I'm tired...and it's the kind of tired that won't go away.

Our little Ford Tempo of the ever so delightful 27 mpg fame has yet another in a string of problems with the cooling system (I've replaced the thermostat, the radiator, the upper radiator hose, one transmission coolant line and repaired another, and rigged the fan to run directly off of the battery). This means we must park the Tempo and drive the "pimpmobile", which needs to be inspected, but first needs a $90 blinker switch and a rear brake job, and leaks about half a gallon of antifreeze a day because of the freeze plugs, a repair job which will set us back $350-400; not to mention, it costs us about $15 a day to run on the paper route, compared to $8 for the Tempo.

Cheap cars? Not an option. You can't find a reliable car here for less than a grand, and $2-4000 is a more likely figure. Before you ask, we applied our tax check to the purchase of the Tempo, into which we have poured $1200 worth of repairs (not counting my own crappy mechanical work) over the 3 months we have owned it. In all, we have spent over $5000 in vehicle costs in 9 months' time, with no end in sight.

Now, mind you, this is a rant, this is only a rant, but it's a much needed one. It hacks me that we live in an area with no public transportation, and that vehicles and repairs come at a steep price that those on fixed incomes can ill afford to pay. I've got a second job, just for all you "get a job" assholes who want to post THAT as a response, so don't bother in that regard, but by my best estimate, it will probably be another 6-12 months of 60-70 hours a week before we can even BEGIN to think about "taking it easy". As for my wife, there are no jobs to be had in town, so that's out as an option.

Yeah, we'll make it. We always have and always will. But right now, we're scraping by by the skin of our teeth. I'm tired and "spent", and I am even more so knowing that it's going to be quite awhile before I'm NOT tired and spent.

Thanks for letting me rant.