The first stoppage is the hardest

I suspended Marge's insurance a few days back. Which means she can no longer venture out onto the streets. I know it is going to take me a few months to get everything fixed properly, (front and rear brakes, emergency brake system, front steering, windshield wiper motor, turn signals and hazard flashers, door windows - all need attention). Most of this stuff is original equipment and simply worn out. After all of this, she will still look like hell, but should be safer to drive around town.

Now we are not spending the money to keep her insured. But of course, the insurance company has figured out a way to keep a little of the $ for themselves. Instead of a couple of hundred bucks a year to keep liability insurance on the truck in case I hit someone, the company is making me keep a theft and fire policy on Marge, since she will be stored in our attached garage. $18 a year for worthless coverage with a 1K deductible. Of course, if the house burns down, Marge will be the last thing I am worrying about.

I could have canceled the insurance outright. But when I signed up the truck originally the company had a hard time getting all of the paperwork correct. Because I am sure you want to know, modern cars and trucks have a standardized format for ID numbers. Cars and trucks this old were not standardized, each manufacturer set up their own format. Our insurance company's computer REALLY wanted the truck's ID number to match up to the current standard.

Now that the truck is listed properly, I really don't want to hassle with that again. I guess it is worth $18 a year to skip that fun. Anyways, I am hoping that Marge is back up to speed by Spring Break, but $$$ may keep it from happening until summer. My rough estimate shows that I need about $1000 in parts to get all of this done.

The first stoppage is the hardest

I suspended Marge's insurance a few days back. Which means she can no longer venture out onto the streets. I put it off for a few days, but I know it is going to take me a few months to get everything fixed properly, (front and rear brakes, emergency brake system, front steering, windshield wiper motor, turn signals and hazard flashers, door windows - all need attention). Most of this equipment is original equipment. So after all of this, she will still look like hell, but should be safer to drive around town.

Now we are not spending the money to keep her insured. But of course, the insurance company has figured out a way to keep a little of the $ for themselves. Instead of a couple of hundred bucks a year to keep liability insurance on the truck in case I hit someone, the company is making me keep a theft and fire policy on Marge, since she will be stored in the garage. $18 a year for worthless coverage with a 1K deductible.

Of course, if the house burns down, Marge will sadly be the last thing I am worrying about.

I could have canceled the insurance outright. But when I signed up the truck originally the company had a hard time getting all of the paperwork correct. Because I am sure you want to know, modern cars and trucks have a standardized format for ID numbers. Cars and trucks this old did not have a standard format or number of digits in the ID number, each manufacturer set up their own format. And our company's computer REALLY wanted the truck's ID number to match up to the current standard.

Now that the truck is listed properly, I really don't want to hassle with that again. I guess it is worth $18 a year to skip that fun. Anyways, I am hoping that Marge is back up to speed by Spring Break, but $$$ may keep it from happening until summer. My rough estimate shows that I need about $1000 in parts to get all of this done.

Her time has come

Thursday I used Marge to haul a bunch of tools and my tiller to The Talker's school for a Gardening Committee re-do of the front flower beds. On the way over I realized that I can no longer put off the brake system.

Some jerk cut in front of me to pull into the post office. He almost ended up with Marge's 40 year old grill in his rear bumper. I did not stop in time, it just really lucky that he was carrying enough speed to get the heck outta the way before impact. Instead, Marge slid on through the impact zone.

So with 46011 miles on her, Marge is going off the road for a while. New brakes all around and front steering/suspension are all on the list for this round of repairs. No body work this time. Can't afford to make a pretty lady out of her yet.

The Princess rides again

The Princess and I drove Marge out to the north side of town this morning to pick up some barrels to build our rainwater collection system. While we were on the road Marge hit 46,000 miles. Good job, old lady.

39 years and 1 month / 46005 miles = 98.1 miles a month or 1177.2 miles a year on average. But she manages to do a lot less than that now a days.

Cruisin'

Yesterday I excavated my garage and found a 1968 Chevrolet truck underneath a pile of toys and camping gear.

It seems like I had almost forgotten about Marge. So she and I have been bonding for the past 2 days. After giving the once over and checking fluids, we cruised the neighborhood for a while on Saturday morning. Another few miles Saturday evening and a run to church this morning have topped off the weekend.

I am sure there are things I NEED to be doing, but none of them make me smile like riding around the 'hood in my beat up old Chevy.