So, as some of you know, jen + tommy (us) have been sans car since Christmas Eve, when we had our timing belt break on the highway. Eek. We had a feeling it wasn't going to be pretty, but we didn't think it would be as bad as it was...
...for those of you readers who speak Car-language, every single valve in the cylinder head was bent or damaged. Between repairing those valves, replacing the hydraulic lifters, guides, seals, gaskets, belts, tensioners and other miscellaneous pieces needing to be machined or replaced, plus the labor itself, we are looking at somewhere upwards of $2,500 to get back on the road.
I thought it might be worthwhile to put out the request so if anyone who reads this has the urge to be philanthropic, the opportunity would be there. Maybe Bill Gates or Warren Buffett will come across this post and fund the whole thing ;)
All I know is, if you don't ever put a request out there into the Univers, there's a 0% chance of something working out. It's kind of like that old saying "if you don't buy a lottery ticket you will never win". There's definitely some truth to that, and this is a great opportunity to actually live what we sometimes talk about.
We have a Donate button set up in the menu on the right that goes to a secure PayPal server, and accepts all kinds of payments even if you don't have a PayPal account. No minimum. :)
The timing never seems to be that great when things like this happen, but we've all been on both sides of this fence before. It's definitely not as much fun on this side, but you've got to take the lumps with the sugar cubes I suppose in order to get the full experience of Life. Either way, we're grateful for anything that comes in, and additionally, are super grateful to everything that's come in so far from friends, family and even total strangers. Thank you.
As always, we'll keep everyone posted on the status of the experiment and the repairs.
Thanks for reading our blog, and thanks for putting up with our sometimes weird blog posts! Hopefully we're entertaining at least part of the time... ;)
Tommy + Jen
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Lessons learned in Haiti
1 hour ago
4 comments:
"You are important enough to ask and you are blessed enough to receive back."
Wayne Dyer ~ ♥ xo
We bought a used engine and it ended up being much less than repair or buying a new replacement engine. We may be going down to one car soon - so the Pontiac may be for sale. Just an idea. Perhaps rather than an opportunity to repair the car you own, it's an opportunity to buy a used one that will fit your needs and lifestyle better... and I don't mean mine. ;-)
I love your suggestion (we've been wanting a Jeep for a LONG time), and this seems to be a good opportunity. I'd love to say sayonara and just invest in a different vehicle, but unfortunately we have enough owed on it still that we can't just let it go.
Replacing the entire engine would be double the cost of repairs for this particular model, so we're just going for it. The whole rest of the car is in such great condition, the mechanics and myself all agree we can get another 100K out of it if we wanted.
The good news is that we are about 60% towards our goal and hope to complete by the end of the week! Thanks everyone!
fyi, we are now back on the road again. thanks to everyone for their support and kindness during a sometimes challenging but always interesting 40 days of car-less-ness. we are now redirecting 100% of our web donations to the haiti relief efforts via the Red Cross.
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