Slacker

Alright I am a total slacker on my blogging... but I have good excuses... Really.

Right when we were finishing up our floor project, my hubs' car broke down. With 204,000 miles on it, this was kind of expected. On the day it broke, I kept asking repeatedly, "Is it the timing belt? Did the timing belt break? It's the timing belt isn't it? Tell me its not the timing belt?" My husband reassured me that it was not the timing belt. We got the car home, and waited to have any work done until the weekend had passed.

The next week, we took it to the shop to have it looked at... Guess what? I was right-- it was the timing belt, which pretty much means "bye bye TDI." (at least a $1200 repair)

So we mulled over the decision to get a new car or fix the Golf. The thing with the Golf is that when we bought it, we bought it to serve a purpose. It was a $3,000 car. It got 45+ mpg, but every panel on the car had a dent, the A/C didn't work, the interior was thrashed, it was owned by a smoker, the previous owner must have had a bunch on animals, because the seat belts were actually chewed off... To put it nicely, I hate riding in the Golf. It's smelly, sticky, hot, and there aren't any seat belts in the back seat. The kids hate riding in the Golf, so Dan has been driving my car to Sebring and back twice every week, which leaves me with the Golf.

Obviously our decision was to get a new (to us) car. We searched and searched for another diesel VW. (Hey, you just can't beat 45+ mpg when you commute between 65 and 80 miles per day.) And we found a nice 2002 Jetta. It's pretty basic, and on the cheap, but very clean.

We sold the Golf to the guy that was going to do the work on it, and we talked him into doing all of the maintenance on the Jetta including a preventative new timing belt (a $1300 service) + some cash for the Golf.

The same day we dropped the Golf by the shop we sold our 1982 Rabbit to a close friend of ours who plans on getting it running and daily driving it.

Then, this past Friday we got a phone call from a kid wanting to buy our 1964 bus. He drove with his buddy all the way from Georgia.. Guess what? Another car gone. He is in the military and he plans to drive it to California this week.

Now that we have the money from our Ratty bus, we can focus on our next project; a nice bus for Dan.

Of all the cars, I am really going to miss the '64. That bus was tough, and we had a lot of fun with it, from camping in St. Petersburg to vending in it at shows to cruising in Miami..

Goodbye six-fo' we'll miss you lots and lots.