Tale of two vehicles

We drive two OLD vehicles(2000 Safari van, 1998 Camry), cause we are broke and can't afford car payments.  SO when things go wrong you have to pay for it.

 Yesterday I was at work and one of the customers came in and ask me,"is that your red Camry out there?"  I said, "Yep...why?", Customer said.."there's an exhaust pipe hanging pretty low on it.." I said, " Oh ...yeah, I know about that, I was hoping  you were gonna say it was on fire, or someone was driving off with it"..he chuckled I just sighed.  Yep, the muffler has been bad for a while, at first it was just a hole in the exhaust pipe, probably should have gotten it fixed then, but that would be TOOO easy. It also has an oil leak, like a quart a week!  I told my husband, "I'm single handedly polluting the world one parking lot at a time!".  I figured by the next time I need an oil change it'll be all fresh, at a quart a week, we've gone through almost 5 quarts already.  Thank God Valvoline does free top offs.  Money of course is always an issue.  So I'm driving home last night, and I can hear it dragging. PEACHY.  I pick up all the kids at their various schools and by the time it I get to my house is really a LOT worse.  Of course it's too hot to mess w/ at that point, so I go in, cook dinner post about my shitty luck on facebook begging someone to come over and detach it the rest of the way so it's at least not dragging.  That didn't work.  This morning I have no choice but to use it to drive the kids to school because my van was in the body shop due to my husband breaking it. (Yes..it took a year to be able to pay the damned deductible to have it fixed)   I have two teens that start school early, and two younger kids that go a bit later.  Before taking them, I run out in my grungy clothes, because it's 40 degrees and muddy/rainy outside and try to reach the damn thing and just yank it off.  I really wasn't too concerned w/ breaking shit because it's already no good.  Didn't work, it may be dragging but it's SOLIDLY dragging, and ain't gonna fall off!  Of course, just my luck.
 Well guys I guess we're going to school like this, did you want me to stop 4 blocks from school and just walk the rest of the way? Boys:"nope, we don't care Mom!" Really, because I personally want to stop and walk the rest of the way.  Drop off one, then the other, go over a few speed bumps in the school parking lots, dragging, bumping, clunking...oh this is attractive. On a side note, I did actually put jeans on this morning, just in case, so I wouldn't be in my jammies if something happened. Get back to the house...Oh Fuck! It's also trash day...go do that, thank God the neighbors remember this shit, cause mine would never get put out if their's wasn't out first.  Feeling more and more stressed knowing I have to drive the damn car any further today, the kids are loud, the dog is loud..AHHHHHHHHH!  CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!  Get the littles in the car and head off again, muffler dragging, kinda like fucking jingle bells if you're twisted enough to see it that way...the car is red after all.  All I need is a damn Santa hat!
 This is Michigan, and we have potholes...hit a few unavoidable ones..well it's either that or slam into someone  else head on, so I opted for the potholes.  Just when I didn't think the damn car could get any louder, it sure did.  Louder, and noisier dragging, fabulous.  Got the youngest son dropped off, still had the daughter to go, almost to her school and I can't stand it anymore.  Luckily my Mom lives really close to her school, so I whip into Grandma's and ask if I can use her Jeep to quick run DD to school...no problem. Thank God!
 Drop off baby girl, go back to Mom's call the body shop to see if my van is ready, and by the grace of God it is! Thank you thank you, you have no idea!  So my stepdad gives me a ride to the body shop, pick up the van and compared to the car it is GLORIOUS...so quiet!  It's clean, they vacuumed it, and it smells nice, and it's quiet, and quiet...I drove without the radio on for the first 10 miles just because it sounded so nice!  Then I had to go feed the horses and clean the barn, and rush back home so I could make it work on time and it's not even noon.  If it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all.