Bananas, sleeping, my tuck, and something new?

You know, for not doing anything all day long, I sure am writing long posts!

So, after my last post, someone said that bananas have a lot of serotonin. I take it that serotonin helps fight depression, so Wednesday night I went out and bought 5+ pounds of bananas (13 of them). I have been eating them, and only have a few left. Good thing I like bananas (at least I do so far).

Moving on...

The parking break lamp on my truck has been blinking since the day we received 7 inches of snow in March. I was told that this "might mean that one day you can't stop," so I thought it would be good to take it in and get looked at. I took it in Tuesday afternoon, but the shop said "we are booked up and can't get to it until morning, so you can leave it now or bring it back in the morning." I had church that night, so I said I would bring it by Wednesday morning (8 AM, they told me).

Being optimistic, I thought "To get it in by 8 AM, I should go to bed by midnight to get plenty of sleep." Good idea, since my usually I sleep until noon, and I am trying to break that habit. So that night I laid down just after midnight... and couldn't sleep. I laid there for well over an hour, and finally got up to "get some work done" (IE: play computer games). I finally got to sleep at 4, and I slept until noon... which sounds late, but I only got 8 hours of sleep.

Needless to say, I didn't bring my truck into the shop that day. That night I again tried to go to sleep at midnight, I again failed and got to sleep at 4, again I slept until noon. I again didn't bring it in.

Thursday night I tried AGAIN to go to sleep around midnight. I tried real hard. So hard in fact that nothing happened. 4 AM here I come! But I was determined to wake up and at least bring the truck in. So at 7:30, the alarm went off, and at 7:50 (after two snoozes) I got up to bring the truck in.

Usually, when I get little sleep, I am fine; it doesn't usually bother me. Case in point: the night before State DI (a job I worked for dad last weekend) I got 3 hours of sleep and yet worked all the next day without being too drowsy. That is why I was surprised when I got up Friday morning to bring in the truck. I wasn't too drowsy, but my mind was playing games on me. It felt like every 5 seconds, my brain would turn off for half a second. It wasn't a headache, it was more like I was dizzy... but only for one out of five seconds. Very weird.

Thankfully, I was able to bring in the truck at 8 AM, and they said that they would look at it. Their free shuttle brought me home, and I went back to sleep. I figured that sleeping would fix the dizziness.

When they called at 12:30 PM to ask my permission to run a $50 diagnosis (I thought that that was why I brought it in...), I woke up and tried to get about my life. Remember, by this point, I had had my 8 hours of sleep (4 AM - 8 AM, 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM). But the dizziness was still there. It was really bothering me... it was hard to concentrate, to really do anything. My solution: go back to bed, of course!

So I again slept from 1:30 to 4:30. My dizziness was gone (for the most part), and I was able to "go about my life" (IE: watch pre-recorded TV and play games).

Then I got the phone call.

The mechanic called back about my truck. He said that:
the anti-lock brake system (ABS) was bad and needed to be replaced (remember my last post, when I said I slammed on my breaks going down the highway and there was that big poof of white smoke? this explains the white smoke)
the break pads are worn down and need replacing
something is leaking onto the break pads, so that needs fixing.

All said and done, it would cost $997 to get it all fixed. They want a thousand bucks from me, but I currently have $21 in my bank account. So what do I do?

I call my dad. Not to ask him for money because I am broke, but to ask him for money because I am broke AND because he owes me (for the last two jobs that I did). He tossed out the idea that I might just want to get a new vehicle, and he would buy the truck from me (which we have talked about before; I have always planned on the truck going to him after me). It made a lot of sense. According to KellyBluebook.com, my truck is worth just over $2,000, more than I thought it would be. But is it worth putting $1,000 into a $2,000 truck that will only cost me more money as the years pass?

So I am currently looking for a good deal on a used car. I am thinking between $5,000 - $10,000, and between years 2000 and 20005. If you know of any good deals, or if you are trying to get rid of a vehicle that is in good condition, please contact me.

On a side topic: what car do you see me driving?

Matthew