Car Maintenance

I'm going to take this moment in time to grumble about CARS!! I HATE CARS.....I wish we still lived in the horse and buggy era, and before you say anything negative about that era of time, please read on for my reasons.

When I was a teenager and first learning to drive, back in the dark ages according to That Kid, my dad taught me many valuable lessons -- not just learning how to drive, but some of the basic maintenance things like checking your oil, adding oil, changing out wiper blades, raising the car up on the jack, changing the tire, etc. I found it all boring and tedious, but as the dutiful daughter who wanted to drive her own car someday I listened. My first car was a '66 Chevy Impala (Maroon) and it was the BEST car. It was well built and had been taken care of by previous owners. I paid $500 of MY OWN HARD EARNED MONEY on that car and I thought it was the BEST....till the day I decided to skip school and WRECKED it...try explaining why you're not in school nowhere near your high school to your parents and you need them to help you call a wrecker cuz you just wrecked your car! Trust me it's not EASY!
Anyway, I digress. My parents bailed me out, grounded me, and made me pay for the repairs on my car. Fortunately, my cousin was a mechanic and did bodywork on cars for fun! He repaired it for $100!

From that point on, my car LEAKED OIL something awful! The day I got rid of it, about a year later, I had added 2 1/2 quarts of oil when I left home and 3 hours later it was EMPTY! I'm lucky I didn't blow the engine before I sold it off to the used car dealer!

My dad was adament about me caring for my own car....so I got used to it. About 2 weeks before dh and I got married he blew his engineby running it out of oil and driving on the highway, so when dh and I got married MY car was our only car for the first 2 or so years. Since I was used to caring for MY car I just kept doing it. I made sure the tires had air, oil was changed, inspections were done, registrations were done on time, etc, etc, etc,. Well some 20 + years of marriage the trend has continued. I am the one to take the cars for routine maintenance and I am the one who deals with mechanics when something needs repaired. I am the reason we have windshield wiper blades, tires, batteries, state inspections, annual registrations, etc.

And when something goes AWRY I am blamed! Even on the CAR that I NEVER DRIVE and don't like driving!

This happened this past week and I am grumpy about it still! Why am I responsible for maintenance on a car I NEVER DRIVE??? About 2 weeks ago dh got in the "hot rod" and realized the rear tires were low, so he aired them up. A few days later he drove it again and they were low again. He called me saying the tires need checked out, take care of it asap. Ok....I say...I forget about it since I never drive it. Then this week he drives it again and the tires still need air. Fix it he says...so I go to fix it, and the Firestone people can't do anything with the tires cuz they have wheel locks on it and we can't find the key! 2 days later That Kid gets in the car to go somewhere and the tire is FLAT, and I mean FLATTER than a pancake, but he doesn't realize it till he is a mile from home. He calls me and says my tire is flat! HELP!! He gets a ride...and I get to deal with a flat tire....over $400 later we have a new tire and no more wheel locks on our hub caps. Gee, what a bargain, huh?
Now, I will be teaching my son how to care for his car the way my dad did with me...and hopefully we won't have to have another experience like this again!

Now I ask, who cares for your cars?? I'm a little disgusted that I was the one that had to deal with all this mess. Soooo I ask, who handles your car maintenance??? Just curious.....