I haven’t said much about this family member lately. In fact, my quiet was so pronounced and so prolonged that the person from whom I adopted this family member asked me tactfully not long ago whether said loved one had come to the end of its life.
But there has been no such bad news! Or at least no bad news aside from my having continued the family habit of ignoring upkeep and maintenance of family members for months on end.
The problem was one of those snowballing financial… um… snowballs. The local mechanic told me a year and a half ago, when I took Zheep in for a new radiator, that its rear differential needed rebuilt. That was a $1,500 estimate right there. Right about that time I got a ticket for blithely parking on the side of the street that was getting its weekly cleaning. And then also right about that time I had no job, which was okay until my credit card limit got completely tapped out.
Fast forward to April 2009, which was more than Zheep was doing. The ticket wasn’t paid yet, so it had appreciated in value by approximately 200 percent. A hundred fifty bucks was more than I had in disposable income, and if I’d had it to pay the ticket I wouldn’t have had the cash to renew Zheep’s registration anyway, and since I wasn’t driving the thing I let the insurance lapse and so the poor thing just sat collecting dust in the driveway.
The good news is that apparently sitting out in the sunshine in Los Angeles didn’t hurt much, aside from killing what had been a new battery d-e-d dead. I got a little bit of cash from some freelance work and paid off the ticket, reinsured and re-registered Zheep, and just this morning coaxed enough electrons into the mortally wounded battery to get it the half mile to its Primary Car Physician. I just got the phone call. “It’s really surprising,” the doctor said. “Aside from the battery, everything’s in great shape: belts, hoses, everything. Nice Jeep!” He’d diagnosed bad brakes on the spot, but that turned out just to be dust on the pads.
They are beginning to rebuild the differential, which means that in about five business days I will have a working Jeep and a much smaller pile of cash, almost all of which will be going to the credit card companies. But let’s not think about that. Let’s think about this:
Note: There’s a road there. I’m not a jerk.
Well, not that kind.
I have many fond memories of desert trips with my godparents’ Jeepster, so it’s good to see Zheep looking well there, in what I consider a Jeep’s most congenial setting: a gravelly road amid the desert scrub, with mountains in the background.
Looks like the Nipton General Store parking lot.Wish I could have went up there today and picked up several Sioux City Sarsaparillas, ice cold, to take out to the Ivanpah Valley.-sigh-
The view will surely change in the next few months from there.
Yay Zheep!
Ain’t life grand?!
Bill:www.wildramblings.com
Whatever you do, don’t completely resurrect it on a Sunday. Otherwise, that’s great! Diane will be pleased.
...and the Reason for the Road can be glimpsed at the top of the photo.
Sure does. Parked my ol’ bus right there a few dozen times.