In Praise of G

Two of life's stressers for me involve trying to budget our incomes (that wildly fluctuate weekly and monthly) and worrying about car maintenance.
Obviously, in my line of work, I need a car. A car that starts every time. A car that won't break down in east Detroit or rural southern Michigan. We have around a 70 mile radius that we travel for home births, which means I could be in both Detroit and some cow poke town in the same afternoon.

I won't say that I'm the type to turn up the radio and ignore strange sounds coming from the car I'm driving, but I definitely tend to down play any potential issues for fear of how much money it will cost me.
Cars are like that. They hold this great unknown of unpredictability. If it doesn't start, I know I'd call every friend and family member I have until someone gave me a ride to a birth. That doesn't worry me. The unpredictable part is what will break next and HOW MUCH WILL IT COST? Because inevitably, once you replace some small $20 part, you'll be told that some much larger, more important part needs to be replaced and that will cost hundreds of dollars. It's like the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Over the years, arguing about cars and the maintenance put into them has been a huge issue between G and I. He's a gearhead who at one time, always had some project car or motorcycle or bicycle that always needed something added to it. It'd make me crazy. Not for the time spent but the money spent. I'll be the first to admit that I can be very frugal and am queen of Making Do. Over the years, I feel like we've both compromised a bit on our personal extremes and are much better for it.

At any rate, two weeks ago, I decided to finally buy the things that my car has needed since November. This included front brake pads and rotors, stuff for an oil change, spark plugs, some cheap but necessary part that I needed but I can't remember why now and maybe a few other things. This list of stuff gradually grew longer during the winter after my brakes started shuddering and squeaking when coming to a stop. The If You Give a Car New Brakes story had the potential of spiraling out of control, in my mind.

Thankfully, I'm married to this great man, who is indeed a gearhead to this day. In two afternoons, he fixed, replaced and tweaked things. My car now has new brakes, new plugs, a fresh oil change (which he does regularly for me), and other little things that ultimately make the car run better and get much better gas mileage. I didn't receive news of any parts that needed replacing for thousands of dollars. I did receive a car that stopped and drove noticeably better, and apart from paying for parts, I didn't get sunk with hundreds of dollars of mechanic labor. (I did try to make some delicious food in return.)

So thank you, dear husband. I am so thankful for your skills and your patience with my frugality and neuroses about spending money on cars.