You know how everyone looks forward to summer?
Maybe you’re planning some much-needed time off work, weekends at the lake, a long-awaited vacation, or simply a few weeks of doing absolutely nothing because you’ve earned it.
Well, I was looking forward to my summer too.
And then all hell broke loose.
It started in June when my husband’s SUV developed some major issues and had to go into the dealership for repairs. They ended up having it for about six weeks.
Six weeks.
And when we finally got it back, we were approximately $10,000 poorer.
But hey, we had his vehicle working again. Surely things would settle down now.
Apparently, I was being overly optimistic.
At the beginning of July, my SUV’s engine decided it had had enough of this world and seized. The estimated cost for a rebuilt engine was another $6,300.
Okay, Deep breath. We’ll get the engine replaced and move on.
Except we didn’t.
The dealership ordered the replacement engine. When it arrived, they discovered they had been sent the wrong engine!
Yes, you read that correctly.
So, they reordered it.
And now we’ve been advised that the correct engine is on back order.
For how long?
They have no idea.
Apparently, my SUV decided it would like to spend a little more quality time at the dealership.
Then we had the duct work in our house cleaned. That cost about $500. The very next day, our air conditioner decided it wasn’t particularly interested in doing its job efficiently anymore.
So, naturally, we had to have that serviced too.
Thankfully, that bill was only about $200.
At this point, I was starting to wonder if my house, my vehicles, and my bank account had all gotten together and decided to see how much stress I could handle.
And then came my sleep apnea test.
I got the results and was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. Now I have an appointment to get a machine for a two-week sleep study. That appointment will cost another $300.
Once that is completed, I’ll move on to purchasing a machine that I’ll apparently be using every night for the foreseeable future.
Estimated cost?
About $2,000.
At this point, I’m almost afraid to answer the phone.
So, let’s add it all up.
Two vehicles. House maintenance. Air conditioning. Medical equipment.
Thousands and thousands of dollars.
And this was supposed to be my relaxing summer.
I suppose there is a certain irony in spending my summer trying to improve my sleep while losing sleep over how much everything is costing.
But what do you do?
You take a deep breath, consolidate everything you can, make a plan, and start plugging away at it.
Will it take months to pay everything off? Probably.
Could it take a year or more? Quite possibly.
Am I hoping nothing else decides to break, malfunction, seize, leak, quit or otherwise cause me financial grief in the meantime?
Absolutely.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who has experienced one of those periods when it seems like everything happens at once. You deal with one problem, breathe a sigh of relief, and then another one appears around the corner waving its little hand and saying, “Hi! You thought you were done with us?”
Sometimes life just throws a whole bunch of lemons at you at once.
Unfortunately, nobody seems to have included a recipe for lemonade.
So, you do what you can. You deal with one thing at a time, keep moving forward, and remind yourself that this too shall pass.
Eventually.
Hopefully.
Preferably before anything else breaks.
And maybe next summer I’ll actually get that relaxing summer I was looking forward to.
Because after this one, I think I’ve paid my dues.
And as Tigger would say, TTFN. Ta-ta for now!