Time for a new blog post...

Ok so it has been about a month... Lots of stuff to think about.

Mazda's... talk about I hate you/I love you. For those that don't know both Stephanie and I drive Mazda Vehicles... Steph drives the MPV know as the Silver Bullet... or as it has more recently been named in the car pool... the Silver Short Bus... It is a 2003 model which I guess is getting older but really folks should the plastic be rotting out of the door locks? It also recently required repairs for an engine hose that failed. The last concern is for the engine oil leak that I can't seem to stop. What is the deal. The van is the van. A grocery getter. I am really not too worried about it. But I don't want it to fail. And I certainly can't afford a new car payment.

So I said Mazda's... Plural. The 3. The little car. The car that has been kept immaculate. The kids are not allowed to even have food in the car. A 2004 Mazda 3 with lower than average miles 57000. It's Never missed an oil change. In August the engine light comes on. The machine begins running rough. phuc. So I take it to the dealer there is a part.../ Valve that needs to be replaced. The Repair will be about $500. The service agent is kind enough to tell me that he thinks the clutch is getting soft and will need to be replaced in the next year or so... So we take her home... The next week the battery is completely dead... won't even take a charge. So we jump it and run over to Sears... Batteries are too damn expensive it was another $114 for the cheap option... no extended warranty. The very next day the clutch completely fails. As I was researching options for repair of the clutch I learned that Mazda put shit clutches in their cars. It is not unusual for them to fail at 17000, 33000, 60000 miles. I should be happy to have gotten as far as I did. So... $1500 and two weeks later the car is back and seems as good as new. For now.

In the past two months I have had to spend almost $3000 in Auto Repairs. Not great for a guy that just took a $18000 a year salary cut... How many hours am I going to work overtime to make that up...

Whatever.

More to think about but I have to go set up the basement for Braden's Homecoming dinner

which might mean more to blog about... That is if I am not at work when the deal goes down. I happen to be on-call this weekend.