I don't much automobile blogging because to me a vehicle is just a way to get somewhere, not something I've ever been emotionally attached to.

Last week the idiot light came on in my 2003 Ford Ranger and it started idling very rough.  One time it died while I was sitting at a stop light, so I've been circumventing that by shutting off the a/c unless I'm moving.

Today I took a day off work to accompany my son's kindergarten class on their field trip to the zoo, so we dropped the truck off at our local shop.  They hooked it up to the computer and eventually found a small hose with a tiny crack in it.

But apparently this small hose is some kind of sooper-seekrit dealer part.  Can't get it at NAPA or anywhere else.

So he calls up a dealer.  Calls another.  Both tell him that part doesn't go in a 2003 Ford Ranger.  Yet he is holding the very part in his hand, which he took out of a 2003 Ford Ranger only minutes before.  Maybe I should have just wrapped it in duct tape and kept going.

So they're sending him some hoses that are supposed to go in a Taurus because they think one of them will fit.  He should have been able to take of this in a couple of hours this morning, but now my truck is in the shop for an overnight stay while he waits for these top-secret parts to arrive.

In a related story, two weeks ago the idiot light came on in my wife's Dodge Durango.  Another hose problem.  Why was the hose torn apart with ragged edges on the ends?  Squirrels.  Squirrels chewed the hose apart.