Giving Up the Ghost of Christmas Past

Three years ago my wife surprised me on Christmas Eve with a used 1990 Ford Ranger XLT pickup truck. I had been without a vehicle for over a year and our family just had a Dodge Neon to shuttle us around. The addition of the $1,000 truck gave us some flexibility in providing for our family’s transportation needs.

There was no beauty to it. It simply served to get me to work and back. If it turned heads, it only did so in surprise that such a vehicle could be running. And it did run…

Until this morning when it gave up its ghost, its drive shaft, parts of the clutch assembly, and rear differential broke apart over some very large bumps near the El Paso, Illinois exit on Interstate 39 as I drove to my job in Bloomington.

With the recent foreclosure of our home and the lack of funds to repair the vehicle, we are again left with only one vehicle, our family van.

If only Santa would be so kind as to leave me his sleigh and reindeer this Christmas.

Happy holidays!