Vehicles suck!

Good morning, readers....

Thought I'd fill you in on my vehicle situation.

About a month ago now the oil light on my wife's Expedition began flashing on and off.  So... I checked the oil... or so I thought.  Ford at some point switched to a different dipstick (looks like heavy wire with a lead weight at the end)  By the way... here's a tip for ya... it doesn't wipe off well with just a towel.  The raised lettering on the tip holds oil gunk.  Use a paper towel and press hard.

So anyway... I checked the oil, thought there was plenty in there, and decided that it was a bad sending unit going to the gauge.

Well... it wasn't.

As my wife was turning into the station running a fire call, the engine seized.  Yeah... I know... whoops.  My bad.  So there my truck sat for a week while we shopped for motors to put in it.  We now have the motor - good deal by the way... 1000 bucks for a '04 with 53000 miles on it - much better than my '98 with 240,000 miles on it.  The bad news is - it's hunting season and I can't find anyone to put it in for less that a bazillion dollars.  I'd try it myself, but I always end up with leftover parts.

So there my truck sits, patiently waiting for someone to replace her insides.

Now... on to my car.

Shortly after the truck died, my car began shaking.... and shaking... and shaking.  At first, it was like hardly noticable... noticiable enought to me who drives 70,000 miles a year in it, but probably not to the regular passenger.  However... it kept getting more and more worse as the days went on.  At first it almost felt like a miss in the engine, leading me to believe that I had a bad plug or wire.  And it would only miss upon acceleration, further leading this belief to be true.  So.... 47 bucks in plugs and wires later, the car still shook.  And I MEAN shook.  The next time I drove it to work, it shook so bad I thought my brain was gonna rattle right outta my head. 

It finally got so bad that A) I actually started wearing my seatbelt cuz I was SURE the front end was going to fall off and B) I borrowed another car to take to work so my wife could take my in for repair.

So in it went to McCalls Garage in Lowell (if you ever get the chance to take your car there, do it.  They don't charge for inspections, and they are CHEAP.)  Good people.  After a short test run, they tell me they think it's something to do with a motor mount or somethin', and that it wouldn't be too expensive to fix.  I thought, "cool!  sounds good to me!"  Upon further inspection, it was found to be a bad front axle.  I thought, "this is going to cost me a bunch of money I don't have."  However.... $125 later, it was out the door runnin' just as smooth as the day I got it.

So anyway... I'm going to sell my car, my truck, and anything else with a motor and buy me a horse.  If the horse breaks it's leg, I'll shoot it and buy me another horse.  Much simpler method, don't you think?