September 06, 2003 - 2:28 p.m.
[insert colorful language of your choice here]
Earlier this week, Mike noticed that my brake light was coming on every now and then. We pulled out my owner's manual, determined that the car was probably running low on brake fluid, and put it off until the weekend. Yeah - I drove to Richmond and back in the meantime. I mean, hey - the brakes still worked...
I never said I was smart.
This morning we loaded the car to head out to Coronation, planning to drop it off at the Merchant's later on, and this time the brake light just stayed on... As Mike and I debated over whether or not to turn back, Zachary started crying...
Last Monday, Zachary scraped his elbow up. Yesterday he overturned a wagon in the driveway of my parents' house and tore the scab off. Yeah - that makes me wince in pain just thinking about it, too. He refuses to wear bandaids and the healing process itches so, as he sat in his carseat this morning, he had picked it open again and was bleeding liberally. We pulled over to clean him up and at least try to apply pressure to stop the bleeding while he cried and kicked hysterically. He hates being handled...
And Mike realized we didn't put the garb in the car.
Home again, home again jiggity-jog.
Marcus took a nap while I moved the carseats into the Saturn (which also needs service but, yeah, we're putting it off until next month) and called to make a service appointment for the minivan. (It's due for the 60K maintenance, anyway.) Perhaps, I thought, my luck was up. The shop wasn't buried in other cars to see first.
Luck. Hah.
Well, "hah" aside from avoiding total brake system failure, of course...
The must have gotten to mine quickly because they called within 90 minutes after leaving it ... with a grocery list of problems. The expected issue with the brakes turned out to be a complete replacement of the rear drums and pads as well as a leaky line. I had suspected a belt problem, too, and was right. Arcing spark plug wires threw in with everything else, just to keep things interesting and - the coup de grace - the morons at Oilstop on Baron Cameron who performed my last oil change screwed up the plug in the oil pan and it won't come out. That's going to require replacing the entire pan in 2,000 miles when I need to change the oil again (an expense on top of the $1,000 I have to spend today) and, more immediately, the beginning of a complaint campaign to Oilstop.
Stayed tuned for further developments...
