A Monday Rant

I’m giving you fair warning – I’m going to rant. And not one of you is going to give even a whisper of a hint to my husband about it. Do you hear me?

Through no fault of my own, I ended up taking ‘ownership’ of my husband’s old vehicle. It’s a 1988 Ford Bronco II and has over 370,000 Kms (230, 000 miles -/+). Needless to say – it’s not in the prime of its life, but it’s been a good vehicle. I need/want a vehicle to run my errands when I want/need too, and not be dependent on when the hubster is not in need of the car. I feel a bit stranded when I can’t get around.

I’ve tried to convince hubby that it’s time to put it to rest. It’s old, its untrustworthy, and I can’t even give it away. I know because I tried, and it still found its way back to my ownership.

About 6 weeks ago I tried to open up the conversation about “letting go”, but was met with a “its still a good vehicle, you just can’t park it on an incline”.

This statement came out of a afternoon of adventure that I had with it. I’d gone to a local mall for a little bit of weekend shopping. I parked the truck is a relatively normal area, albeit a slight slope.

I attempted to put the emergency break on, but it wouldn’t go down. So, double-checking the truck was in gear, I set out to conquer my errands, thinking this would be enough.

I had about 3 or 4 different stops to make and had been in the mall for about an hour. I tend to ignore pages that occur because they never pertain to me. Why would they?

Rounding out the end of my hour long stroll I’m just heading back out to the parking lot and the sound of a terse announcement that is being made finally catches my ear.

THEY WERE PAGING FOR "THE OWNER OF A BLUE FORD BRONCO TO RETURN TO THEIR VEHICLE IMMEDIATELY!!!"

There couldn’t possibly be two vehicles like mine it the parking lot – this had to be for me, and I quickened my steps.

Sure enough, there are two security folks waiting impatiently by my truck with large blocks jammed behind the wheels to stop it from rolling back (any further). The truck had managed to roll directly into oncoming traffic, but had managed not to do damage to anything or anyone.

I don’t know how they managed to get it back out of the line of fire, and I didn’t have the courage to tell them that they could have just got into my unlocked vehicle and turned the ignition without the key. (A little known secret, but I keep hoping someone will steal it.)

I shamefaced drove home determined to come to a final decision about getting rid of the rolling behemoth.

Believe it or not folks, I haven’t even come to the reason for wanting to rant today. The preamble was only to give you grounding for my concerns and frustrations.

Bring the previous story forward about two weeks. My hubby ran an errand with the truck on a sunny Saturday and informs me when he got back home that the truck will have a completely flat tire by the next morning. The valve-something-or-other was shot and needed replacing.

True to his word – the next morning I looked out the living room window to see reality. Reflecting back on the previous days conversation I realized that he had never made mention of changing the tire and getting it repaired. AND he was gone for the day now.

The week was busy and come the weekend I asked him if he’d ‘help’ me change the tire so that I could get the valve fixed. He gave me a skeptical look and dismissed my thoughts.

Fast-forward three weeks to yesterday. The truck is still in driveway with a flat tire. I come home from (taking our car) getting groceries and asked again – “Honey, will you please help me change the tire on the truck?” Well, short of kicking the ground like all petulant children do, he grumbled about having things to do.

I said, “No problem, I’ll just call one of our many male friends and ask them if they’d help me.”

He didn’t like that answer. Mostly because he knows I know people . . .

He stomps out of the house, walks around the truck, comes back into the house and informs me “the spare is flat too”, and goes back to his office.

So this is what I’m seriously thinking of doing – I’m going to post it for sale on our local www. buy my piece of junk .com and explain that although it is in working condition – you’ll need to change the tire first because my husband can’t be bothered.

What do you think? Is that too mean?