September 15, 2005

• I know this will sound lame, in light of hurricane Ophelia hanging off the coast of the Carolinas for at least 3 days now. The Big Island of Hawaii is under a flash-flood warning today. For the entire time Ophelia’s been hanging off the Carolinas, we’ve also been dealing with nearly constant rain, with occasional heavy rains.

  
  

  With these constant rains, those of us using the DISH Network to receive TV are mostly unable to watch satellite channels & even lose local channels at times. Since I’m not a soap fan, it leaves me with very little to watch during the day. Today, I’ve been watching the court shows. I normally have movies or stuff on SPIKE TV on. I’m also keeping track of the weather through the Internet on NOAA, instead of using the Weather Channel on TV.

  
  

  It’s good to see that Ophelia is finally beginning to move away from the shoreline, but its forward motion is back down to 3mph. I can imagine what North Carolinians are having to deal with. Storm surge, heavy horizontal rainfall & constant high winds have to be making the residents weary, at the very least. I empathize with you all.

  
  

  With the heavy rains here, some of my plans for the day have been postponed. We need to ready my son’s car for shipping, dropping it off at the docks tomorrow. I’m buying a new set of tires, because the front 2 have poor tread (front wheel drive). I bought it that way, in case you’re thinking he’s been burning it off.  He only recently figured out how to do that & has been with the thought in mind that he’s getting new tires.  I’ve already read him the riot act for that. I told him it was lame for him to do, since anyone can, especially uphill, on wet roads. If he could do it downhill, on dry pavement, then I’d think he had talent. My late husband could, with Michelin radials, in the 1970s, in 2nd & 3rd gears!

  
  

  Another reason he needs new tires is because what’s on there now are low-profile. Those are absolutely stupid, since they cut gas mileage. How so? Because the smaller the height of the tire, the more revolutions it has to make to travel the same distance, causing the engine/drivetrain to have to work harder to accomplish the same thing, so therefore having to use more gas to travel the same distance. I hope I’ve explained that clearly enough.

  
  

  Since I’m getting the tires in Pahoa, about 5 miles away, I don’t have an issue with going after them today. Who knows, maybe they won’t be very busy, since most will be staying indoors & off the streets, so we won’t have to wait long. I’m waiting for my son to finish washing his 2nd load, so I can drop him & his wet clothes off at the laundromat to dry them while I get the tires. He’ll have to wait awhile once his laundry’s done, but tough! I’m paying for the tires for him, so he can be a tad inconvenienced.

  
  

  Tomorrow, I have to follow him into Hilo. First, we’ll stop at Wal-Mart, so he can get some new boxers (why he needs more right now, after I bought him some just a few months ago, I don’t know) & new wiper blades. The ones on his car are hard, so scream when first turned on & don’t clear the windshield very well. I’m going to get silicon ‘lifetime warranted’ ones… possibly the triple-edge ones. He doesn’t need to be driving the car at all in the “Mile-High City” at all with poor tires & bad wipers. Oops… the car also needs an oil-change, but I don’t know if we can get that done at the same time as the tires! Just called them. They said, “No problem!” Cool!

  
  

  Incidentally, the car is actually mine. I bought it, it’s in my name, & I’ll be carrying the insurance on it, since for him to get his own would cost over twice what I’m paying for both cars! At one point, we looked into him buying a NEW Hyundai Elantra in Denver, for under $14k. Unfortunately, I’d have to co-sign the loan. Also, the cost for the insurance would be in excess of $3.8k for 6 months! If he missed a payment, it would fuck up my credit rating. It would also make him ineligible for the ‘no credit’ student loans. Again, this would mean I’d either have to co-sign, or take out a ‘Parent-Plus’ loan that I’D have to repay (not him). All of this would fuck up my loan potentials for my construction loan & mortgage loan for my new house. NO WAY!!! I want my new house! I’ve waited way to long for that.

  
  

  My son’s already been pre-approved for $22k for this school year through Sallie-Mae. Unfortunately, the interest rate is higher than the regular school loans, but there’re ways to fix that when he’s close to graduating. One way is to consolidate them, getting a fixed rate at 9%. That’s what I did. Also, to make payments against the interest instead of deferring. Hopefully, the financial counselors there will be especially helpful in his situation.

  
  

  It’s not that I don’t want to help him… I’m just not rich. Even though my income has gone well up from what we’ve been living on all these years, I’m still limited as to what I can afford & don’t want to get myself into financial trouble again. Besides, because I’m a 100% permanently disabled Veteran, my son qualifies for cash assistance for school, in the current amount of $803/month. Besides the the Federal Financial Aid (PELL grants), Stafford loans & the student loan, he should have more than enough to finance his school & cover his living expenses. I counseled him in putting the student loan money into a separate savings account, to only use if he REALLY needs it. If he’s good at budgeting his spending, he shouldn’t have to apply for a student loan every year. After all, that’s money he’ll have to pay back. He’ll just have to think each time he buys something for himself that he doesn’t really need whether he’s willing to have the long-term expense for having that item, that may end up costing him (with finance charges) 2 to 3 times what he paid for it!

  
  

  I hope I laid the groundwork well in his up-bringing. Only time will tell.

  • 8:48 pm
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