My poor car...

So my post today is all about my poor little car. It's a black, 2000 Nissan Altima with leather seats. And a sunroof. Yep. Those were all the details that were important to me when I was in the car market around this time last year. I wanted something black, with leather seats and a sunroof. I was ecstatic when I finally found a car that was in my price range that had everything I'd ever wanted!! It's cute and gets fairly good gas mileage (anywhere between 23 and 26 mpg, it's sporatic to say the least). Anyways, when I bought it I had to replace the windshield. No big deal, right? It had a crack in it, and I got a new one. Easy as that, problem solved.

After driving it for awhile, it started having more problems. I had to replace the intake manifold gasket (that's why it's getting not as good of gas mileage as it should, they said). Then more recently, there was a leak in the radiator, so while driving home from work one day, the engine started smoking and I had to wait in a parking lot somewhere off the 2600 S exit for my dad to come save me. He poured some coolant in it, and followed me home in the slow lane, with his hazard lights on, because if I got going faster than about 40, the radiator would start overheating and blow smoke on and off. That was an experience.

Then the other day, as I was driving home from the condo, I smell something burning. I disregarded it for a minute thinking it was a smell coming from the big diesel truck that was in front of me on the freeway. I was content with this reasoning until I looked down at my steering wheel that was blowing smoke. Yep. Who knew THAT happened? So I called Riley who was still down at the condo, and the conversation went as follows:

Me: "Hey...uhm...hypothetically speaking...if my car was blowing smoke from the steering wheel, what would that mean?"

Riley: "Haha! Well, remember that car you saw on the side of the road the other day that was on fire?"

Me: "Yeah...?"

Riley: "Well, I'd strongly suggest pulling over or getting home ASAP, because that's going to be you"

Me: *pause* "Awesome"

Apparently he thought I was joking, because that smoke effect rarely happens. It's an indicator that there's an electrical short somewhere, and that's definitely not something you want to mess with. So needless to say, I got home, parked the car, and haven't gotten in it for anything but my sunglasses since.

So what have I been driving instead, one might ask? Well, it's a little thing called my dad's 1997 Ford F350 Powerstroke diesel truck. With a chip and a crew cab, longbed. Yes.

Here's a picture of what it looks like:

Quite a bit transition from my car! This thing is MASSIVE. It's like driving a freaking bus. My mom had some errands to run and couldn't let me take her car to work yesterday, so I drove the truck. I work downtown, so you can imagine the looks I got driving it through the city. But that I could deal with. It was getting the dang thing into my parking garage that proved to be a struggle. Not only did I have to make like a 50 point turn to even get close to the place where I swipe my ID card, but after I got through, I didn't think it'd make it under the clearance sign!!! Thankfully it did, with about an inch and a half to spare. I should have taken a picture of it in there with all the other little commuter cars, but I didn't have my camera with me. The antenna got a little beat up, because there's no way to lower it. And it didn't clear the top of the garage. But all in all, the truck is still in one piece, I'm seemingly still in one piece, so it was a success!