12/15/21 This Is Why We Have An Extra Vehicle?

     Last Friday, I went to turn on the Excursion and it sounded like one of those stupid motorcycles that makes too much noise for its size.  It literally scared me and I thought it was maybe because Baby A opened his door right as it fired up and the sound maybe came from the other side.  I told him to close the door and back away, in case it did something horrible, I didn't know what to think.  I turned it on again and it made the same rough rumble sound, like the muffler needed replacing.  I didn't think much of it, we do have an extra car, so we jumped in the Telluride and got him to school on time.  Because we are always in a hurry, I continued with my day, stopped at Target to get more snacks for the team on Saturday, then coming home and doing whatever I was doing.

    Since Saturday was all about wrestling, and we needed to go to bed early, like at 9:00pm, that was all I did Friday regarding the Excursion.  Sunday, we flipped the cars, we also got a cold front on Saturday, so I wasn't going to go out and mess with the vehicles in the cold.  I like driving the Escape, it is small and fits anywhere, Wife took her Telluride to work, which is fine, she hardly ever drives it.  At this point, it still has less than 40,000 miles and we have had it almost two years.

    In my head, I was thinking the Excursion is old, it might need a new muffler, I did drive home Thursday night and there were no problems I noticed.  I figured this can wait until after the holidays, once we get past this week, we will be off for two weeks, so no rush to get the back-up vehicle fixed.  A muffler shouldn't be too bad.  Then I talked to my parents and my dad suggested that maybe my catalytic converter was stolen, poor people have been taking these and I guess shops are taking them and offering cash, why is beyond me, but it is allowed, so desperate people are stealing anything of value.  I can survive the fact that this might have happened, but the idea that someone is bold enough to come on my property and hang out under my car and damage shit for a few nickels makes my blood boil.

    I was still too lazy and honestly didn't want to look under the Excursion, it has these bulky steps which makes it very hard for a fat-ass to look underneath, I literally have to drop down to both knees and probably lay on the floor to see under there.  Either way, it is going to cost me money to fix it, it is just matter of when I get around to doing it.  For now, I will keep driving the Escape, it is fun, specially with all the extra shoppers out now.