If I couldn't get my trunk latch to open, it would be nearly impossible for me to do grocery deliveries for Walmart through the spark app, and that was my second biggest income, after passenger pick-ups. Plus, if I picked up a passenger with luggage, I had to have a place to put it.
Even if I could find another job, I could not see going to work for anyone else after doing what I did since November of 2020 and making 3 times what I was making before. Why would I want to downgrade? I just needed to get the car back on the road at full force again.
I told CarMart that if they couldn't help me with this car, then I would have to get another one. They said I had not had the car long enough to trade in. But, they were willing to fix it for me and add to the payments.
So, one morning, as I was waiting for food at Dunkin' Donuts to deliver to a customer, a guy who worked for Orr Classic of Texarkana came in. He was a salesman.
I engaged him in conversation and he told me to come by and see what he could do for me.
I went to his place of business, and after doing the research he said he could get me a new car, but it would cost me about $4,000 for a down payment, unless I could find a co-signer.
All I had was $3,000 left in my brokerage account. It was steadily growing, but it didn't help me right now, when I needed it.
So, I called my mom and asked her to co-sign. Surely, she would! After all, I had paid her back every penny of every time I had borrowed from her. And, I hadn't been behind on a bill, except my rent - which was caught up - since I got rid of my ex in 2013. Surely, 10 years of good credit accounted for something!
She talked it over with my step-dad, and came back with "No."
I was angry. This was my life we were talking about! Without my car I couldn't make a living. This was life or death!
I told my step-dad, "Fine. If you don't help me, then I will be forced to work a LOT of overtime until I can do it myself. I will have no time for you or mom. So, don't expect to see or hear from me for a while. And don't get mad when you invite me over and I say "No."
I started putting out feelers for help in doing what I needed to do to get another vehicle. And, of course, I got negative reactions from a lot of people.
But, God was in control. I knew this. And, I knew He would find away, if I kept walking toward my goals. After all, there was nothing I was doing that would displease Him. I was just wanting to make a living.
And, I really believed that God had led me to doing all of the driving gigs at the right time, just when He knew I would need it because of my impending bad health problems. So, I felt compelled to keep doing it.
After about three weeks of doing what I could to work, and stewing in my anger at my mom's rejection, the guy from Orr called me back. He had a vehicle he wanted to sell to me. It would only cost me $1,000 down. The payments would be $421 a month, which was about what I was already paying on the PT Cruiser at Car Mart.
I felt like this was an answer to my prayers.
My air conditioning unit in my PT Cruiser was going out, and it was still warm outside. There was no way I was going to drive customers with my windows down and risk the tips I needed to make to sustain my pay. Besides, what if it rained on a warm day and I had to keep the windows up? So I took the car back to CarMart and I bought a 2017 Ford Focus from Orr Classic.
I spent $1,000 out of the "God Account" to do this, and that left me with nearly $2,000 to work with for emergencies.
I was so proud of myself!
When you do driving gigs like I do, it is possible to do deliveries in any car you are in. But, in order to do passenger pickups, you have to be in a car that is registered in your name. So, I had to wait for the tags before I could work full force again. I figured I could manage for the six weeks it would take for me to get my tags in, and only use what I had to out of the God account to make sure my bills were paid on time. Deliveries only paid about half as much as doing passenger pick-ups, so I had to take a pay cut while I waited.
Going from $170/day to $65 a day was hard. I still had to keep up with the maintenance and gas while I worked. But I was making it.
The check engine light came after a few weeks. The fuel injector was replaced on the car for free by the dealership, since I had just bought the car.
When I finally went in to check on my tags, they were not yet available. It was November. I was getting anxious. My savings was getting slowly depleted. I prayed and had faith. It was all I could do.
By December, I was getting angry. Why were my tags taking so long? Did Orr Classic not realize that my life was hanging in the balance? When I told them this, they laughed and said, "Oh, nothing is THAT bad!"
That was easy for them to say, but if I couldn't pay my bills, I was going to end up on the streets, and my savings was nearly gone!
They finally informed me that the dealership had bought the car from a guy who used to live in California. When they sent to California for the title, California sent the title to the previous owner's old address in California, instead of to the dealership, so they were having to file for a lost title. This would take months. They apologized and agreed to cover my car payments for me while I waited.
There was nothing I could but wait. The car payment helped, but that didn't pay my other bills that I was slowly starting to worry about.
I prayed to God even harder for relief. I continued to have faith, but I was asking, "What are You doing and why?".
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