Today, Dr. Toes got his eye's tattooed. Seriously. I mean his eyeballs. Why, you may ask? We he just had Lasix surgery done this morning. He had to get up at 3:00 A.M. this morning to get ready for the shuttle that would pick him up by 4:00 A.M. Dam, that's early.
Well, he was back at the house by 9:30 this morning, and he is one tired mother-trucker. His eyes look like he went 9 rounds with Mike Tyson (before his crazy ear-biting days). He has 2 tattoo dots on each eye, which looks pretty weird.
So, I have to keep waking him up, because he needs to put drops in his eyes every 10 minutes, and his butt keeps falling asleep. Understandably, cuz he be a tired cat.
On another note, my check engine light came on Saturday, so I finally got it in today. I went to Auto Zone for their free diagnostic check, and it said that there is a "Misfire at cylinder 8." This kind of pisses me off, because I just got new spark plugs and wires put in about 4 months ago. I hope that there is nothing too bad wrong with it. After spending about $2700 on it 2 months ago, I'm not really keen on spending too much more. I think that I have spent about $3500 on repairs on it this year alone. Dam, that's a lot of money.
My problem is that I've almost got the sucker paid off, as I owe around $6,000 on it. The real problem is that I have put over 98,000 miles on it in less than 4 years. I figure that by the time I have it paid off (by May of 2007 or so), I'll have around 110,000 miles or so. Great. Then I will have to keep it until the wheels fall off, to make the entire purchase worth while. Looking back, I really shouldn't have bought the truck in the first place, especially not buying it brand new. Oh well, live and learn.
I think within the next year or so, I'm gonna buy a P.O.S. Honda Accord for around $4,000-$5,000, and try to pay cash for it. I really don't want another car payment for a long time, because $525/month is a pretty steep amount to pay every month for 5 years.
Think about it. We have become so accustomed to the idea of having a car payment, that we think nothing about always having one. For instance, I could trade my truck in, and probably come out about even on the deal. I would then have a brand-new vehicle (good), but with another 5 year note. So then I'd continue the cycle of a never-ending car payment. The only good thing about that situation is that you drive a new vehicle all the time, and thereby keep repairs to a minimum. But, as I have learned this year, that isn't really true either, considering the $3500 or so that I've spent on repairs this year so far.
So, why not pay my truck off, and then use the money that I was paying for my truck and put it into an account of some sort. Save said money, and pay cash for the next vehicle, thereby saving a considerable amount of $$$ on interest on the vehicle. Plus, the real bonus is not having a car payment. Brilliant.
By the way, I got this idea from Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University class. I highly recommend it.
I really sucks that I got hit this hard with truck repairs during this time of year. My workload is much slower during November-December, so I don't exactly have much extra $ to spend on me truck. Especially with Christmas around the corner.
So, Annie, you'd better hope that the repairs are at a minimum, right? It's gonna determine how much $ I have for your Christmas gift. So keep your fingers crossed Annie.
Well, I've rambled enough, so keep on keepin' on.
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