[GarnetFloride]

Merry Christmas, This has been a wild one. On the way to my sister's house we got a call from her sister saying their dad needs to go into an assisted living place because his pneumonia is not getting better and needs 24/7 care. But this will cut off the income my wife was bring in for caring for him.

As the call is on our car throws a red light: Transmission malfunction: Service now. We take the next exit and happen to find a Big O Tire place which is where we get most of our car work done. The transmission is seized, but it's Christmas Eve and no one is open to get an estimate on a replacement. But that's okay a couple of cousins are able to pick us up to get to the party.

We get home and find big pile of presents on our doorstep but we find they are addressed to names we don't know. So we bring them in for safekeeping. Today I look around the apartment building and finding one with a dollhouse on the balcony give a knock but its the wrong door but they knew the family which was downstairs so the right family got the presents finally.

Now cinnamon rolls are baking for breakfast and starting dinner prep soon.

But somehow I have to figure out if I should replace the transmission on a 13 year old car which needs $4500 in suspension work too or replace the whole vehicle.

And find a way to make more money since the part-time job I have right now to open up time for caregiving won't be enough for all this, and it looks like caregiving won't be necessary for much longer anyway.

[rconti]

Hope things improve for you, and you have a Merry Christmas in spite of it all.

For what it's worth, it strikes me as very unlikely that the transmission is going to be less than an additional $4500. But you never know, it could be a simple fault - no sense in trying to make mental decisions before you know the math involved.

[rhubarbtree]

Hang in there. This is a difficult period of life, went through something similar not long back. Be sure to take care of yourself and have some mental “time off” this week.

[blast]

That's a bittersweet mix of troubles and sweetness. I hope the troubles sort out without too much heartache, and that 2026 brings many good things.