Golden Gate Bridge the sky was blue and no matter how many times I cross that bridge, I have to stop when the sun is out. It had been quite some time since I had actually walked the bridge, so I decided to do that:
For those that have never walked the Golden Gate Bridge, when you reach the center part of the span, there are a number of suicide prevention help signs (with emergency phones below) to discourage people from jumping. It’s a jarring reminder with all the amazingly beautiful scenery from the bridge:
The two days were good to my finances as both were no spend days since I ended up skipping the car upkeep until I get back again. This puts me in a great position to get through the first month spending less than $50 which will give me a much needed emergency fund cushion going forward. I certainly have no complaints about how this minimum wage challenge has been going thus far…
Yesterday’s & Today’s Spending
Food: $0.00
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Misc: $0.00
Total: $0.00
Total Spending
Food: $18.52
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Misc: $19.00
Total: $37.52
Next article: Day 27: Dull Razor Blades
Jeffrey strain is a freelance author, his work has appeared at The Street.com and seekingalpha.com. In addition to having authored thousands of articles, Jeffrey is a former resident of Japan, former owner of Savingadvice.com and a professional digital nomad.
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