Sitting on Money

I got the truck back last night. The door is securely attached. The radio works. And, just in general, it runs better. The best news: It turned out to be about $250 less than the estimate. Whoo. I think it was my intimidating presence that made them know they couldn't mess with me. Okay, stop laughing.

But maybe I was a little surly because my free bag of Chai ran out. Ya, it has been a rough couple of days. Lots of shaking. Some sweating. Sure, I could go buy more (think how much Chai I could have bought with that $800 I spent on my truck!). But I am 1) short on expendable cash and 2) cheap. Wait, I shouldn't say cheap. No. I am fiscally careful.

Some of my fiscal consciousness is necessary because I have the double whammy of working as a 1) journalist for a 2) non-for-profit company. But my thriftiness is also a personality trait. On my second birthday, I got some cash in my birthday cards and mom and grandma tried to collect it. Oh no. I took those bills and I sat on them. Oh ya, try and get it now.

Seriously, I think this is why I don't smoke or do drugs. I just couldn't afford that or allow myself such excessive expenditures.

My Truck

I drive a 2000 pickup truck (see right). It's a good little vehicle. I've had very little trouble with it. But being 6 years old, it's time (or is past time) for some maintainence and various wear fixes. It all started when I noticed the molding on the door was apparently unsealing because I'd hear wind getting in and it'd leak during rains. But I put that off.

Then, the truck started stuttering a bit when I turned the key. So, I replaced the battery. This caused more problems. My truck has a TheftLock system that locks the radio if power is cut to it. Without the code, it means you can't use the radio at all. So I have been driving around with no radio for two weeks. Good times. But it did mean that I got to call lots of people back while driving here and there. So that's good.

I considered just getting a small battery-run radio to sit on the passenger seat instead of taking the truck in to be looked at--but I figured that the door needed to get looked at anyway. And after 80,000 miles it was time for a good check-up. Well, that was a very stupid idea. Now, I am sitting here with my truck in a shop getting approx. $1,000 of fixes. I need the transmission flushed (when the fluid is dark black instead of pink you know it's bad) and several other systems looked at and cleaned. And the door? Well, it wasn't the molding. It is falling off. I kinda should have seen that coming. It hasn't been closing well and does dip a bit when I open it...

So yah, this is all necessary. And I guess it's all really an investment in a good vehicle. But still. That's $1,000. With that much money, I could buy:

1 Used car
95 White Sox Upper Deck tickets
83 Previously Viewed DVDs
5,000 Wendy's Chicken Nuggets
77 Bobbleheads
1 Kid's U.S. Citzenship. Oh, nevermind.
Lots of good crime scene evidence
1667 3 Musketeer Candy Bars
62 T-shirts such as this
50 Raffle Tickets to win a White Sox World Series Ring
1 Ice Cream Sundae