The Teal Nightmare

Just since being married, Dave and I have had 7 vehicles... hardly ever 2 at once. But right now we do have 2 at once, and I cannot express to you how thankful I am for that luxury. I love not having to walk to work. I love not having to wake up at 5 am any longer to drive Dave 30 minutes the wrong direction to the studio, and then another hour to work. I love being able to leave the office for lunch breaks, and not have to sit in other people's pee on the bus.

That being said...

Since moving to Nashville, a mere 2 1/2 years ago, we have spent, not kidding here, at least $3,000 on car repairs. Brakes, mufflers, engines, tires, lights, seatbelts for crying out loud, exhaust systems, every type of fluid that can go into a car plus some that shouldn't, gauges, plugs, wires, cables, anyone else want to poke their eyes out, batteries, filters, wheels. If it weren't for the fact that I'd have to go back to sitting in other people's pee on the bus, I am often tempted to push my car off a very tall, very beautiful Tennessee cliff. My car is loud and smelly, it's teal, it's old, it's always sticky (how does that happen?), and it is currently sitting at my house, 30 minutes away from here because of its recent temper tantrum. My car has also been healed of some mighty demonic forces that have gripped it in the past. Sounds have suddenly disappeared though we've done nothing to fix them, overheating magically stopped one day, even though there is still a hole in the radiator, thus leaking coolant. Albeit, once the overheating stopped, it also froze three times. I guess at least freezing doesn't smell like burning oil.

But today. Today has driven me to a point of no return, I think. I'm pretty sure that my months of Financial Peace classes with the Dave Ramsey fan club (did you know that Dave Ramsey even goes to my church? Really, he does.) are about to be casually left on the side of the street in a burning mass of sticky teal metal. As I posted on facebook, here was my morning:
6:50 - turn car on, in hopes that it magically warms up in the next 10 minutes.
7:00 - get in the 10 degree car and ignore the chugging, as usual.
7:02 - Call sleeping husband to ask about a brand new noise - clunking.
7:04 - clunking stops. Good news.
7:04 - car dies. in the middle.of.the.road.
7:05 - car starts back up, chugging continues, clunking gone... along with power steering, heat, and alternator.
7:06 - drive home and do my very best pout-tantrum at Dave while telling him adamantly that I am NOT going to work after all that.
7:10 - get in Dave's truck and head to work.
8:00 - at work. 2 cups of coffee. don't mess with me.

On a completely unrelated note... anyone have a car they're giving away?