Today got expensive, plus thoughts on car car and ownership

Today started out somewhat normal, quick run to the local tire store to replace my worn the fuck out tires on my Ranger.  Got a price quote, not to bad.... but then came the news

Tire store guy "Your lower ball joints are bad"

Me  "I know, how bad"

TSG  "Really bad"

Me  "That sucks, I was going to replace them anyways"

TSG "Well, I can't do an alignment with them.  If I do and you replace them you'll have to align them again"

I was planning on doing them myself after buying the necessary equipment.

Me  "How much?"

TSG shoots me a price, seems fair.  Plus I'm feeling lazy about it so I tell him to do it.

TSG  "Your wheels bearings are bad too"

Me  "Fuck that, I'll do those myself"

TSG  "Can't really get the alignment done until those are replaced either"

Me  "Yeah, but those are so easy I'll feel like a retard having you guys do them.  I need front rotors to so just do the ball joints and call me.  I'll buy the other shit, do it myself and bring it back in"

       So onto the interwebs I go, scouring Autozone, O'reily's and Advanced Auto Parts.  I could buy those locally but I went the cheaper route and bought them from Summit Racing because... racing.  Doing the rotors and bearing myself saved me about $200, perks of learning and doing stuff yourself.  I happy to know how to do things like that.  Seems with this newer generation that this kind of stuff is dying off.  With the newer cars and electronics required to run them its almost seems you need a degree in computer science to just find out whats wrong with them.  Unless you come from old school and know what the problem sounds or feels like.

      I will say this, I enjoy working on my fleet.  When I bought the exhaust for my Mustang, I rented the lift just to do it myself.  Because I wanted to say, "yeah, I did this to my car" and meant it.  Maybe its just the car loving lifestyle I have adopted so long ago The feeling of pride in taking care of your own ride is over-whelming at times.  That first twist of the key when I was done had me smiling from ear to ear.

     When people say they are not "car people" they are flat out lying.  No ones goes to a dealership or classifieds, finds a car and says "that's adequate enough".  I certain amount of love goes into buying a vessel that you will spend most of you time in commuting or weekend get-a-ways.  Rather it be the dreaded Prius, old school american muscle, import or truck, that automobile is there because something about it caught you eye and your heart beat maybe just a little bit faster.  Why?  Only you know that answer.