Not So Bad

Well, I knew everything was getting older, but did it have to hit me in the head?  OK, those of you who spend hundreds of dollars every few weeks, seemingly, to keep your transportation running probably won’t think much of my rant this morning.  But you see, I’m not used to having to spend that kind of money more than once in a blue moon or so.  We’ve been very, very fortunate that our vehicles have run well over the years with minimal upkeep except for the routine oil changes, occasional tires and batteries, etc.

Last week, I was driving my pickup and saw that the idiot light for the charging system was on.  As they wanted me to be certain, Ford also included gauges…of which the battery gauge was showing lower than it normally does.  I thought, “OK, what now?” as I went down the road.  I looked at the light a moment or two later, and it wasn’t on.  And the battery gauge was back to normal.

Knowing that I saw probably the beginning of something that probably won’t get better on its own, I went to the local auto electrical place where I’ve had some work done before.  I told the nice man about my problem, and said it was working now.  They thought it best to check it over, and I took it in the next day.  About mid day they called and said they found a couple of things wrong after checking out everything, and that it would be almost $400 to fix it.  I swallowed hard and OK’ed the work.

The next day, after picking up the pickup, I was going down the street, looked down, and the battery idiot light was on again.  Then in a few blocks, it went off again.  Finding it within myself to go back to the repair shop, I told the man that I wanted him to know it wasn’t fixed, but that I would try to bring it in when it was actually acting up so they could find the problem more easily.

That time came today.

The truck is in the shop now, getting another $500 worth of work done to it…with their assurance that THIS time, they’ve found the problem.  Actually, I don’t begrudge the earlier money spent, as the things they found really did, I think, need to be done.  So I would have spent that money, or most of it anyway, in any event.

It’s just a little disconcerting to think, though, that getting a vehicle repaired anymore is kind of like going to the emergency room…it’s hundreds of dollars just to get in the door, it seems.  And then there are charges on top of that which would make your head swim.

It almost makes me want to just put the battery charger on the truck each night and top off the battery…then drive around the next day on the battery.  You can do that, you know.  The battery will carry a modern vehicle for several hours before giving out, assuming one doesn’t use the lights or air conditioner too much.  Radios don’t take much current, and turn signals don’t either.  You could use those as much as you wanted and still drive all morning.  And if you have a stick like I do, you can park on an incline and start the truck with the momentum of rolling down the hill.

So, there ya’ go.  Charger at night…inclines during the day, and you’re fixed.  Of course, you won’t do that for long before you have to call AAA or the tow truck man to come get you because you forgot and didn’t park on that incline…or you stalled out at Central and Rock in the left turn lane and don’t have the battery to start it.

Come to think of it, $900 isn’t such a bad deal after all.