Trucktruck Go Boom

(I did try to blog last night from my ipad since R was playing a game on our computer, but the ipad was glitching on this site)

So, a few weeks ago, I get stuck with our 1995 Toyota 4Runner when I have to go to Cleburne.  Generally Ray drives it to work because I go more miles in a day than he does and the truck gets something like 12 miles to the gallon.  I noticed that the truck was vibrating when I went above 50mph.  I thought, 'Well, THAT's new'.  so I tell R and blah blah blah, he adds transmission fluid? and that seems to calm it down for a couple of days.

On Tuesday, I went to my knitting group and he went to class. He came home and was all, 'Gah, the truck is gonna splode!!!'.  So the boys and I take him to work yesterday morning and I call my mechanic-He has been my mechanic since I was a teen and he is fair and good (David at D&H Auto Repair in Arlington if you need someone).  David says, 'Welp, usually when a car vibrates like that its the tires but I can't tell till I look at it.  Bring it in tomorrow.' so I say okay, hang up, and call Ray.

I tell Ray what David had said and we decide to take it up to our tire guy in town so we can see if that is what the problem is and save a trip to Arlington.  I get a call on the way home from tap class from R asking me to pick him up at the tire place.  Because sure enough one of the tires IS bald on one side.  But That's Not All!  The CV joints are in really bad shape and the Universal Joints are not even there anymore.  I think there was something about the drive shaft?  Apparently, it was a miracle that nothing had gone kablooie or that our engine hadn't just fallen out in the middle of the road.  R, understandably, didn't feel safe taking it on a 30 minute interstate trip to Arlington.  So, the guy at our tire shop has hired a mechanic to fix bigger trouble and he is gonna get it so that we don't risk dropping our transmission in the middle of the road.  But, from what I can tell, there is more work than that that needs to be done.

::SIGH::  I KNOW, logically, that having a cash car is cheaper since you only have to pay repairs and not a bunch of interest on a car payment each month, but this is hard!  I feel like we wouldn't keep having mechanical problems if we could afford a car payment every month.  We pay less on getting the truck fixed in a year than we would pay for a down payment, monthly payments, and higher insurance each year.

But, I am not gonna lie.  Sometimes I want something shiny and less than 5 years old.