The New Baby!

I'm a proud new mamma!

Yesterday we put to rest Bessie. It was bittersweet, as I really hated that bitch for a good part of her existence but really wanted to treat her well the other part because, well, she was paid for and I liked not having a car payment. But she must have sensed my underlying resentment and did what all cars do faced with that situation, she hit me where it hurt - my pocketbook.

Let me tell you, a true test of a marriage is dealing with each other during the purchase of a car. If you can make it through the suckage-of-life that is the games the dealership plays, than you can just about make it through any marital crisis.

So yesterday we spent over 4 hours at the dealership waiting to put Bessie to rest. The question was, what was she worth? Luckily we got for her just about what it would have cost to repair her, so I'm happy. She really was an old cow, down in her years, ready to be put to pasture, as the saying goes...

And after signing our life away, this is what the proud parents drove home in...

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We even had time to drive to the forest and park it along a river just to get a beautiful picture of her! Ha! That's the color, too, Glacier Blue. Basically I have owned blue or silver cars, so why break the pattern now?

Hubby had only one request. He said, please do not name her after a cow.

Now what am I going to do? Any suggestions?

When it rains, it pours...

And it's MONSOON season around here...

Along with my blahs the past two weeks, I have been saying for this entire summer that I want my car (payment free) to last as long as possible. Why? Well, buying and remodeling a home costs money, and a new car and it's payment would be the last thing I would want on my plate at this time. Well, Saturday while sitting in DQ's drive-through, my sweet little Bessie decided to send me a message, "Hey fattie - too much ice-cream lately, I can't take it!" and begins to chug her way out of the lot. So I carefully maneuver her fragile frame to our local shop with fingers and toes crossed that it's just a loose wire or the simple equivalent. An hour later the CarX guy tells me that Bessie is having a mid-life crisis, what with the thought of rolling over to 100,000 miles, and she needs some cosmetic surgery - new plugs, wires, filters, and some flushing should do it, all to the tune of about $700. GULP. OK - whatever it takes to keep my sweet baby running.

Flash forward to Monday morning, me thinking Bessie will be just fine and dandy. Haven't heard anything by noon, starting to panic. Nothing by 1:30, the sweat is beginning to roll. Finally, 3:00 rolls around and the phone rings. Dave from CarX tells me the worst possible news - TWO, count them TWO head gaskets are cracked!!! I have no idea what that means other than the last time that happened to damn Bessie, it cost over a thousand dollars to have her big ass fixed! For the love of all that is good and holy, Dave, how much would this set me back? Well, I faint (good thing I was sitting in bed when he told me) because he believes it could be well over $2,500 to get everything worked out that is wrong with my stupid Bessie.

My Sweet Bessie's photo cred

Whoa is me! The love of my life, my vehicle, my relationship with Pontiac is coming to an end. Not that my relationship hasn't been bittersweet, but there is no way on this earth I am shelling out thousands of dollars to fix a problem on a car that I have already fixed once before. Especially since it boils down to being a manufacturer defect that they don't want to take responsibility for. You see, Bessie's "moisturizer" is called Dexcool (evil evil evil), and it basically corrodes her from the inside out even though it is supposed to keep her cool when the going gets tough. I have had my share of curse words with the big dealership that she comes from. I refuse to ever do business with them again. I tell everyone I meet my whoas and hardships when it comes to their refusal to help me out when my warranty was up by less than one month and they refused to fix what was essentially their problem.

So now I'm here with a broken car, a broken heart, and a broken spirit because I hate car shopping. I have to work a new car into my budget, along with find a way to pay for these astronomical housing repairs. And to top it off, my doctor calls and tells me a test result came back positive so I have to go back in 6 months for a second test! WAH! And these things happen in threes, don't they? So what's going to happen next?

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I think I could puke from the thought of it all!