Mental breakdown… No.

Spiritual breakdown… No.  Well, yes, already broken and made new in Christ (praise God!).

Emotional breakdown… Nope, doing okay there too.

Physical breakdown… Nah, feeling good, 205 and holding.

So, what sort of breakdown am I talking about?

Transportation breakdown… YES!

Our 4Runner has been running a little louder than normal lately.  Not in the engine, just when driving, it almost sounded as if the tires were really big (just loud road noise).  We had it in the shop last week and the tech actually called me down, after I approved some work on it, to show me why he didn’t think we should do the work.  Long story short, it needs about $X,XXX amount of work done to it.  As a 1999 4Runner the good Bluebook value on it isn’t even double that amount.  Ahh, what to do?

Our 1998 Avalon needs some minor work done to it as well.  It screams at us about every time we turn the engine on (some sort of belt issue).  Elisabeth was literally inside my parents house, on the backside of the house, when I started it up last night.  She could here it out on the street. A bit embarrassing.

Then to top it all off… I took my bike out on a ride Saturday, I knew I was risking it a bit, but it had been a full week since I had last ridden. My back tire has 6 places that the tube of the tire was beginning to peak through outer edge of the tire.  A flat was on the way.  Well, because I hadn’t ridden in quite some time, I wanted to make it through the weekend and take it in on Monday for a tune-up and new tire.  I was on the last 2-3 miles of my 11.5 mile ride when it felt like the gears were not staying engaged… a couple cranks later and BAM, the chain broke.  Fun walk home.

Bike is officially in the shop (but I don’t get it back until next Friday!).

So, transportation breakdown has hit.

Appreciate your prayers for wisdom in how we handle all the decisions that need to be made.  If you have a couple spare brand-new cars you want to throw our way, we’d have a hard time saying no.

In all seriousness, we’re not stressed, just trusting the Lord for what’s next.  In the meantime, I’m back to some walking to stay in shape (and to get to work).

Grace,
Brian