Perpetual Ruminations

Monday

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Frustrating as hell, but kind of funny, too. I'm talking about the van from my post yesterday. I was going to stop by the dealership today after work and tell him that it didn't work out, and that we would not be able to get it now. I was just about ready to leave work, when my brother showed up. The brother who was going to help us out, but then bailed at the last minute.

He had offered on his own, and even after asking him a couple of times, he continued to say he could help us get a vehicle. Then, when it came right down to it, and it was time to go over and sign the papers, he bailed. At first, he was just going to use his credit card for the purchase, but then he decided he wanted to use cash. He had gotten the last portion of his student loan, and had ample cash on hand, but needed to get to the Bank this morning before we went and picked up the vehicle. If he had used the card, we could have picked it up on Saturday already, instead of waiting for him to go to the bank.

Sunday, I stopped to talk to him about fishing. We had plans to go out on Wolf Creek, close to home here, but it was very windy, so I didn't know if we would go or not. the plan was for him to pick me up at work, leaving the Jimmy for Rhonda to drive home, and he would drive me home after fishing, since it was just a couple miles further. When I got there, he was dressed and ready to go, so I gave him the message from Rhonda.

She wanted to meet him at the dealership to pick up the van around ten in the morning, before she went to work. That's when everything took a dive. He read the note and then told me he couldn't help out. He had the cash, but since this is almost the end of his schooling, he would need to pay back the student loan by late summer, and he didn't know how soon he could find work. Of course, this was always the case, nothing had changed, except he had logged onto the site and seen the size of his loan. His reasoning to cancel out our deal was simple, he wanted to save the money from the loan so he would have enough to make payments on the loan. I know, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to take out the loan, then save the money and use it to make payments, especially considering the interest. But, I could understand his thinking, he could hold on to the money and use it to make payments, buying him time to find work.

I also know my brother, and he has been really enjoying not having to work. So, I assume the rest of his reasoning is to have enough cash on hand to hold off on getting a job, so he can enjoy the summer, then look for work in the fall. What ever his reasoning was, I was understanding and took the bad news about the vehicle with no complaints. Then, when I was going to drive the Jimmy back for Rhonda and have him drive me out fishing, he sprung more on me. He had changed the plan, but never informed me. So, now I would have to drive myself to a different place to fish, then drive back to pick Rhonda up after work. To top if off, we had to drive halfway across the lake, and it's a big ass lake. The wind was howling fiercely and creating some pretty large drifts, but we made it over to spot about half way across. Then, he tells me he hasn't fished this lake and has no idea where to go.

This was the part that got my dander up, but I squelched it back down and we fished for a couple hours. Then, I had to go to pick Rhonda up, and made it in time. I gave her the news on the van, and we discussed other options, but we were not very happy with my brother backing out. Like I told Rhonda, if he wasn't sure, he shouldn't have offered to help out. Especially after we each asked him again if he was sure he could do it. He was sure he could put it on his card, and we could pay him back as long as it was enough to cover the payments and get it paid off before the interest kicked in.

Now, however, he couldn't put it on the card, but he didn't really say why. For that matter, he didn't say why he couldn't use cash, since we would be paying him off with payments large enough to cover his loan payments. Like I said, it's my opinion that he had looked at the size of his full loan and it flared his anxieties up, and he was in a fit over the thought of having to pay back such a large sum of money.

Today, he called, but Rhonda was just ready to leave for work, so she did not answer the phone, just noted who called and headed out the door. She told me my brother had called and that she had not answered it because she was heading out. She suspected he wanted to go fishing or something, in order to see if I was really pissed at him or not. I told her I wouldn't be able to go fishing, I had too much work to do when I got home. Besides, it was windy as hell again. Nice, but windy.

I was just about to leave the guardhouse, when here comes my brother. I finished signing out and walked the yard while he tagged along and talked. He had printed out a copy of his loan, so I would know he wasn't just bull-shitting me on how much he owed. I really didn't need to see it, I had not considered that it may be a tall tale to get out of the deal. No, I just assumed he had panicked when he seen the amount due, like I said.

Then, he took out another slip and went over his credit card he was going to use at first, before he had changed his mind and was going to use cash. He had the interest all figured out, and if we could pay it off in a year, we would be set, but if it went over a year, it was twelve percent on the balance. We discussed how much we could pay and he said that it was up to me, if I didn't mind paying the interest. So, we went over the purchase, and ended up right back were we had started when he first offered to help us out.