who's a chump? me, that's who I've decided to spend a bit of money on my car. Poor Fred has been sitting un-driven and neglected for the past several months, and even before that I didn't have a lot of cash to put into maintenance. Last winter somebody smashed a window and removed my car stereo. Last spring somebody tipped the whole car up on its side on the sidewalk. A new window and an engine "shampoo" (to clean up all the spilled oil) was all I could afford last year.

The inspection report from that time tells me that I have a broken tie rod, need rear brakes, my muffler needs attention, and my parking brake is broken. After talking to a couple people, I hear that the broken tie rod should be my first priority - something about not being able to steer at all if the next one goes too (that might explain all the rattling when I drive on the highway, too). So that'll be next week's paycheque.

I still had the old radio and planned to get it re-installed at some point. Today I did just that. They make you pay in advance for car audio installations at A&B Sound, so I dished out fifty bucks yesterday when I made the appointment. But I go to pick up Fred tonight and although they have installed the old radio, they tell me it doesn't work. It worked fine before it was taken out so it didn't even occur to me that it might be broken now.

So I paid fifty dollars to have a non-functioning radio put back in my car. Chump.  | ¶ 12:27 a.m.