Today, I kinda had a day off and since our daughter was at the grandparents, my wife and I went to have lunch together. Our car has had a little problem with the air-conditioner lately (not working) and after changing the relay switches, I was out of skills to fix it. We dropped it into a repairer to take a look while we dropped into a shopping centre where it was cooler and grabbed a small bite to eat.
Air-conditioning is not much of a necessity in life and it is not needed much in Finland at all (considering I am Australian) but, people are acclimatised to much cooler weather, myself included these days. 25 now feels like 45. I can cope okay with this but the other day we were on a slightly longer trip and even with the windows down, my daughter almost passed-out. My brother (@galenkp) is also going to be here in the middle of summer and with the car being a little squeezy already, it is going to be a sauna.
So, after lunch we walked back to the repairers to see what they have done only to find, they hadn't done anything. It is the compressor and with work, it is going to be nearing 1000 euros to repair.
~1000€
Even the repair guy was a little taken aback by the price of the part. It is crazy really considering if I was to go and sell my car today, the most I would get for it is about 5000 euros. That means that to fix the air-con, it is going to cost me 20% of the value of the car. Bloody ludicrous.
So, Now I am in a stupid situation that I really, really do not want to be in at the moment. My plan was to keep this car until I can afford to buy one I actually want (an electric car) which I figured would be in a couple years, depending on business/Steem but, there are problems starting to appear that are going to be expensive to repair. In Finland, there is a compulsory yearly check up that covers all major points of the car and without passing, the car is not able to be registered. There are pros and cons to this and the major con is holding becomes expensive. Kind of the opposite to cryptocurrencies.
And here is my next problem as I don't want to use any crypto for this issue at all, whether I get it repaired or, trade it in on something that will get us through meaning, safe, reliable and with room for a pram. Crypto for me represents our future and to spend it on the needs of today is to admit defeat in a way as it means that I am borrowing from the future. Sure, it is mine to borrow but, it is the concept of it that I see akin to borrowing from a bank, especially since what I would be using is likely going to not only increase in value, but increase heavily. This makes me loath to use it.
Although an air-conditioner is a small thing, it is these kinds of real-world events that will slowly bleed holders out of Steem as once they start easing their life with it, it is very easy to continue to do so and there is not necessarily an end to that process. As I have said, Steem is not ready for me to live off yet and in my head, using it now means that I have failed to deal with the world without it.
This time last year I could have been in the very same situation (I was) yet Steem was not an option at all as I had so little and the value was so low. I think this is the same for most people here as it wasn't too long ago that there was no revenue stream here at all. It is pretty cool really that some people are able to improve their lives with Steem but, I am just not ready I think so, I will have to find another way to get by, as I have hundreds of times in the past in similar situations.
I am lucky that I am not out of options yet though and I have a chance to potentially force a few more classes and do a bit more work to either cover the cost of repair or change. I might also go through what we have here and see if there is anything of value we can do without. It would be nice to have an even more minimalist life perhaps.
My wife is a little worried about it all but I am decidedly less so as I think that in the end, I do what I can, I go through a little discomfort and, it will work out the way it works out. I take the view that all the work I am doing now will be able to create enough space in my future that 1000€ is not going to put stress on our finances too heavily but it is stupid that it must be now as two years ago, it would have been fin as we even had some savings. At the end of the day, it is just money right?
It is a shame not having it affects so many lives negatively but, not having it might also make us look for more innovative and personality developing solutions than we would if we could just pay someone to fix all our problems.
I will go for a walk with the dog and think a little more on it. That is at least cheap enough to do.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]