Car trouble:
1 - My dad's GMC Jimmy - some kind of ball bearing or some such thing in his front driver side tire broke. He was here, visiting me, we were about a mile from my apartment. Took about three hours, but a friend of his brought a big trailer up and loaded his Jimmy on it. Short term fix cost about $161, long term fix (replacing whole front axle, big and small bearings, etc) cost another $900.
My dad says that the steering is so much more sharp than it had been and is glad he went ahead and did the whole shebang. His Jimmy has close to 200k miles, was bought used, and has been paid for a bit over a year.
2 - My tires -- My tires are low. I know all I need to do to fix this is find a tire pressure gauge somewhere and fill them with air. However, one of the tires had the hubcap put on in a weird way (it must be one of the newer tires) and the stem is not in a reachable spot.
So, I need to go somewhere where they have one of those tools to take the hubcap off and put it back on with the stem reahable. My dad suggests Walmart (where I bought my tires.) However, I really really don't look forward to sitting around for an hour or two just to get air in my tires -- so have been putting it off.
That one tire (with the strangely placed hubcap) is looking really low . . .
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New job:
Today was my second shift at the gym. Like last week's, it was completely uneventful. No one came in to workout . . so I had pretty much the whole time to read, or if I'd wanted to, I could have called someone and talked on my cell. The only things I really did was to fold towels that had been in the dryer, and start a new load of towels.
Last week I made it very shortly after 3:00 p.m. Today was a different story. At 2:54 p.m. my main boss saw me walking down the hallway and called me in to ask me to do some copying for him - and he needed it right then.
What was I going to say? Um, can't do that for you because it'll make me late for my other job that pays minimum wage. Yeah, that would be a NO.
So, I ended up getting there 10 minutes late. I'd told E that this was a possibility, but that I didn't think it would really happen. Of course, it did have to happen - luckily not on my first shift!
When I'm sitting in the gym wondering how I can make time pass faster . . I remind myself that the reason I'm doing this is to help me get to my house that much faster, as well as my other savings goals. That helps the time to pass just a bit more easily. 
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My carpooler started making noise a couple months ago about how she didn't like the 7a.m. leaving time and that she was going to find other rides. At the time, I told her that was fine - she needed to do what suited her needs best.
So, for the last 3 weeks or so, she's been riding with me pretty sporadically. Last week she rode with me twice - didn't give me any money. 
This week she rode with me twice, and gave me $5.
So, it appears that $40 of my extra income pool may dwindle to more like $10 - 15, or perhaps less a month.
The only way to change that would be for me to go in everyday at 8a.m. which would mean no time to workout at the gym in the morning. Not going to happen.
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I had to fill up today. I ended up paying an extra $.21 for it because I decided to pass up the station selling for $3.39/gallon to see if the station which had been lower in price the day before would happen to be lower again today. They weren't.
So . . . $3.41/gallon
Bought: 10.449 gallons
Odometer on 8/8/08 = 104,601
Odometer on 8/22/08 = 104,917
So, mileage would be 316/1050
Which equals ~30.09 mph
That is a bit less than last time, but almost all the driving was done in town.
I was also surprised to see a number over 10 gallons when filling up. I think thats the first time I've seen it go over 10 gallons since I can remember. I really thought I had a gas tank slightly smaller than 10 gallons. Maybe I really was smelling fumes coasting into the gas station. 
Car troubles, new job, extra$, gasoline
August 23rd, 2008 at 04:34 am
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:57 am 1219492664
You could tell the people in work that you're taking a class or something that requires you to leave work promptly at your normal quitting time so you can avoid being late for the 2nd job.
Finding someone to carpool with is really very hard. Not only do they, ideally, need to live as close as possible to you and work as close as possible to you, but their hours have to match yours. I was riding with my neighbor who lives directly behind me and works 2 miles north of me but his hours were different, and now that my summer hours ended last week, his hours are even more different (by an hour) so I'm driving solo again. I sure did get to know him, though, all that time spent together in the car!
August 23rd, 2008 at 01:20 pm 1219497611
Hmm.. I can't think of any kind of maintenance my car is due for other than the tires needing air. I suppose I could go ahead and get the oil changed a bit ahead of schedule, so the tires would be included in the wait time.
Several people at my main job already know about my gym job, so I really couldn't pass it off as a class. When I was taking personal training from E, my Friday sessions were at 3 with him, and I never was more than a minute or two late in 10 months. So, I'm really hoping that this situation won't happen again, or at least not very soon!
My carpooler and I live in the same apartment complex. We also have the same start hours for work -- she just doesn't have any interest in working out at the gym, while I do. In all honesty, I'm not *too* bummed about it, because she's a heavy smoker, and although she's never smoked in my car, the smell has started to infiltrate my car just from the lingering smoke fumes on her clothing.
August 27th, 2008 at 03:09 am 1219806576
Also, these days, employers want to cut your hours rather than risk paying you overtime. For your day job, are you on hourly, or salary?
August 27th, 2008 at 03:21 am 1219807277
I've been told that I can workout while on duty at the gym - as long as I don't get sweaty - so no cardio, but yes weights. So, yes, I could use a band and do all those things you mentioned.
My paystub shows my hourly rate, but I'm paid for 40 hours a week whether I'm there 38 or 41 -- so technically I'm salaried.