What a day this has been! I had a full day of stuff planned, and every bit of it went down the drain when we headed out to town. We were headed to get a bite to eat and to purchase some mesh side rails for Ellie’s toddler bed. I’m ditching the crib and moving her to her toddler bed because last night she got her feet hung in the slats on the crib railing, and she couldn’t get them out. I’m not letting that happen again, so putting her toddler bed together with railings all around is my next option.
So like I said we were heading out to buy those. We stopped at the gas station, Hubby pumped gas, and we thought we were good to go. I turned the ignition over, but the truck wouldn’t crank. Hubby hopped out and listened. Nope, no fuel pump whining.
I had to call my dad to come get us, and I hauled Ellie inside the store for the 45 min wait. It was absolutely too hot to have her outside waiting on him, and I felt like I lost 10lbs in the few minutes we stood outside today. Who needs diet pills that work when you can stand in place outside and sweat the pounds away? My Dad took us to lunch then Hubby called Cartee Towing. They were fast as always, saying they would get to us in 15 minutes, but they actually beat us across town to the truck. I’m hoping towing is covered under my Nationwide policy, so I need to call them to find out.
Anywho, I just dumped $320 (including tax) into a new fuel pump, and Hubby is outside replacing it right now. I do have my Dad’s car, so I’ll end up running errands in a bit. I wasn’t expecting to have a vehicle tonight. I was just going to have him stop by the store before dropping us off so I could get the stuff we need to get through the night, but he had my step mom meet up with us at the restaurant and gave me his Jeep Cherokee.
My day was pretty much lost, but it could have been worse. I’m just glad this happened on Saturday so Hubby has the rest of the evening and tomorrow to fix it without having to miss work on Monday. He’s out of work enough these days due to things being slow to miss an extra day.
Right now I should be getting ready to go to Missy’s funeral, but we’re not going to make it. Hubby headed to work this morning fully intending to work a few hours then come home for the memorial. Instead he dropped everyone else off at work and headed back home because the Blazer started spewing coolant.
We’ve got a hole in the radiator. We can buy a new radiator for $220 or we can have my cousin’s radiator shop fix it and flush the system for $75. You don’t have to guess which option we’re choosing. I’ll just have to put off buying the Christian books I was going to order for my Mom’s birthday until next week.
I don’t know the logistics of it since that’s Hubby’s domain, but I know there’s a hole to patch, there’s a missing plastic piece, and the plastic piece has to be ordered. The piece will be in Monday, so we’ll be Blazer-less for the weekend.
We can get my Dad’s truck to use this weekend, but he’s working a 12 hour shift today. I could probably track him down to get the truck keys if it were an emergency, but I’m not calling the nuclear plant and hunting him down because I want to make it to a funeral. We’ll go to the memorial her family and friends are having to remember her later this week.
Just great. We’re about to experience our first major repair job on the Blazer. I guess I should consider us lucky that we haven’t had any major issues in the year and 1/2 we’ve owned it.
Now, we’ve got a problem that’s going to be pretty expensive. The heat went out now when it’s freakin’ cold as hell. The problem is the temperature control module in the dash, and not only is that apparently a common problem with Blazers, but it’s an expensive and aggravating fix. I’ve been quoted prices ranging from $400-800 to fix it at a shop.
Thank god Hubby is the backyard mechanic type who does all that himself. He’s aggravated that he’s got to take the dash apart, but he’s been needing to do that for awhile anyway so he can replace the leaking heater core and fix a speaker that’s loose. He might as well do it all at once.
The part is a little less than $200 though, so now I’ve got the headache of figuring out where I’m going to find the $200. I guess I need to go over our budget tonight and figure out where I can find the cash. I just keep reminding myself it could definitely be much worse, so I should be happy it’s not that bad.
Hubby just came in here and asked me if I’d be willing to part with my 1993 Saturn sc2. Even though the car has been out of commission for about 3 years now, it’s my baby. I’ve held onto it hoping one day I could fix it up again and do the things I want to it. I’ve always wanted to throw a custom turbo system into it. Seriously, turbo Saturns are awesome, I fell in love with this one years ago, and I’d love to do that to mine.
Hubby knows I’ve held onto it, and in a way he has, too. We dropped so much cash in that car it’s ridiculous, but a lot of it was Hubby’s fault. He thought he was a race car driver in it, and because of that we went through 5 transmissions. He’d sling the pin through the bell housing, knock a hole in it, and we’d have to replace it. The last one we finally had the pin welded in place, and then we dumped a ton of cash into the car. We rebuilt the motor and the backup motor we had, beefed up the suspension (and the Saturn sc2s use coilovers), ripped out the interior and replaced it, and did a ton of other stuff. It didn’t matter though. The pin might have been welded in place, but Hubby still ended up breaking it. That’s when we parked it and decided it wasn’t worth fixing at the time, but I always had hopes we’d fix it again one day.
Now Hubby has a friend that wants to buy it as a parts car. He’s willing to give me $500 for it, and honestly, it’s not even worth that much. We’ve beat it black and blue, and if I do sell it to him I won’t allow him to pay me that much. See what a good person I am? *eye roll* But now, I have to convince myself to part with it. It’s going to be a really hard thing to do.
