Ranger update

We have dubbed her, “The Little Engine That Could”.  She earned the name chugging up and over the Dames Point Bridge.  The whole way over Teresa is chanting “I think I can, I think I can…”  The truck is awesome in its quirks and we get a kick out of how perfect the timing was when we needed a vehicle.  Lena and Suzanne are miracle lifesavers and the timing couldn’t have been better.

The truck has become Teresa’s second vehicle more than my primary.  She takes the truck out during the day for errands or heads in to her Girl Scout meetings at night if I’m not home in time.  So as soon as we got the truck home I went to work on her.  Scrubbed the layers of algae off her, pumped up the tires, installed a new battery, battery lug, spark plugs, plug wires, turn signal bulbs, master cylinder, oil change, brake fluid and the expensive additives to every possible liquid!  I even found the sun visors and put them up.

But she’s got a long way to come before she’s ready for prime time.  She still runs rough, the driver seat lays back too far, the passenger seat belt doesn’t work, the turn signals don’t blink, the gas gauge doesn’t work and there are several bulbs on the dashboard that need to be removed because they say things like “Check Engine” and “Rear Anti-Lock”.  Teresa put a steering wheel cover, an air freshener and a console cup-holder in her already.  Teresa’s been driving her a lot recently and the other day she busted me for having a “Chris moment”…

Monday evening she’s heading out to a meeting and asks me if I can take the Ranger in to work on Wednesday because she’ll be running to Macclenny and doesn’t want to go all the way out there alone in the gamble-truck.  “No problem” I tell her and off she goes to her meeting.  Two hours later she comes home and I have a surprise for her.

“Remember that old stock radio in the truck you had to listen to?  It was crackly and the lights didn’t work so you couldn’t tell what station you were on or what time it was or anything?  Well I put in a beautiful CD player with an aux channel input for the iPod and it sounds soooo much better, even on these old speakers.  And now you’ll know what time it is and…”  She stopped me right there and asked, “We’ve had this truck for three weeks now.  You waited until the day before you had to drive it all day before you put in a new stereo and you want to pretend it’s for me?”

“Well sure, but you’re the one having to drive it at night sometimes and I wanted to put in the stereo so you could watch the road rather than fumble to see the readout and the clock and…”  She stopped me right there and asked, “The seat falls back while I’m driving, Becca’s seat belt doesn’t work and I think there’s a family of feral raccoons living in the back seat but you think putting in a CD player will keep us safe?”

She can be such a ballbreaker some times…