Hang on

I recently had my truck tested for emissions as part of the state inspection process. It failed. So $244.00 later I had a long needed, new catalytic converter. Irene only runs on Royal Purple motor oil and I had that changed also.(All my trucks are named Irene.) I used to do all that stuff myself, but figure time spent on labor, time looking for a place to recycle the old oil and filter and the hospital bill for a torn rotator cuff and I’ve got plenty of reasons to shell out the ten bucks to have it done. It has never run better. I’m happy. We’re done. Right? Wrong. Everywhere I look I see signs saying, “Failed?” Get up to $600.00 toward authorized repairs or $3000.00 + to just junk it. What to do?

How about I fix it and pay for it? I’m already here. It’s my truck, my wear and tear and my mileage. “Hang on to that truck” was all I ever heard before now. Well first of all I’m encouraged a lot more to just junk it than to fix it. I need a new car payment and $3500.00 cash in my pocket anyway. Don’t you? It used to be simple. Emissions parts all came from the factory with a “limited lifetime warranty.” I don’t know about you, but my lifetime is certainly limited; guaranteed. But wait! There’s a catch. You can’t just fix it and be done with it. You must seek and receive the state’s assistance before you actually try to accomplish what you took time out to do in the first place. So many choices and neither the time nor the cash do I have. I know, I’ll call them at this phone number that they advertise a lot more than they do their website. Leave it to government to do everything backwards.

So here’s what I did. I fixed it and I paid for it and I drove it…a lot. I produced more emissions that day than I had in the preceding two months. But I’m good; the truck “ran clean across Texas.” Most importantly, the state is $244.00 richer. Can I have that money to put up a sign that says, “Take responsibility?” Just two words to live by are all I ask. Okay here are two more or did I already see this one? Drive friendly. That kind of grammar used to drive my Mom crazy. But on the other hand, she once sold the best car she ever owned, a very low emissions 1977 Corolla, because a heater hose broke. She should have hung on to that car.