You Get What I Pay For

This morning Hick took off to check out those automatic-kick-on generators that run on propane from a tank outside your house that will sit there, menacing, ever-ready to blow you sky-high, until just the right instant when its services are needed to supply you with heat/AC and light and computers and TV and washers and dryers and refrigeratiors and ovens and microwaves to warm up and heat food instead of cooking. There was a giant annual home show nearby.

Since the home show didn't open for a few hours, Hick informed me that he would be stopping by Goodwill to look for bargains, and then taking his tire for repair. Nevermind that he could have removed the broken spring from the garage so my mom could drop if off and have a new one created on Monday. Hick said he patched that behemoth with a clamp, like he did when HIS garage door spring broke, and it lasted a good six months before we had to deal with it. Uh huh. That was six months of spring and summer. Not below-zero temperatures that are in the forecast again all week. I am going to make Hick open my garage door when he leaves each morning, to make sure that spring doesn't break and trap The Pony and I inside and make us miss school. I would certainly hate to look for keys to the other four vehicles and wonder if they have gas and inflated tires.

And speaking of tires...Hick mentioned that the tires on that $1000, 2000 Caravan were in worse shape than he originally thought. WHAT?

"Didn't you just get snow tires put on the van last year?"

"Yes. ON THE FRONT!" He said that like any fool would know that you only put snow tires on the front of a 2000 Dodge Caravan. Like that's in the manufacturer's specifications in the owner's manual that nobody ever reads.

"So we didn't get four new tires last year?"

"No. Just two. On the front. It's a back tire that's flat. They were on it when we bought the van from Missy from work. They weren't her original tires. Bob at work got new tires on his van, and his old ones were better than the ones on Missy's van, so he gave them to her. Then we bought it, and they were those tires."

"Huh. Shame he didn't give her a speedometer needle that would actually spin instead of laying on its side at the bottom of that dial."

"Whatever. I don't see the point in getting an old tire like that fixed. It's going to need a new tire."

"Doesn't that mean you'll have to get TWO new tires?" Even I know you don't keep one threadbare.

"Yeah. I'm going to need two tires."

Between car insurance with our two teenage male drivers, and all the Frankenstein parts we've put on that $1000 Caravan, I figure we could have bought a brand new one with the outlay.

At least we're saving money on that garage door spring.