Junk, Junk and more Junk

Okay, it's been a while. The Boston trip was successful overall, except for getting strep and my laptop screen deciding to spontaneously stop functioning. So now I've got it rigged up to my old desktop monitor and keyboard. Good thing I haven't sold them yet! Then the transmission in my car stopped working right in the middle of the H1 freeway during rush hour the other day. That was fun. Luckily I was able to get AAA to tow it home for free but now the transmission is gone and I need to figure something out fast. I guess I'll rent a car for a week and figure out what to do during that time. My brother Jon comes from Boston tomorrow for a visit, so it looks like I'll cab it to the airport and get the rental car there. At this point I'm thinking of just buying another car and donating the Aspire. Even though it only has 80,000 miles on it and the car is in good shape other than the transmission, I think that the time it will take to replace or reconstruct the transmission along with the price and stress factor won't make it worth it to keep the car. Overall it would be a few thousand dollars less expensive to fix the Aspire but I think I'll have to just bite the bullet and get a new(er) car. I've been looking at brand new cars, specifically the Toyota Echo and Chevy Aveo, but with the 12-14,000 price tag I think at this point I'll need to go with a car that 's a few years old. I just hope something like this doesn't happen again. At this point I'm most seriously considering a 2002 Echo for 8600 or a 2000 Echo for 6500. We'll just have to wait and see...