2011 Ch 1 ~ The First Week

I was determined to make 2011 a big year heading into it. My motto for the year was just "Get Sh** Done!". No specific new years resolutions, just "Get Sh** Done". Do something. ANYTHING that will get me closer to accomplishing my goals. Even little tiny baby steps are progress and get me that much closer to being finished. Anything helps. I was getting tired of having deja vu every time I looked at my project list and saw the same things again and again. I wanted to "Get Sh** Done" and checked off that blasted list so I could move on to bigger and better things.

First up - the truck situation. Fuel prices were already high and just going to get higher. Every time I looked at how much we were spending on diesel every month I died a little inside. I had just paid my truck off and was reveling in not having that payment every month, but still, it was getting older. It was still a diesel 4x4 truck and nothing about those suckers is cheap. Not fuel, not oil changes, not brakes or tires or fixes. And we had 3 diesel trucks, all getting up there in miles. It just was not practical. At times I'd just shake my head at the stupidity of it, but other times I could totally justify it. We're country people and really USE those trucks. And it's Blue. I love Blue.

This has been a pretty constant debate for me for years now. Getting a gooseneck trailer and not having a hitch installed in my truck was the beginning of the end for Ol' Blue. Since I couldn't haul the horse trailer with her I was having a much more difficult time justifying keeping her. The prospect of getting her paid off and having one less payment every month spared her for a little while, but in the end, I just couldn't do it any more.

My main hold up had been that I didn't know what I wanted to drive instead. Nothing was appealing. Anything I wanted wasn't practical enough to justify selling the paid off truck. Anything practical just wasn't floating my boat. I test drove car after car after car after car after car (and so on) (and on and on, seriously, it was epic) and nothing spoke to me. My commute isn't exactly short and I do love driving so I "needed" something that I would enjoy being in. I just couldn't find something that struck that balance in practicality and fun.

At some point in December in occurred to me that we had 3 vehicles. I didn't HAVE to replace her. I could just drive the haulin' truck until something spoke to me. Not ideal, since the haulin' truck isn't my fave to commute in, and it sure was nice not having to hook and unhook the trailer every time we wanted to ride, but certainly doable. And so the decision was made. Blue was to be sold. Right after one warranty issue was fixed.

Of course with the holidays and busy schedules it was a couple weeks before we could get her in at the shop, but we got her in and January 5th I went and picked her up, planning to head home and clean her up for her photo shoot. But alas, it was not meant to be. On my way home I was rear ended by an old guy in a Buick. It was dusk and raining and they came out of no where. I had been sitting stopped at this light for a while with no one behind me when I saw an odd flash of headlight in my side mirror. You know the flash...when you know something's not right and crap this might hurt? Ya, one of those.

Luckily he was able to swerve and only hit the corner of my truck. And of course his Buick was way worse off then my truck. He couldn't even get his door open. But still, I was not happy. I had plans for this truck and this was not helping things! Plus, you know, accidents and dealing with all the insurance crap afterwards is not great either.

I had a few weeks of chiro apts and got the truck fixed and then, finally, was ready to post her. I slapped the ad up on craigslist and went to bed. The next morning I had an email time stamped less then an hour after the ad was posted. This guy wanted her. Bad. I had the boyfriend call him to "talk truck" and, after working through some issues, the guy bought her and I put her on a barge to Alaska. I cried when I dropped her off. Then realized that I left my gate clicker and favorite cd in there. Doh!

I got a picture from him a week later. She was safe and sound in Alaska, happy trudging through the snow with icicles hanging off of her. She always did like the snow. :-)

So the first week of January I was rear ended. Ugh. Never a great way to start off the year! But I still got the truck sold. After 6 1/2 years and 100,000 miles, Ol' Blue was gone. One giant milestone for me and one happening I could have done without.

But, everything happens for a reason. Selling Ol' Blue was one of the "for the greater good" things. I didn't want to, but in the grand scheme of things, it made more sense to. And without asking or anything, I got a small settlement out of the accident for my troubles. Nice!

The second week did not turn out so well...

The Great Debate

The great debate around our house (or maybe it's just my head) is what to do about our vehicle situation. We revisit the subject often, but don't seem to really come to any conclusions. Or, rather, we don't seem to actually act on anything that we sort of decide to do.

So this is the situation...we live in the boonies. Combined we are currently commuting 180 miles a day. My commute is always the same, 60 miles round trip. The boyfriends commute changes as he is in construction and moves to different job sites. His round trip commute at this moment is 120 miles. Yes, that's 1-2-0. I don't think you could pay me enough to make that commute, but he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Anywho, on top of racking up a lot of miles commuting we each have a Dodge Ram 2500. They are atleast diesel so we get a little better mileage then gas, but it's still a huge expense every month. Especially when diesel was almost $5 a gallon! Luckily, the boyfriend had about a 15 mile round trip commute when that was going on!

So we talk about different options for our vehicle situation all the time, but a year later, we still have our big trucks. One problem is the value of our trucks have gone down the drain lately so we don't have many options. I have a year left on my loan, which is very exciting and hard to get motivated to get something new and start over again. Plus, I love my truck. I get teary when I start seriously thinking about getting rid of it. I've had it for almost 5 years, put about 80,000 miles on it and have many great memories with it.

Another problem is that it's been very convenient on more then one occassion that we had 2 big trucks. We've got the horse trailer and a flat bed trailer and have headed different directions each with a trailer quite a few times. It's nice having them both. We are definately truck people and put them to good use.

Commuting so much in them is not good use of them though!

Yet another problem is what the heck do I/we get instead?!? Most of the vehicles that I want are not practical at all. My truck probably gets the same or better gas mileage then most of them! Or, they are more along the line of a luxury car, which I don't need and is also completely impractical. But then, I've never been known to be practical. See Exhibit A. (Still haven't worn them one single time)

I would love to trade my truck in on a newer Dodge truck, but those suckers are expensive!!! Of course I want the leather, heated seats, power everything, spoiled brat, cushy truck. $50 grand please. OUCH! I love my butt warmers though and I'm pretty sure that is going to be a requirement in anything I get.

So, because our trucks aren't worth jack poop, I love my truck and haven't found anything worth giving it up for, don't want to spend the $50k that would make giving it up worth it and we're just indecisive lazy bums, we've still got 2 big trucks. We did manage to scoop up a little commuter car for really cheap for the boyfriends insane commute though. It's made a huge difference in the fuel bill already! But that doesn't solve the two big trucks issue.

The reason it's reaching a critical stage right now is that I need new tires. My brakes are also pretty much toast. And I'm way over due for some major maintenance work. I'm not worried about the engine so much, it is a Cummins with only 120,000 miles on it, but I'm sure the transmission will be costing me some money in the not too distant future. So I'm torn. If I'm going to get rid of it, like we've been talking about for a while now, I don't want to spend the money on the tires and brakes and maintenance, which means I need to get rid of it soonly. But, on the other hand, that would be cheaper then buying a whole new truck.

I know, I know. Tragic. What an awful problem to have. But that is the great debate around our house lately. I really just wanted an excuse to take pictures of my truck. lol