Car Diagnosis

 Not a leaky hose -- a broken cooling fan. 

Not too expensive, though: less than $400. Whew.

I'd been saving up money against the medical bills which we will owe (we're still negotiating with the hospitals), so we have $400. 

This is what it is like being lower middle class*. You manage to save, by scrimping and doing without, and then boom, some disaster strikes, and there goes that money.

I mean, I'm better off than if I hadn't saved the money (I would have had to put the repair on one of the credit cards I have been painstakingly paying off over the past two years). But it's discouraging.

 *And of course it's much worse for those who are actually poor, like many of my students. An unexpected $400 bill for most people is a disaster they might not recover from.