Today my truck has 209,092 miles on it. On the first of this year, it had 206,167 miles. By my math (hopefully not as fuzzy as the stuff that ruined our economy now), that makes 2,925 miles I have driven in nearly 9 months. I guess by the end of September, it will be 3,000. I got my truck on this day in 1996. It came to me already 2 years and 78,768 miles old, but that never worked against it. By comparison, I drive it pretty sparingly, considering it began life as a delivery truck for the dealer, racking up 39,000 miles a year for those two years. Last year it slowed to about 6,000 miles and this year it looks like it might be just 4,000. I can chalk this up to a short commute and some reasonably close shops and church activities which I try to combine the best I can, but really, it’s a lot of self restraint and some carpooling in Kelli’s slightly more efficient Honda if possible. I biked to work some days earlier in the summer but every day at work is pretty physical so the added ride, coupled with the long summer days and heat, got to be too much. I think I shall bike more when it cools off in October, even if the days are shorter and it requires lights and stuff.

My truck just keeps delighting me and I’ve always thought it was the best purchase I’ve made. I give it care and feeding, but I don’t baby it. I am not in love with it like some. I missed my bi-annual car wash this summer on account of being without a clear space at home to do so. So maybe in 2009 I will wash it if I can find a day that isn’t too hot.

This summer the starter died and circumstances were such that I had to have it towed because I couldn’t roll it from the uphill space where it was parked. The free tow from AAA was not generous enough to get it to my usual shop so I went to a different one and got a runaround as we slowly figured out the replacement starter was bad. But in the meantime, I thought the shop was a bit scheisty until finally they replaced it with another piece and it now seems to do fine. All the while during the handful of repeat visits to troubleshoot the first replacement, I was cursing myself for taking it to another shop. I’ve only had 5 shops touch the thing, and 4 of them got only one job apiece. Otherwise, all my work has been done by one shop.

Buber the Dog in a happy moment up on Mt. Laguna for our annual summer jaunt through the mountain country around here…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 10:23 pm and is filed under 21st Century Headache, Homebody, God's Green Earth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.