Tough Week

It's been a tough week. It started out well, with the opportunity to fly back to Vegas for the weekend. I was working, but it is always a blessing to be in Vegas (I still call it 'home')! So Friday morning we packed the family into the Jimmy at 5:10 AM and headed to Louisville so I could catch my SDF-PHX-LAS flight on Southwest.

Things went well in Vegas, but when I left, one key piece of the project was left unfinished. I felt a bit unfulfilled leaving once again with remaining work, but the parts I needed to complete the work were not available. It turns out they were found late Tuesday, having been onsite all weekend. Ouch!

About the time I'm receiving an email from the Vegas team telling me the missing gear was found under a desk in their green room, I get a phone call from my lovely bride telling me she is stranded on the side of New Circle here in Lexington. I'm sitting at home, having worked through the day via email on finding a solution for the Vegas team. I'm also stranded because our $1 car had died the previous week, so my wife is driving our only functioning vehicle.

A frantic call to the neighbors allows me to borrow their car (one they've borrowed from a friend for a few weeks as their car is in the shop for body repairs) so I can at least pick up our youngest from his bus stop while my bride waits for the tow truck to pick her up and bring the vehicle home. Having no money, well hopefully enough to pay the tow fee, we feel towing the broken vehicle home is our only solution.

As I'm driving the borrowed car from the neighbors, I decide to call our mechanic. He has stated in the past he is open to allowing payments on repairs, so I hope he will be open to some arrangement today. He is, so I call my wife and have her divert the tow truck to the mechanic's and the youngest and I will meet her there. We actually make it to her spot on New Circle just as the tow truck arrives, so my lovely bride, our youngest, and I drive in the borrowed car; following the tow truck to the mechanic's shop.

After dinner Tuesday night, my wife and I spent the next hour or so pushing the motorcycle up and down the hills in our neighborhood, trying to 'roll start' it. The motorcycle has only been ridden once this year due to the battery having died over the winter. Despite our efforts, it never turned over. We were truly without a vehicle.

The following morning our youngest gets a ride to his bus stop from the neighbor and my lovely bride walks 2-1/2 miles to the nearest bus stop, so she can ride the remaining 2-1/2 miles to her office. I 'tweet' and Facebook our predicament, and by late afternoon a friend has offered his truck to us for the next two days; as long as I have it back to him by Friday afternoon, I can use Barry's truck. This at least provides a short-term solution to our transportation.

I also learn Wednesday afternoon that the motor on the Jimmy will need to be replaced or rebuilt. Replacing it with a used motor will run $2,500 or rebuilding it will run $4,000+ ... neither option fits our current strained budget!

Hoping the $1 car will be an easy fix, I negotiate with the mechanic to swap cars in his garage, provided he will still allow us to make payments on any repairs. However, in a review of our limited funds later that afternoon, my bride and I decide to use the borrowed truck and a $12 tow strap from Wal-Mart to tow the $1 car to the shop; deciding we'll tow the Jimmy home the next night. It was surreal driving away from the shop late that Wednesday evening in a borrowed truck while our two vehicles sat outside side-by-side.

Early Thursday morning I run our youngest to his bus stop, return home to pick up my lovely bride and get her to her office, and then head up to the mechanic's to give him the keys to the $1 car and let him know of our plans. I handed him the keys and he sent his crew outside to take a look. I was told to expect a call later in the day.

Before I was even home, I received a call from the mechanic saying the $1 car also needed a new motor. The timing chain had slipped, bending all the rods. Wow! In two days we've lost both cars ... how discouraging is that?

I called my wife and she immediately went into a back room at work and prayed. I was too stunned and numb to pray much, but throughout the week had been sending up short, "God we need Your help" type prayers. It made me proud to know my bride's initial response in the midst of this crisis was to turn to God! Shortly there after, my wife called and we decided to have the cars towed home and would try to survive the next two weeks (I leave town for two weeks tomorrow) without any cars.

Shortly after that phone call, I received an email from the company I've spent a good part of the past three months working with, saying a large payment was going to be deposited to our account on Friday. I immediately offered a "Thank you Jesus!" prayer, forwarded the email to my wife, and then called her to tell her to check her email.

After we both celebrated on the phone, I began checking Craigslist, eBay, and Auto Trader; looking for cars we could purchase for cash. Our mechanic had contacted his preferred towing company and our two vehicles came on one truck. Before taking them off, the driver asked what I intended to do with the vehicles. I told him I really had no idea and he offered to buy them. I called my wife and she agreed it might not be a bad idea to sell them. I sold the Jimmy, the $1 car, and our broken Windstar (which had sat in the driveway for the past year) to the same guy. The few hundred we got for each was added to a portion of the paycheck I'd just received to provide us with enough to get something cheap, yet reliable.

I spent all of Thursday and Friday looking at Internet sales ads, emailing and calling leads, and even driving in the borrowed truck to go look at some. Everything I found simply wasn't a good fit. Finally, late in the day my lovely bride sent me a text saying her boss' son had a car and because it was for us, he would drop the price $600 off his asking price. I quickly called him up, and went to look at the car as I was on my way to drop off the borrowed truck.

I have to say, the car was clean! There were no tears in the seats or headliner. The carpet was also clean and there were no cracks in the dash or steering wheel. The trunk was clean and the car had its spare and jack. The engine cavity looked clean as well. The owner's manual was even in the glove box. Either someone had paid a lot of money making this car look very clean or someone had really taken good car of this car over the previous 14 years.

However, due to limited time, I didn't drive the car. I did talk it over with the seller, who said he didn't like selling to people he knows, so he wanted to let me know everything that was wrong with the car. He mentioned that occasionally it has trouble starting (possible starter in the future?), the tires have significant wear, and he had recently changed the timing belt but had not finalized the tension on the belts so there was an occasional squeal. I'm paying cash, and my mechanic had told me that in this price range if the car ran I was in good shape, so I thanked him for the information and passed over the money.

I dropped off the truck to Barry and then our oldest took me and our youngest back across town (he and his wife had come for dinner Friday night) to pick up our car. We arrived just as the sun was setting, so I needed to use the headlights. I turned on the car and the headlights, while our youngest played with the radio. On the drive home, I noticed the battery light was on. Our youngest checked the owner's manual and it said to have the battery checked. We made it home, and I showed the car to my bride, our oldest and his wife, and our youngest (who had already seen it as we drove home).

The next morning we got up early to take our youngest to a school club event, and the battery light was still on. When we arrived at the school, we found his group and parked while we waited. Suddenly, I couldn't start the car. The battery was dead. I found someone who had cables and we got a jump. My bride and I immediately headed to a parts store that provides free battery checks and learned the battery was at 0%, but still good; it simply wasn't charging. The store associate then tested the alternator, and sure enough, it had a bad diode.

Bad alternator? This wasn't on the list of issues I'd received the previous night. Now what? I talked it over with my wife; do we keep the car and fix it, or do we give it back and keep looking? I had sent a TON of emails over the previous two days to sellers, and that morning several were beginning to respond.

After a few minutes of talking, we chose to purchase a new alternator and try to fix it ourselves. I know just enough about cars to be able to replace an alternator, especially because this alternator was right up front and easy to access. We put $10 gas in the car (it was running on empty by now) while the engine was running and came home. Our neighbor saw the hood up and couldn't believe what we were experiencing. My bride and I spent the next hour working on replacing the alternator (successfully!) and then I called a friend who is a mechanic and asked him if I could meet up with him so he could check the tension on my belts.

While there was no squeal or chirping, we have to drive to Louisville on Monday (I'm flying to Houston for two weeks), and I didn't want to cause any damage in that round trip because of loose belts. My friend met us at his church and took a quick look, giving his approval at the tension.

Later in the day, we added wiper washer fluid (the tank was completely empty), and noticed it was leaking. Another item that didn't make the list Friday afternoon. A new wiper fluid reservoir costs $65. For now, we will simply go without wiper fluid, but that can't last long. Winters in Kentucky require use of a lot of wiper fluid, all the junk that is thrown up on your windshield from the other vehicles on the road needs to be removed frequently while driving.

So, it's been an emotional roller coaster week here. One thing that has been constant is we have a God who loves us. Too bad that love doesn't also mean that we don't have to face these emotionally challenging situations. I guess our lesson this week is that God is faithful, despite our circumstances. Faithful to still be there for us, faithful to always have our best in mind (however, realizing that best might be delayed until we are made perfect in His presence), faithful to be our source of hope.

God is faithful! Everything else, we just have to take day-to-day.