Saturn Opposed to Mercury

A Snapshot Of My Desk:

Next to the printer: a Notice of Arraignment from the Grant County Magistrate Court in Silver City for making an "improper turn to the right to [SIC] wide striking another vehicle."

On top of that, a renewal of auto registration card from the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles for my old Volvo. MUST BE RETURNED BY: 8/19/2012, it reads.

To the right of the mousepad: A packet of information I received yesterday from the credit union I joined last week to get a loan for partial payment on my *new* car.

On top of that, the renewed registration sticker for the coming year for my old Volvo, which I discovered had been picked up by a salvage company two days before I renewed registration online.

Sitting on top of my datebook: A scrap of paper scribbled with my username, password, special security question answer and phone number of the credit union I just joined, along with my application number, length of term of loan, and monthly payment.

Moving clockwise around, we have a copy of the signed application I sent back to the credit union yesterday, and a list of things to do, some done, some not, none crossed off:

Renew rental
Credit for new tires?
Email address of the claims department of the insurance company, where I have twice sent copies of the invoices for the new tires and spare I bought ten days before the accident.
Get financing
Get email proof of insurance for new car

And on the last pile of papers, the specs for the 2009 Hyundai Accent I would appear to be buying, with a receipt of my deposit underneath it. Then there's a handwritten sheet with the phone number for the claims department of the Hartford, phone number for the car rental place and the cost of my new insurance policy, a mere $350 more than it used to be.

Under that is my old insurance policy and a letter giving me the breakdown of the amount of money the Hartford are paying for the Volvo, giving the value of the tires as zero.

The only non-car-related piece of paper in sight, but having to do with Mercury and communication just the same, is a notice from the Post Office that my mail forwarding order will expire on September 30, and that I should notify my correspondents of my new mailing address. This would be all very well, except it's from last year, and this year's change of address form goes to November 30. Somewhere here, I feel is the explanation of my receiving exactly six pieces of mail in the last two months.

So there's Saturn opposed to Mercury in MY life, and there's a week to go before it perfects. Did I mention that's the same day as my scheduled court appearance?

Mars and Saturn Conjunct Above

A bit late with this one, as it happened more than a week ago, but as the two malefics squared my midheaven, it was particularly nasty for me and I've been in recovery ever since.

The accident - me turning into the dirt road on which I live and banging into a neighbor making a left hand turn on his way out - that demolished my poor old Volvo was on August 6th, and sent me into a complete tizzy. What seemed to be good news, however, was that no citation was issued and my clean driving record would remain clean.

That was without Saturn crawling his way towards a square with my midheaven, which perfected on Friday the 17th as a police car drew up in the driveway and I was handed a notice of arraignment ordering me to appear in traffic (I hope) court on September fifth, which just happens to be the date Saturn opposes my Mercury exactly.

And the date the notice was written? August 15, when Mars squared my midheaven directly and with Mercury sextiling Neptune, I was searching every Craiglist in New Mexico for a decent used car, congratulating myself that at least my insurance wouldn't be going up much.

Saturn Opposed to Mercury

This one doesn't perfect till September 5th, but for once I can make a totally accurate prediction: unless the Grant County courthouse is struck by lightning or swept away by flood (oh FAT chance!) before that date, I shall be appearing there at 8:15 am to answer charges of making an illegal wide right turn onto the dirt road where I live, thus colliding with a pick-up truck driven by a neighbor about to make a left-hand turn onto the "main" road.

And, of course, I have two weeks left to get more and more depressed about it while I attempt to buy a *new* used car, and when I'm not obsessing over those two things, I can move on to wondering exactly what treats Saturn opposed to Venus will be bringing me at the end of September.

Mercury Sextile Uranus

Well here we go again with Whenever-I-Feel-Like-It astrology, but hey, we all do the best we can do, right? <choke>

All I need to do to give me a panic attack at the moment is to see Mercury showing up anywhere in a transit search, and when I saw this for this morning all I could think about was getting home safely after playing tennis.

Since my accident of two weeks ago today, I've been obsessed with the - for me - horrific task of buying a "new" car, veering from a Honda CRV with 149,000 miles on it to a reasonably new Nissan Versa and then switching gears (ha!) when I get feedback from other people.

Living in Silver City means the closest (!) big cities with auto dealers are Las Cruces (two hours away), El Paso (three hours away) and Tucson, a mere three and a half hours away.

Living in Silver City also means that when you go to rent a car (from the only rental agency in town) you request a compact and get a Town & Country minivan, as that's the only thing they have available. This puts paid to any notions of driving to any of those big cities to see what might be available.

So - and this is the VERY abridged version of the last two weeks - I decided last night I would call the body shop where my poor old Volvo was towed and ask if there had been any structural damage to the car, thinking I would pay for the repairs myself and at least be driving the devil I know rather than one I don't.

And what was the manifestation of Mercury sextile Uranus, you might ask? Being told by the body shop that the car was towed away for salvage on Friday, meaning there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that I have to bite the bullet and buy some kind of new used car ASAP, even if it does mean driving a Greyhound Bus to look at the *choices*.

Saturn Square Midheaven

Ah yes, the good old evaluation of goals, and what better date to begin posting again than the day before this aspect becomes exact? Do I take the $2,887 the Hartford is offering me and attempt to buy a *new* (read different) car, or do I take the $2,580 they're offering me and pay the additional $1,3000 required to fix my beloved old Volvo myself, and hope and pray I never have another accident and nothing ever goes wrong with it again?

The aspect perfects at 3:00 am tomorrow, giving me all day and most of the night, the way things are going, to obsess over the decision and scour Craigslist cars-for-sale postings within 350 miles of Silver. Yesterday I called the Hartford and left a message saying I'd take the larger sum. Last night I started thinking I'd rather take the lesser and have a car again soon.

I suppose I'll just wait and see what comes out of my mouth when (and if) I get the call back. Wrong attitude?