Money, Money, Money

Every little thing you fix or add to a truck costs money, and generally a lot of it.

For instance, after we got through hiding in the bathrooms at the local Volvo dealership yesterday, they finished up the repairs and modifications on my truck. These were:

Batteries not charging properly
Cruise control not working at all
One or more air leaks
Adding a second 12-volt outlet to the dash
Changing the engine computer to remove the speed governors for the engine

The first three were warranty items and the last two were on my tab. The entire bill was somewhere in the neighborhood of $800, but my little slice of heaven was $170 or so.

Then this morning I brought my truck in to our company shop to have another mirror added (on the passenger side of the hood), my glad hands replaced with ones with handles, and one of the side panels adjusted so it would stop rubbing against its neighboring panel, marring the paint job. Another couple hundred dollars out the door.

Finally, I went over to Best Buy and had their mobile electronics shop replace my factory stereo with a basic unit that includes an auxiliary plug so I can use my MP3 players through my truck's stereo system without having to resort to the stupid FM transmitter route. Another few hundred dollars wave bye-bye.

I'm glad my truck runs so efficiently, so far, so I can afford to get it fixed up the way I want it...