Puff, Puff

Project 365: Day 365

Take a look at that title up there! Project 365: Day 365! I did it! Hooray! I am working on a wrap-up post for a little later.

Now, if you take a look at the photo, you will see the reason why this was not a completely happy day. Edward, my little-Nissan-that-could, is nearing the end of his life. Now, this is not a particularly surprising thing as he has just shy of 150,000 miles, is a 1997 model and we have had many warning signs. In fact, I wrote about my strategies for dealing with a car-on-the-verge last August, so really I should be grateful that he made it through the winter.* There is really never a good time for your car to die, but the winter in Minnesota would be an especially bad time.

Today, I started the car up to drive home from running an errand and noticed it was making a weird sound. While driving home, I noticed it smelled like exhaust/burning oil/smoke. By the time I got home, smoke was billowing out from under the hood. My novice inspection led to the conclusion that there is some sort of leak in our engine. We will bring it into the shop, but are pretty sure the verdict is going to be to get a new car. This new problem is the icing on the cake in addition to the following problems: the brakes are in bad shape, the alternator is questionable, the lock on driver's side door doesn't work most of the time, there is a rusted hole and a water leak in the trunk, the radio squeals sometimes, the cd player turns on and off at will and one mechanic said something to Paul about our front axle being weak. At this point, I just hope it is safe enough for us to drive to the used car lot so we can go car shopping!

*I noticed that when I went back to find the post from August that we have driven less than 4,000 miles in the past 8 months, which means that together Paul and I average less than 500 miles per month. Yay for public transportation, carpooling, biking and walking!