Most of my LJ followers know all of this, but I’m going to recap for my blog readers so this makes sense. I am…an Army Wife. As such, I tend to have my husband missing for sometimes short amounts of time, and others obnoxiously long periods. This has required me to get a bit independent. A challenge for me since I moved straight from Mom to Husband, and thus always had someone taking care of me.
In 2005 hubby served his first tour in Iraq. Well wouldn’t you know that truck needed an oil change. So I took it in for that, and mentioned the rear squeaked, and maybe they could see why. Well they couldn’t. BUT they did give me a nice long list of things that just MUST be fixed. Of course. So, I did what they sure weren’t expecting. I told them SURE you can fix ALL of that. Just as soon as I get a second opinion. The look of shock was priceless.
On each post we have what’s called an Auto Craft Shop, or Auto Skills Center. They’re run by certified Mechanics, and funded by our Morale, Welfare, Recreation center (MWR). What they do is give you options. You can take your car in there, rent a bay for $4/hour, and fix it yourself (with mechanics standing by ready to help/instruct) or have them fix it. So, I drove my happy ass over there. They checked it out and said most of the stuff on the list was just fine, only the Tie Rod Ends needed replacing, and at least one thing on the list didn’t even EXIST on my truck. He got me a price on the parts, and I chose to do the work myself. I also chose to replace both sides tie rod ends, because if you’re going to fix ONE might as well fix both.
While I was there, the post paper photographer was called. Here they had a woman, who’s husband was overseas, doing her own work on her own truck. Great story. So I got my picture taken, and had a brief interview. It was amusing, and ran a couple weeks later. I never thought anything of it. Until my friend Miss Lizz emailed me the most recent copy. Apparently, 2+ years later, I’m still good advertisement. /boggles
I must say, this was one of the things I was most proud of myself for while Hubby was gone. And those suckers are still holding to this day. *knock on wood* And Kestrel…I did not screech!! Oh and by the way, the estimate from the Garage was $600, I got it all done for $180.
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