All my life, I have loved cars. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that my father was an auto mechanic and that he loved cars. We always had fun cars, cars that went really fast and looked really good. We also always had lots of cars, at least three and sometimes as many as five. For two licensed drivers, one of whom (my mother) rarely drove since my parents carpooled to work together. When she did drive, she drove one of the Corvettes (yes, my parents had more than one and still have them, actually).
I grew up driving a 1974 Camaro. I loved that car (my friend Haley took that picture for her photography class when we were in college together, where I was still driving it)! It was fast and fun, even if I didn't know the first thing about keeping it running. I could talk about and understand quite a bit in terms of concepts, but don't ask me to open the hood and actually do something. That's what Dad's are for, right?
And I love my car now (though it's not technically a car). I've had my shiny white Tahoe Z-71 for going on five years now. It's nearly paid for and still looks good. It's large enough to fit our entire family, including three boys in bulky car seats and the extra large puppy, if we're feeling that adventurous. And that was luck, by the way, seeing as how we had it long before the first child, much less the three kids who came along in less than two years. It's served us well, and we kind of assumed it would serve us well for a while.
Lately it's been having some issues. First it randomly refuses to start. On a date night, no less, when we had to call one of our babysitters to come pick us up and take us back home (good thing there were two that night, huh?). We get lucky and it starts long enough to be driven to the local garage. They diagnose an alternator problem, so it's replaced for a few hundred dollars. A month later, Connor and I climb in to go pick up the little guys from preschool. You know, the one that's only five minutes away and that we literally leave about eight minutes before school is actually over. It randomly doesn't want to start again. So this time it's towed to the garage, some bare wires in the ignition are blamed and it's repaired for less than a hundred dollars. All seems well.
And then the tires decide to fall off. Literally. On the long drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house at the lake, one of the rear tires blows and is left a shredded mess. The truck is actually resting not on a flat tire but on the bare rim on the gravel right-of-way. Nice. So Dad once again saves the day. He and my brother drive out (were about 30 minutes away) and change the tire. I drive it back home and promptly return to the same garage for a new set of tires. Lots of money later, we're rolling again. All seems well.
Until last night. On the drive back from our cousin's graduation party, we pull in to Grammy and Pappy's house to drop off Aunt Kelly and pick up Connor's things (he'd been on an overnight visit, originally for a tractor-pull that was cancelled due to weather and actually for a day at the indoor swimming pool). The truck simply shuts itself off and refuses to start. We call our resident auto mechanic who works Sunday nights (my Dad), try a few tricks, and eventually give up. Josh pushes it out of the way (several forward and backward attempts, because the power steering also dies and makes it nearly impossible to turn).
Our options are not fun. Josh's parents have an extra car, but his brother is using it. None of their cars would get all of the kids home in one trip anyway. We ditch the kids with Aunt Kelly, Uncle Luke and his girlfriend Lizzy. Then we borrow Aunt Kelly's car, load it up with our stuff, and drive back to our house thirty minutes away. We unload our stuff and check on the neglected puppy. Then I head back in Aunt Kelly's car while Josh drives his truck. I am nice enough to fill up Aunt Kelly's car, since it would be close to empty after our hour long drive.
And, truth be told, this part was actually fun, since I haven't been in a fun, sporty car in a while. Aunt Kelly is cool like that, she has a rather new Mitsubishi Eclipse with a lot of pick-up and great handling (not that I was testing it, of course). Let's just say I was definitely not in one of our trucks! It brought back fun memories of Camaros and Corvettes! And my recent Mustang obsession.
But that was the only fun part. For the third time in three months, my truck is not cooperating with the same issue. Lots of money and attempts to repair it seem useless at this point. A random starter issue that just will not go away. It was towed once again to the garage this morning, where they couldn't figure out the problem. They did, however, manage to get it started. An old mechanic's trick, so they joked, of simply banging hard on the fuse box (we assume it's an electrical / computer issue at this point that messing with the starter). We paid the towing bill, discounted, since we do quite a bit of business with this garage (they were nice enough to comp it totally last time).
And then we drove to another garage that specializes in electrical and computer issues. Josh and the kids were in his truck, and I was in mine. That's where it is now, waiting for the next diagnosis and hopefully repair.
Growing up, I guess I always took for granted that things worked. My Dad is a car guy, and he's handy with just about anything. That helps. Josh and I, were not car people. He's handy, but not when it comes to automobiles. I also took for granted that if one car was acting up, well, you simply just went deeper into the garage and got a different one. That was how it worked.
Unfortunately, not for us. Josh is having to adjust his work schedule around preschool drop-off and pick-up. We've got three kids in car seats within inches of each other in the back seat of his truck, which means they're constantly touching and annoying one another. They're also closer to us, so they're a whole lot louder. Fun times.
The good news is that we do have two vehicles that can accommodate our entire family, car seats and all. The bad news is that's it been inconvenient for Josh's work and for our schedule. I've always loved my car, but right now it's testing the limits. I don't ask for much, really, Just that it starts, you know, and then runs, like it's supposed to.