Living The Small Life

We have had only one electrical outlet outside and had to run really long extension cords to use the weed-wacker or edger in the front.  Any time I wanted to vacuum a car, I had to run an extension cord out the front door.  It was a pain.  Once I bought the old car with the diesel engine, it became necessary to have a place to plug it in so we could keep the engine block warm on freezing nights. It's only going to be necessary to plug in on cold nights when I know I'll be driving the wagon the next day.  Because it's never seen road salt and we want it to last, I'm not going to drive it in cruddy weather so we've decided to hold on to the old Chevy (it's a 2003 with 75K miles on it).  

The Benz uses glow plugs to warm up the diesel before it goes into the cylinders.  Before you can start the car, you turn the key part way to engage the plugs.  A light goes on and when it turns off, you are ready to start.  I like to do it twice.  The engine always turns over -- not bad for a 33 year old car!

We have already had some cold mornings, so I start her up and let her idle while I eat breakfast.  She drives just fine -- but right now, the heat isn't working.  That's sort of non-negotiable, so she is going to see "Hans and Frans" (that's not really their names but they are two German gents who run the repair shop we take her to).  The windshield wiper fluid tank has a hole too, so they are replacing that (they have a second hand source).  The bulb under the dash needs to be replaced so I can see the speedometer at night.  It would help if I could do more of this stuff myself!

If I had a blog for her, I'd have a label "I Met a Man," because almost every time I park her somewhere, a guy comes up to take a look.  We have a supermarket chain named "Wegmans," and any time the car is parked there, I meet a man whom I catch checking her out.  It's also a pretty sure thing when I'm pumping diesel at the gas station.

I must be the only woman my age who is obsessed with an old car...