I thought I was serious and organized 🛴

Until that day of September when our family car broke down. It was only a few years old, but my wife could not get it to start again. We called the insurance, they got the car to a garage. And that is when the truth hit me: I have been a lazy, ignorant and disorganized individual.

Our car had a leak for months. At the same time our air conditioning was acting up. We assumed it was related and did not do anything. I was supposed to schedule an appointment at the garage but this is my wife main car so every time I had the motivation to call, I backed out because I did not know her schedule very well and didn’t know when to take the appointment. Months later, the car stopped working. The leak was actually the cooling liquid of the engine. The engine was drop dead. A full replacement was in order.

We were looking at a several thousands euros invoice. But the garage was reassuring: if we followed the official checkups since we bought the car, the car manufacturer would cover most of the cost. Guess what? We did not. We thought the checkups were every 20.000km (or so). Turns out it was every 10.000km…

Ok, lesson learned! I created a task to schedule a checkup every 10.000km. I am good at creating tasks.

Two days later, I see a missed call from the garage. That can’t be good. «The car you borrowed during the repair has been damaged». I was lazy, I did not check the car when they gave it to me, and did not check it when I gave it back. I have no way to know if this is really us or the person before…

Lesson learned for a few hundred euros!

While discussing with my wife about car checkups, we also discussed another checkup that needs to happen on cars in France to make sure all security elements are in order. When are they due for new cars? No idea, it is our first new car. Turns out it is due before the fourth anniversary. Last week. 😑

Lesson learned! An appointment will be scheduled and a recurring task will be created!

Wait a second. We have another car… The checkup was also due, we need to change a couple of things, and the car got vandalized yesterday in a parking. Rear view mirror and windshield wiper have been torn appart. The guy even took a dump next to the car! 💩

All those years I thought I had everything in order in all areas of life, keeping calendars and tasks lists. Turns out the car management was not part of this list! Can’t wait for when we will be able to live without cars! 🛴🚲