Whew! We weren’t sure if we were going to make it to today and before we could stress ourselves out too much more, here came Friday and payday. Neighbor cat KeeKee probably wasn’t worried at all because he spends all his free time over here where the chicken catnip treats are/were plenty. Little does he know his supply has dwindled down to a single unopened bag. We’ll work on replenishing that soon, just not yet.

Two weeks ago, Mom’s car took the 2nd step toward engine failure. It has a multi-step recall that’s only good if it fails two additional times and only if the original owner (who is Mom) jumps through enough hoops. The company’s stance is, “Okay, yes these engines are crap and yes, your government made us put out a recall warning but if the car has over 150,000 miles on it, we don’t have to do a thing.” Their plan seems to be designed to make owners jump through the hoops until their car is over the 150,000 mile mark and then, they don’t have to replace the engine. Basically, just cut them owners loose.

Mom’s car only has 77,258 miles on it and is well within the “free” engine recall/replacement timeframe. But she hasn’t jumped through enough hoops. Not even close. She’s been babying it for a year and a half, faithfully checking the oil level every 4 days without fail and adding up to half a quart each time for the oil consumption problem some models are known for. She even keeps records of every one of those oil checks and additions. If you hadn’t noticed, oil is expensive now, and half a quart every 4 days? Ouch.

After the last knock sensor fail code popped up (P1326) and the dreaded catalytic converter fail warming (P0420), requiring her to have the car towed to the dealership ($249) and rent a car for a week ($642), both at her cost, she knows this will happen again within 6 months. Only she can put an end to this madness. It doesn’t help that the dealership has “lost” records of the original oil consumption problem, making it their word against Mom’s who, btw, has been a car nut since age 4 when she was accepted into her father’s metropolitan car club as their youngest member, and has known how to check, change and record oil maintenance along with a myriad of other things since age 12. She sort of knows her way around cars.

Sooooo, she’s car shopping, something she says isn’t too far removed from stabbing one’s self in the eyes repeatedly with a dull spoon. Mom’s car is slow but fun (when running) and best of all, it’s been paid off for years. She doesn’t look forward to having car payments and is losing sleep over it. In the meantime, neighbor cat visitor KeeKee might not realize it just yet, but he might come to notice his daily catnip treat has become more of a small catnip pinch. Hey, we all have to make sacrifices, right? You’ll survive, KeeKee.

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2025 – No post
2024 – Owning It
2023 – MultiCat Monday
2022 – A Random August Post
2021 – No post
2020 – Playing with Tessa
2019 – Art in August, Cat-Style
2018 – No post
2017 – Full Moon Monday
2016 – No post
2015 – The Best Thing
2014 – No post
2013 – Pia Melts
2012 – No post