Back to carving, sewing, and other things

It's official, it's carving time.  It's also official that the Camry that served us so well is dead.  To resurrect her will cost us almost $5000 and that is just the engine.  She has already seen us replace her windshield as a railroad gate came down where the driver sits and pierced the windshield at the roof line.  Shatterproof glass is not shatterproof and I think myself very lucky it hadn't penetrated fully as I am not likely to be typing to you now.  Other things contributing to the demise of our faithful mechanical steed are a failed open vent valve in the gas tank, a faulty catalytic converter, and an exhaust system that needs replacing.

As systems and items were rattled off and itemized, I had a dreadful realization hit me.  I was going to have to tell Mad-Geo the news.  Either be ready to shell out $10K, attempt to "eat an elephant" and pray that nothing else come up and deliver another series of expensive repairs, consider deeply buying a car that we simply can not afford, or go to one of the local garages and see if a beater car could be had for a couple thousand.

Anyway, I have quite a bit of art and I would love to part with it so I can contribute to the repairs of the Camry.  Same goes with crochet hooks, hair and shawl pins, scarves, art dolls, and other things.  If you want to help us out, note me.  If all you can offer is sympathy as to our plight because money is worse than tight, it's cool.  Just pass the word along to your fiber art friends and lovers of nifty art.  Point them to the pieces you think they would like.  If you want to laugh and point fingers, remember karma charger is watching, is a dick, will find you, and God's got a sense of humor. 

This ends my frustration journal for the 25th of February, 2016.  Things are quiet in the valley.



UPDATE:

The total at the dealership was $5353.87.  And the check engine light came on once again. >_<  (heavy sigh)  It's the bank 1 upper O2 sensor.  The dealership could not tell us which side is bank 1 so when we squirrel the money together, we're replacing them all.

The exhaust was going to run us another $1400 and they told us to save our money and take it to a muffler shop.  That cost us $150.  Significant difference there.

I've made headway with the Blazer.  The thing is 'Er' as in clean'er'.  The carpets have been Bisseled to almost original color.  The driver's seatbelt no longer sticks to me (yes it was ick-foo).  The leather seats no longer grow civilizations.  I am so replacing those when I can afford it.  Fabric, thank you.  Not sure what to make of the front end.  I know I have to replace the front tires.  I'm just cringing at the thought of having to replace ball joints, spindle bearings, wheel bearings, rotors, calipers, CV joints, brake pads... *shiver*

The sun visors will run me $153 with free shipping and are easy to replace.  The old ones are already out and no longer draining the battery.  I love plug-n-play parts on a car.  Wish the rest was this simple to fix.  I sense a torque wrench is in my future.

I think I have a name for it...  BBB (Bloody Blue Blazer) as it has yet to impress upon me anything positive.  We'll see if it wants a different name once I have the thing up and running.  Right now, I'm just disgusted with it and the previous owner (may she rest in peace).  Word to the wise, don't let blood kin foist their vehicle on you especially when they never took it in to be serviced after the warranty expired.

So that's my update.

Until later.