New Vehicle And Missing Tool

Being an avid Tool fan I have seen them perform live 7 times since 1997. I have yet to miss any of their major tour stops in my region. Yet, it is my sad duty to report that I will be missing their performance at the Target Center in September due to work. I am still semi-stunned from this fact because this is the first time where my job will prevent me from attending the show but it is just a freak coincidence that this event is at night and the same night as a Tool concert. I am mostly confident I will get another opportunity to see them perform again, just a little saddened by the fact I am missing out on a show that I know will be attending by many of my friends and will no-doubtedly be a good time.

On the bright side of things... I got a new vehicle! It's not a new car but a 2000 Grand Am. Nothing too fancy and about a billion times better than what I was driving. And just to illustrate what I was driving... I purchased a 4-door, '91 S-10 Blazer in 1995. It was in good shape, ran good and was generally a good vehicle...until about 4 years ago. About 4 years ago was when I let the truck go into disrepair because the expense to maintain it was getting to be too great so when I got rid of this beast here's the list of issues it had that made driving it an adventure:

- There was a hole in the pipe between the catalytic converter and the muffler making the vehicle sound incredibly loud, the exhaust would smell like rotten eggs and decreased gas efficiently. The pipe itself is only about 6 or so inches long but to get it replaced or repaired ment that both the catalytic converter and muffler would have to be removed and both likely would needed to be replaced, so was never done.

- No air conditioning. About 3 years ago the air conditioning needed to be recharged, I just never did.

- Driver side window and one back window would not work. On hot days, with no air conditioning... good times!

- Rear hatch window would not remain open.

- Vacuum issues. When you would drive faster than 50 MPH, for whatever reason the air being circulated into the vehicle would not come out the vents but only through the front window and lower dash vents (a setting typically used for heat). But worked properly if under 50 MPH.

- A steering joint was broken. What this meant was anytime I would turn left or hit a respectable pothole, a loud THUD could be heard. It did sound as if the entire front end of the truck would no longer be attached.

- Cruise control didn't work.

- Both front CV joints were shot. This meant as you would drive you could hear the front wheels 'chirp' anytime they would move up or down with the road you were driving on.

- Big crack in the windshield.

- Having aluminum rims in the winter time meant that anytime the temperature was below 10 degrees the tires would constantly deflate. What makes this a bigger pain is that when it gets that cold that most places that have an air hose to use (convenience stores) will have them inside because they will not function when it is that cold either.

- 4 wheel drive was somewhat functional, yet not fully functional - as it once was.

- The ABS went out shortly after I purchased the truck so the ABS light was always on.

- Driver side door panel was cracked. You could not close the door using the 'handle' because that would just pull the inner panel and would cause it to further crack while the door would remain open.

- The brake lights always remained on. Probably due to a sticky brake pedal, but if the truck was to remain parked for any extended period of time, I would remove the fuse to get the brake lights to turn off and then prior to starting the truck up, I would replace the fuse and the brake lights would be on, but always on, as I would drive.

That details many of the woes that truck had. It also had some other minor things like the tape player didn't work and the rear seat latch was sticky...but those didn't seem that bad compared to the list above.

Needless to say the things I enjoy about my new vehicle that is like a new found pleasure to me is air conditioning, windows that work, cruise control and operable brake lights.