I don't even know where to start. To say it's been a rough day is an understatement. We had to say goodbye to a beloved family pet this afternoon. It was pretty awful and yet we haven't even been able to face that before things got even worse.
I met with the boys therapist alone tonight because the kids were with my Mom. I had to deal with the vet and they weren't going to be back in time to go to therapy. That's how I ended up there alone. We used the time to discuss ways of helping the kids and figuring out how to move forward.
After that I was supposed to pick the kids up at my parents house.
When I arrived, my Dad pointed out that I had a flat tire. I looked and sure enough, he was right. It's the same tire I had been nursing along for the last week or two. Until now it'd been a slow leak and I needed to fill the tire every couple of days. It had gotten worse because it was flat when I woke up this morning. I filled it and went on with our day, just like I've been doing recently.
I've been hunting for a used tire but this particual size is very difficult to find. I was trying to make things work until then.
My Dad and I were going to plug the tire before I headed home with the kids. To do that, we needed to swap cars in the driveway first. No big deal.
All I did was back the car out of their driveway and stop in the street in front of their house, waiting for my Dad to move the car. I had just put the car in park temporarily when I heard this whistling sound and the brake pedal went to the floor.
I had just blown a brake line and upon closer inspection, the other three brake lines were next. The car is no longer drivable and I don't have any idea what I'm going to do. The car is officially dead and beyond repair. It will hauled off to the scrap yard in the next day or so.
This is the last thing I needed to happen. I'm now without a car and dead in the water. I was trying desperately to avoid this. I had been working on trying to replace the car before it died and when financing fell through at the last minute on what feels like a technicality, those plans went up in smoke. I've reapplied and I'm waiting to hear back.
It's incredibly frustrating because it was approved but because I'm self-employed, the form of income verification accepted is three months of bank statements.
No big deal right? I turned those over and they successfully verified my income but a problem arose. I was financing this car on my own but the bank account was still in both of our names. Because I'm self-employed and financing the car alone, they have to divide the verified income half, even though it's entirely mine.
That was the downfall. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix for that. They need me to show them the exact same income for three months, but in a bank account solely belonging to me.
I've already moved everything around and approval won't be a problem in another three months. I was praying that I would be able to make it until then. That proved not to be the case tonight.
To be completely honest, as bad as this is, we're so incredibly lucky. The line broke and the brakes went out on the second press of the brake pedal. If I hadn't moved the car and just picked the kids up, the second press of the pedal would have been at a very busy intersection. As bad as this is, and it's very bad, that would have been so much worse. At least this way, no one was hurt.
That's my silver lining right now.
I'm barely hanging on and I don't know what I'm going to do. The kids are in way over their heads right now and there's no way to make this any easier for them.
I don't know when I've been this stressed out before and I don't know how we're gonna make it through this one. We have so many out of town appointments and I have to put as many of them on hold right now as I can, beginning with this Friday.
Gavin and I are going to gut our belongings from the car tomorrow and I'll have it towed to the scrap yard. They're going to give me about $300 for it and it will be done.
That will basically put back into the bank what it cost to put our ferret down today. Fuck. I haven't really even had a chance to talk about that with the kids and answer any questions they might have about what happened to Lemme. Everyone has been too preoccupied with the car.
I'm going to sleep tonight, incredibly thankful that no one was hurt and that it happened the way it did this evening. It could have been so much worse. I'm also unsure of what's next and how I'm going to get us out of this mess. It's very safe to say that I'm not in a good place right now..
