Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Balancing the scales

I space this stuff out, you know. If I posted everything as it happened, some days would have 20 posts and then a couple of weeks would go by without anything!

So back on Thursday, before Armadillocon, I crank up the family minivan for some reason. And a hideous metallic banging comes from the engine. Not good. Chris, my uber-mechanical brother, thinks it's the lifters. So we tow it to the Chrysler dealer in town to see what they think.

They think it's going to cost me $2,500 or $4,000, whichever is more costly. They want to sell me a new engine, which is roughly equal to the value of the minivan at trade-in time. So we can't buy a new car because 1) we're still paying off the PT Cruiser from earlier this year, 2) the minivan is non-functional, which negates any trade-in value, and 3) we don't have $2,500 or $4,000 for a new engine or a new car. Chris is convinced the engine does not need a complete overhaul, and can get it up to snuff again for $500 or so--it's just going to take time, since he doesn't have all the necessary equipment for the job. Which is a great option for us to have, because if Chris says he can fix it, he can fix it. Unfortunatly, we're reduced to being a one car household for a month (at least) and even $500 in unplanned autor expenses is going to bite. Ouch.

Now Playing: The Police Message in a Box

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