Return Of The Ding-A-Ling

Trials, Tribulation, And Smashed Phalanges

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There's an old saying that bad things come in threes. I kind of think that there should be an exponent in there somewhere. When I last posted, my family was stranded in a RV park in Las Cruces, New Mexico waiting for our diesel truck to get new injectors. My husband is still in said RV park. Hmm, I am getting ahead of myself.

Our mechanic, who has since become family in a sense, as I am pretty sure that I have single handedly paid for his first born's college education, had an inkling that more was wrong with our truck than just the injectors. There were some symptoms that bugged him to no end. He asked if he could run a compression test on the engine. Now, I don't know about you all, but when I get something fixed, I want it all fixed. Nothing is worse than spending thousands on something and having something else blow. Well, Rudy came back and delivered a blow. Apparently one of the injectors had been stuck open and had burnt a hole right through one of the driver's side pistons. This news left us with a couple of options.

1. Scrap Rufus and buy a brand new or used truck.

Now, I owe a small amount of money on Rufus still, so I would probably end up with two truck payments. A new Rufus costs between ninety and one hundred thousand dollars. A used diesel without a million miles on it is about fifty thousand. Anyone who knows me knows that I would NEVER spend that much money on a vehicle. It's a ludicrous idea.

1. Spend seventeen thousand and change on a new engine, and basically have a brand new truck that will last our family for years because I also had our mechanic put in a proper lift pump and delete the STUPID EGR system that contributed to the meltdown in the first place.

Yep, we went with option two.

A couple issues faced us. One, our well pump also went out recently, so coming up with over twenty thousand dollars to fix all this stuff has been a bit of a challenge. I cannot describe how stressful this situation has been, but Holy wow, have I ever been filled with gratitude at times throughout this challenge, for at ever turn we have been cared for and able to traverse the troubles.

Then there was the split. I needed to get back to work, the kids back to school, and we all needed to get back to our farm. We made the decision that my husband would wait in Las Cruces until the engine was replaced and the kids and I would drive home and take care of everything that needed done there. There was just a little problem with that plan. Las Cruces is a little over forty miles from the Mexican border. There was a rental car shortage due to what's going on down there with the immigrant crisis. And yes, I said crisis. No matter one's politics, that entire situation is a crisis, and it involves people suffering. We can and should do better and I am going to figure out a way to be more involved, but that is a post for another time.

Anyway, after ten days of waiting in the trailer court, the kids and I hopped into our rental car and booked it for home. I drove 1540 miles in two point five days with seven hours of sleep. There were altercations around us in our hotel room that involved the police, lots of dollar menu meals, and the Salt Lake City freeway corridor of doom. I did learn something cool though, sometimes people drive eighty miles an hour down the freeway while watching Netflix. Talk about multitasking! (There was a heaping pile of sarcasm included in those two sentences for those that need explanations about such things.)

We made it home relatively unscathed and jumped right back into our life fray. Part of the reason for my lack of posts was due to the fact that I had my hands smashed into a satellite dish by a nine hundred pound steer because of the actions of a situation that erupted due to irresponsible adult behavior. My hands and pinky finger are a pretty shade of purple but the injuries are feeling well enough to function at this point.

So, a TL:DR version of this post would be, I was absent for the last couple weeks due to being salmon-smacked by life. I have missed interacting with you all so much, and I am super happy and excited to hear what everyone has been up to and how things are! You have all been missed, and have I ever got a pile of stories for you all!!

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And as not always, the lone image in this post was from Pixabay with proper image attribution, and not taken on the author's still sand covered iPhone.

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