PTSD

you had it all in the back of your Ford

Sorry, Loyal Reader, meant to be back by now but the car kind of decided that everything should go wrong at once. So I'm out the cost of:

Serpentine belt
Oil filter (Seriously, for as much as these cost, they ought to be gold plated or something)
Oil (5 quarts, and I was *not* going to pay $35 for Mobil synthetic, which is the only Mobil they had at Meijer on a Sunday night, so Pennzoil it is.)
Water pump (Yeah, the second driveway stain was antifreeze. Insert heartfelt profanity here.)
Antifreeze (See above.)
Various hoses (Some of which I've never heard of, but whatever.)
Two windshield wiper arms and blades (Um, yeah. There was a sale, so what the hell. Replaced them both.)
Two evenings (Mostly my dad's time, but still, it sucks.)
Two gallons of gas (One while I drove the car to heat up the transmission, and one while it ran in the barn to check the radiator.)
One coffee crisp bar (it's the least I could do, after my dad spent his first days back from vacation under my car and covered in grease. Thankfully, he wore his uniform, so at least my mother doesn't have to try to clean his clothes afterward.)
No whining about the loss of my lovely new Northwest Ontario off-road guide (Oh, but it was such a *nice* mapbook. And I really, really liked the handy "bears will not eat you at this lake" hints. Too bad for me that my dad liked it, too. He did insist on paying me for it.)

No luck with the transmission--when it goes, it goes. There's no sense in replacing it in a car that's as old as mine is, and as long as I'm careful it could last for years still. Or not. Right now, it only hesitates shifting into second, and that only just after it starts, so it's not dangerous or anything.

More about vacation (including photos of the Genius Nephew almost entirely managing not to fall in the lake) later. Right now, I'm off to catch up on 10 days of emails and listen to the new BNL album. In that order, I promise.

posted by Elizabeth @ 2:24 PM