Another Repair Bill

There are times when I really hate my car and this would be one of them. Seems like everytime I turn around we are having to make more repairs on it. We just did a big repair on it 3 months ago and now it needs another one. Grr! This latest trouble started Tuesday afternoon as I was leaving work. I'm pulling out of the garage and notice that my check engine light has just come on. Not knowing what exactly this means I pull over to try and decide if this is a warning light that can survive 60 mile drive home or if it's something more serious. After reading in the manual that it has something to do with the emissions control system and that the car is safe to continue driving but should be taken in to be looked at as soon as possible, I continue my drive home. I make an appt to drop my car off the next night so it can be looked at on Thursday. Of course this would be the evening of our snow dusting that turns into a 4.5 inch downfall but we make it to drop my care off without incident. They must have had a lot of cancellations due to the weather because they called with the news about my car early Thursday morning. So $1000 later and two new 02 sensors later (whatever the heck they are), I have my car back in running order.

Car Woes

Cars are definitely more trouble than they are worth. I took my car in for it’s 120,000 service and $1,600 later, I get my car back. And this is on top of the $2,400 car repair bill I had last year. This time is was everything from needing rear brakes to transmission fluid to a thermostat. Oh and don’t forget that when the tech went to start my car, he stated that the key just spun in the ignition. Ugh! That’s the only part of the repair that I didn’t do as I’ve never had that problem happen to me and it would have cost an addition $500 and take 4 weeks to get the part. Hopefully this will tide me over for awhile but that's what I said last year too.

Tailgate Repair

The tailgate panel on my car has been falling off for I don't know how long because the clips at the top that are supposed to hold it to the metal frame had broken. It used to be one was broken which was okay because there were still three others to hold it in place. One by one they've all broken until the panel was hanging loosely from the top. I finally bought a repair kit the other week and decided to replace the clips today. Simple enough to pop out the broken clips and pop in the new ones, right? Of course not! The holes that the top clips go into had also broken so even with new clips, the panel still wouldn't stayattached to the frame. The repair kit I got had a way to repair these holes as well but it entailed taking the whole panel off, placing metal brackets over the old holes, screwing those brackets into place, replacing all the clips...top and bottom...and then finally attaching the panel to the frame again. I've included pics of the instructions that came with the repair kit (not the best pics since I was teying to take them one handed while holding the baby). They may look simple enough but it was a pita to actually do. And let me tell, those self drilling screws leave alot to be desired. But I'm happy to report that I was able to get it repaired and my tailgate panel is nice and snug on the frame again. Yay!

On the work front, I received a phone call phone from my boss's boss today (he thinks I actually work for him and not my boss and who's going to argue with him since he's the VP of the department. LOL) He was very excited to know that I was available for work again and had a list of things for me to do. I also had a coworker call me yesterday wanting me to help her redo a report so I'm not lacking for things to do while home. Now I just need to get my brain out of baby mode and back into work mode which isn't the easiest thing to do.

I had an ortho appt today which has resulted in me wearing my retainer full time again. I've been complaining about a couple of teeth still touching and my bite feeling off by the end of the day since my braces came off so he's thinking that my teeth are still trying to shift. So now instead of wearing my retainer just at night now I get to wear it full time for the next three at which point he'll reevaluate how things are going. I don't really have an issue with wearing it full time cause after all the money I spent getting my teeth straightened, I certainly want them to stay that way.

It sure has gotten windy here today. We have a huge front going through which is bringing in cold weather. Once this front gets past it' supposed to get somewhat nice again. I just looked at weatherbug and we currently have winds blowing at 20+ mph and we had a 41+ mph gust at some point today. I'm glad we don't have anything out there that can blow around although I hate to think about what this wind is doing to our poor Christmas lights.