Mrs ERJ bought a new truck

We have been struggling on the transportation side of the business.

The S-10 was red-tagged.  It has no rear brakes and the frame is cracked.

Looking forward along the left frame rail

Looking up at the frame rail.

The frame crack runs from just forward of the rear spring shackle to forward of the rear cab mount.

The S-10 cost $700 a year and a half ago and I put about 15K miles on it.  It does not owe me anything.

The Malibu is up at college with Belladona.  Kubota's truck is in the shop.  Mrs ERJ's van is making ominous, front-wheel bearing kinds of sounds.

So we have three drivers and we are sharing one working vehicle, Mrs ERJ's minivan.

Taxes

We finished the income taxes earlier this week.  Our refund is very small...enough to buy five bottles of Faygo Redpop.  The key point is that we were expecting to pay $1500 so having the Federal taxes be a wash was a very pleasant surprise.

We decided the best use for the money was to buy another set of wheels.

Mrs ERJ is now the proud owner of a new, 1998 Chevy Pickup truck.  It only has 216K miles on it and it has an automatic transmission and both front and rear brakes work!

A picture of the new truck

I am pretty sure she is going to let me drive it.

Pelosi's Crumbs
Mrs ERJ wants to name the truck Pelosi's Crumbs.

I don't know how much of the $1500 is due to pessimistic math and how much is due to changes to the tax code.

I do know that a local construction worker who had been laid off all winter now has an extra $1350 in his pocket.

And I know that the State of Michigan is going to collect another $81 in sales tax and $120 in licensing fees.