Whatnot

I've been a bad, bad girl. No updates in almost a week? What was I thinking?

Life has been busy lately. I've been working my tail off doing more painting for the people who had the apartment. Now I'm doing the trim on the entire outside of their house, as well as the finish trim inside. I'm grateful for the work - my credit cards are smoking from the recent activity. I'm getting into the whole van fix-it project.

My van sat for quite a few months this year without me starting it. When I tried in the summer, it wouldn't even cough up a turnover noise. The culprit? A malfunctioning fuel pump. I bought a new one for $13.88 and installed it along with new fuel lines and shiny new clamps. Now it starts better than Eric's (Uncle) 1982 truck.

Two days ago I dropped the entire exhaust system out. I called about 3 dozen places trying to find a replacement y-pipe. It's the pipe that goes from the engine block into the other exhaust pipes. Nobody had it ... not junkyards, auto parts stores, muffler shops, dealers, even the factory stopped making them years ago. The muffler places wanted several hundred dollars to build me a new one. The people I know who weld didn't want to touch it for fear of igniting a nearby gas line. Finally found a place that had it!!! - 2 hours away. That's another story and a half.

Now all I need to get it on the road is to reinstall the exhaust system, buy some new tires, register and insure it. It'll only cost $600 more. Oh joy. :-)

It's so exciting to be so close to having my very own car! Charlotte (Cousin) keeps saying I have a sweet van. She especially likes the wooden ceiling. My aunt Liz thinks the disco ball is a bit outrageous. And Eric is suffering from engine envy ... I have a bigger one than he does.