For those of you following me from locations in Russia, Europe and Asia, I am not sure how the word 'darned' translates. It is a word often used by people living in the southern parts of the United States as a polite way of saying damned. But I have a darned car that is giving me fits.
About three years ago Cyndee needed to jettison a minivan that simply was not going to make it until our planned departure date. We had to get her something to drive for about the next 36 months. Keeping it as low-cost of an affair as possible she came upon a little red PT Cruiser (Chrysler) (now named Putt-Putt). It was a 2004 model and had 90,000 miles on it. It was in great shape in the looks department and seemed mechanically sound as well. And it was, until the last 14 days.
In the past two weeks I have had to take it to the shop 3 times for safety related issues that could not be put off until selling the car next month. They had to be fixed right now or else the car would not be drivable. So as of today I have sunk about a $1,000 fixing these nuisances with literally only days to go before selling it. I am a little nervous about what might break next and actually considering selling the car right away and just renting a car for the next month. It would not cost any more than I just spent on repairs. I could sell the PT, rent a car and still have money left from the sale after it was all said and done. I am going to have to run that by Cyndee and see what she thinks. She is kind of attached to Putt-Putt, advancing the date of separation from it may be a tough sell.
On another note, it is definitely spring time in the deep south. Tree pollen is raining down like snow. The pollen counts are some of the highest ever recorded, it is literally piling up in parking lots and gutters and any horizontal surface. I am pretty sure that I will have to get on the roof of the camper and sweep all the collected pollen off the slides before bringing them in for travel. It is bad enough tracking in all that yellow-green junk on the bottom of your feet. I can't imagine introducing clouds of it by rolling in the slides with their tops covered in it. But it will give me good practice for traveling in West Texas where, instead of pollen, it will be blowing red dirt and sand. Anybody that live out there knows that the dust bowl days did not end back in the 1930's. There are still plenty of days when giant red clouds of wind-blown red clay obscure the sun.
T -53 days from departing Georgia
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