What can go wrong, will go wrong...

I looked up my truck payment last week and figured out I only have 3-4 payments left on it until it is paid off.  Talk about being excited!  I haven't not had a car payment since I was a teenager!  I was getting excited thinking about not having any car payment for another year or two.  How great would that be!?!?!

Of course, if something can go wrong...

Friday night, my check gauge light comes on and the temp gage is showing it is running hot.  That lasted a couple minutes.  Huh, weird since I just had the thermostat replaced a month or two ago.

Yesterday I go to start my car to pick up my daughter from cheer practice and it won't start.  Get it started later that evening and it smells like something is burning. 

This morning, I drive it to the auto mechanic where along the way, my check gauge light comes on, temp gage dives to HOT, I have no heat, and if I have to slow down or stop, my car feels like it's going to just quite running on me. 

Apparently, now, I have pinhole size holes in the two silver lines that bring coolant for heat to the back seats of my Durango so all my coolant is leaking out.  According to the dealer (it's a dealer part so my mechanic has to get the part from them), 63 other people are in line waiting for the same part - it's on backorder with no idea if it'll be three weeks or seven months until the part is available for me.  Huh, 63 other people waiting for a backordered part - - HEY DODGE/CHRYSLER, DO YA THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE A FLAW IN THAT DESIGN OR WHAT? 

*sigh*

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Stepfamily Financial Struggles

If there is one thing about the stepfamily situation that can cause the most conflicts (most likely behind the ex which probably takes first place for conflicts in a majority of the stepfamilies), it is finances. I don't think the scope of "all that can go wrong" is fully realized until you are smack in the middle of it and you're struggling to make ends meet after child support and/or spousal support or you're upset with your spouse over extra funds going out above and beyond. Let's face it, there aren't too many stepfamilies who have a ferrari in the garage and the biggest challenge is looking for Ferrari parts for it. Our biggest challenge is usually just meeting our day-to-day bills with what is left over after all the different supports are paid.

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Should we cover it?

My husband's truck hasn't been used in a couple months. The muffler is hanging and we can't afford to fix it right now. After opening the hood and jumping my own car a few weeks ago, now my husband's hood latch won't close and he couldn't drive it like that either way (we did have the hood latch fixed last year which obviously wasn't fixed right). Seeing that his car is sitting and will likely be sitting for at least another month, should we use a car cover to protect it from the elements?

It's definitely not like my sporty Trans Am GTA I used to have where car covers would have been a great idea. It's a truck. Should we still cover it?

I'm not sure but if we don't come up with the money to fix it soon, we should probably at least clean out the garage and pull it in there I guess.

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