Goodbye Jeep

It's been a rough week (or two). Trouble with my 2005 Jeep Liberty Sport. The engine light came on about a month ago, and the local mechanic blamed it on the gas cap. Drove it for a while with no further trouble after the gas cap was replaced.

Then the heat was really slow to turn on, and the instrument panel began to chime 5 times. Turns out that the coolant had leaked into the oil and the Jeep had 'blown a head gasket'. At 38000 miles.

Now, I've done regular oil changes at about 3000 miles each time. When I brought the vehicle in for the first engine light, I assumed the mechanic had checked the coolant level (it's a sealed system). When I challenged him, he assured me that he had checked the coolant.

I don't know who to blame or what went wrong. I know nothing about cars, so I relied on the 'professionals' to watch out for me. Maybe they knew about as much as I do.

In any event, the Jeep was under warranty, so this week it got a new head gasket, one new head, and two new intake valves.

And tomorrow I am going to trade it in for a 2009 Hyundai Sonata.

I've been feeding the Jeep more than $50.00 a week in gas, and much more when I take a road trip on weekends. The new car has 4 cylinders and will drink a lot less gas.

I feel bad about losing the Jeep. I really liked driving it - it was fun to be high above the other cars on the road. But I drove a 2009 Sonata rental car when I was on travel recently, and really fell in love with it.

The new Hyundai has XM satellite radio, heated leather seats, front wheel drive, A/C, 6-CD changer, more speakers than anyone could ever want, and lots of other features. And the dealer looked all over the place to find the color that I wanted - medium silver blue with grey interior.

I generally buy new cars for what they look like (I've only bought two new cars in my lifetime). This is the first new car that I have bought because of how it drives vs. how it looks. Of course, looks are important and the new vehicle looked pretty good in black and gold (I'm eager to see it in my chosen color).

So now I have a new car payment to add to the stack of bills... but I'm looking forward to spending lots of time on the road with that XM satellite radio. And saving a bit of money on gas.

Everyone at work has heard my Jeep saga and is looking forward to a ride (and perhaps a test drive) in the new car. Amazing what a new car will do to enhance someone's life. Next week should be very interesting.

Pot-Lucks and Pentecost

We hosted a pot-luck at our house the weekend before last. The theme was "Tapas" - Spanish appetizers. People came up with the most amazing recipes - we had a great time. We made our classic deviled eggs, but tried two new recipes - pinwheel sandwiches and stuffed strawberries. Others brought the most amazing creations - fried olives, Mexican casserole, bruschetta with prosciutto, Spanish cheeses, rhubarb crisp, fruit platters, bean and corn salad, mini cheesecake slices, country bread, shrimp and cocktail sauce, baby greens salad - an awesome feast.

This past weekend one of our friends invited us to a Pentecost Vigil Mass followed by a pot-luck. He is a Catholic priest, and very much into the Holy Spirit. The Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Mother of Christ and His Disciples, after the Resurrection. We celebrated Pentecost this past weekend as the end of the Easter season in the Church year (liturgical calendar).

The Mass was very intimate - a bunch of us crowded into a small basement room - scriptural readings, songs, prayers and meditations, plus the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It made me think of the way Mass was once celebrated in the catacombs, where the Christians hid from their persecutors. Or like Christ and His Mother, hidden in a locked room for fear of those who might come and kill them...

It all ties together. Friends. Food. Christ and the Last Supper. There is so much of God and Church in our everyday lives. In the ordinary things that we do, we often don't realize who or in what way we are bringing Christ into the world.