Non-gearheads resent car trouble

Car trouble is a problem everyone hates. Except maybe gearheads who relish the opportunity to fix the problem. Gearheads aside, the rest of us hate car trouble. It may leave us without a vehicle until the problem has been fixed and it usually means an added expense none of us want, especially when we’re already paying more for gasoline than we budgeted for at the beginning of the year.
Unfortunately, even the best vehicles break down sometime. I, however, do not drive one of these better vehicles, and it seems I break down more often than the average person. Case in point, my 2000 Plymouth Neon, which my wife mainly uses, started shaking and flashing engine light signals last Friday as my wife drove into Stevens Point from Marshfield.
Being the noted car authority I am, I told her to leave it at The Gazette for the weekend and I’ll take it in Monday. I attempted to look under the hood, but my mind only saw a random bunch of engine parts connected to each other in completely foreign ways. Someone could have taken apart the entire engine and put it together again completely wrong and I wouldn’t have noticed the difference.
Then again I’m not one to notice car problems until they actually occur. Back in 1999 I had a tire blow out on a car while driving on a four-lane highway during a trip to visit a girlfriend at college. The treads on the three other tires were so thin the wires were showing through. If it hadn’t happened to that tire, it certainly would have happened to another a short time later. My weekend trip to visit the girlfriend was ruined because all of the money I had and then some went to getting new tires. Goodbye nice Italian restaurant and hello McDonald’s. The girlfriend dumped me later in the week, probably because I pouted about my tires all weekend.
Another time my wife and I were stranded in Appleton after the alternator or the carburetor or some “ator” part took a dive. It was a Saturday afternoon, so most car garages were closed. We found one that was open and were relieved they could fix the problem later in the week. My stepfather came and took us back to our house 45 miles away. When we got back to Appleton Wednesday, our car was not fixed. They assured us it would be in a couple of hours, though. We were happy when we came back after shopping to find that it was, but this joy was short-lived when a week later the problem returned and another garage told us second-hand parts were used to fix the car the previous week.
Getting back to my current problem, I actually take comfort in knowing it wasn’t something I could have prevented. The car’s No. 2 cylinder backfired and wreaked havoc on the sparkplugs and some other parts. The cost to fix was $280, which is a lot but not as bad as it could have been. Goodbye potential Las Vegas trip this fall and hello weekend day-trip to a local winery, though. I just have to make sure I don’t pout about it so my wife doesn’t leave me.