Hubby and I are notoriously bad car owners.  We drive on bald tires, never change the oil, and you could get lost in the trash that never gets thrown away.  Also, Hubby's general rule of thumb is that if you can still hear the radio over the noise the vehicle is making, all is good.  Combine all this with the fact that I am just a "stupid girl", and couldn't possibly know when something is wrong with the vehicle that I drive around on a daily basis, and the van doesn't see a mechanic very often.

So, after an incident last week with my power steering (think-- had none) I insisted that Hubby call and make an appointment for my van.  Today was their earliest appointment, which stuck me with 2 options; either be stranded in the house with 4 kids all day, and a mile long list of groceries and things to be done outside of the house, or take Hubby's van to do my shopping and errands.  I reluctantly chose the latter.

Now, if my van is in bad condition, Hubby's is worse by a thousand fold.  It is 10 years old and the air conditioning quit about 2 years ago.  It does have the benefit of having the low, low mileage of 88 thousand miles!

We are old rivals, this van and I, for it used to be MY van, before I got to upgrade to the newer model.  Yes, this van and I go way back, we have quite a history, including the day that I went to stop (while 8 1/2 months pregnant and with my girls, my sister and 4 week old T in the car) and found that there were absolutely no brakes.  Yes, what fun times this vehicle and I have had.

You can imagine how leery I am of driving (and having the kids ride in) this van, but today I was determined not to let my fears get the best of me.

The trip didn't start off on the best foot considering when I opened the driver side door there was a spider on the seat.  I think he was there for all of the empty leftover containers that littered the front seat, but what do I know?  I squished him and tried not to think about it too hard.

My next problem was the brakes.  Hubby insists that they are fine.  The guy at the garage insists that they are (finally) fine.  I, however, cannot forget that they found oil in our brake lines and that is why the brakes had problems for almost 3 years AFTER my lack-of-brakes issue.  I also think that the alignment is so off that the car pulls (jerks, yanks, almost rolls over) to the right every time you step on the brakes.  About 3 miles into our 30 minute drive I was already fearing for our lives!!

We made it to the grocery store and back home in relatively one piece.  My nerves are shot for the day and I still have to drive Hubby's death trap van to A's TKD class this evening.  Hubby called a little while ago and said my car in done, it is fine and there is nothing wrong with it.  (Go figure!  I haven't heard that one before!)  He is taking it to the tire shop for the 4 new tires that we knew it needed and I should have it back tonight.  Thank God!

So, after driving Hubby's van today I think it is seriously time to consider a new vehicle. Anybody want to buy our old one??  It is in great shape, I swear!