Feeling guilty about being…virtuous?

(Okay, it’s Monsoon season. The cell signal is finally letting me type this but while I normally lace the post with pictures, they’re not happening this afternoon so bear with me.)

Boy, I’ve sure spent a lot of time away from the Gulch this week. Today Neighbor D had a doctor’s appointment in the big town about 50 miles away, and I tagged along for the purpose of spending a lot of money.

I spent the better part of the month of June housesitting for friends. They’re friends so I never mentioned money but being friends, they paid me for my time anyway. Spent some of it before I ever left the city on a pair of boots that fit. The rest was budgeted for getting the Jeep back on its knees, making the eye doctor richer, and – while the money was there to do it – replacements for the Lair’s batteries.

Of course the Jeep went over budget. Of course it did. Fortunately I got away with it because Big Brother slipped me some green stamps with this month’s care package, and also a couple of people hit the tip jar. (thank you very much!)

The problem with living on the economic edge, as I may have mentioned in the past, is that consumables get consumed whether you’re ready to replace them or not. I’m running on really old batteries, one set of which is slowly failing. The other set is even older, abused before I got them, and actually working just fine at present – but you know my relationship with Uncle Murphy. He’s out there, waiting, evil grin ever at the ready.

So…dammit, that picture won’t load either. Whatever. I am now the proud and substantially poorer owner of four brand new Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries! Which, barring defects, means the Lair will have good batteries for another 5-7 years!

On Monday I will resume being completely poor, because the Jeep is (reported to be) repaired and ready for pick-up. Anything else it needs, I’m doing myself. Probably should have anyway because yadda yadda see previous post on my complaints about the local auto shop. But it’ll be nice to have the old yellow bastard back in the driveway, hopefully not waiting to strand me out in the nothin’ because the fuel pump finally completely dumped.

Thing is I’m second-guessing myself about replacing batteries that aren’t really showing signs of failure. But it sure felt like the right time to do it.