More tires (sigh)

It’s car inspection time for many of us. When you buy a vehicle near the end of the year, you don’t really think about how much of a pain it’s going to be to have to get that vehicle inspected and registered at this time of year. Every. Single. Year. Well, we really blew it. We currently have 3 vehicles, and two of them come due for their registration in November, and one in December. So you know that windshield you’ve been putting off buying? Well, now you’d better buy it. You know that check engine light that’s been on? Well, that car won’t pass it’s safety inspection with it on. Yes, it means unwanted unexpected car repair expenses RIGHT when you don’t have any extra money to do those repairs. A good friend of mine decided to sell her car last weekend rather than invest ANY more money in it and buy the new tires she needed. I can understand where she’s coming from.

So, anyway, Ryan took the last of our three vehicles to be inspected yesterday, and –surprise, surprise– it has two bad tires and needs something done on the brakes. Oh joy of joys, for Christmas we’ll be getting….more tires! That’s just what I wanted! I say ‘more’ tires because this is not the first set of tires we have bought this year. You may remember my extremely bad day back in July when we needed to repair the van and THEN get new tires (and then pay those overdue taxes). Yes, that was quite a financial setback. But we made it through. And we’ve only had to put about $300 more into that car this year. (You may notice that I say ‘Ryan’ is taking care of all these repairs, and for that I am grateful. I have this strange aversion to car repair places and tend to freak out just a bit when I am trapped in one with no vehicle. Maybe it’s because I know I’m paying about the amount of my mortgage for someone to fix a tiny little part that I can’t even see, just so I can continue driving. Yeah, maybe it’s that.)

But last month when Ryan took the Suburban to be inspected, he realized that it’s tires were also very bald. Ka-ching. He bought new tires for that one. And he was glad that he had, as he was driving through snow and ice this past weekend. And now these tires for the truck. So, if you are keeping track, that’s 4 plus 4 plus another 2 (maybe 4–he hasn’t told me if he’s doing just two or if all 4 are bad). So that’s 10 new tires.

I should have put that in my Christmas card. I could have done a 12 days of Christmas type thing. “And the tenth thing at Christmas that we didn’t plan to buy…. Ten brand new tires!”

I know I should be counting my blessings, being grateful that we HAVE cars and all that stuff. But right now I’m just frustrated. And a little ticked off. And wondering how long it will take us to pay all this stuff off.

So, if you have an encouraging story or a lovely quote or something nice to say to cheer me up, now would be the time to leave a comment. Or you could come over here and slap me and tell me to stop complaining. But I’d rather you brought me chocolate.