Give me a brake

[texaslawchick]

I was late to work this morning, because my car decided to be mean to me. It all started yesterday, as I was pulling out of my (paved) driveway onto the (partially paved) street. There was a dump truck in front of my next door neighbors' house, so I had to back directly out. My half of the street is paved; the other half of the street is about a foot higher than my half of the street and it's sort of paved. By "sort of paved" I mean "asphalt has been torn to shreds and there is some semblance of road, but it's more historical than actual." Anyhow, I didn't give enough oomph to get over to the unpaved side (because I would have backed into a fence if I had), and I ended up getting stuck. It wasn't rainy, it wasn't muddy, I just managed to dig myself deep into a hole in the pseudoroad. Fortunately, I live in a fantastic neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else. No less than four sets of neighbors heard my car revving and came out to help. One of them tried to help me jack out of the space, but that didn't work. Another tried to use her truck to push me out of the hole. Finally my next door neighbor got his truck, attached it to mine and pulled.

I was very late getting to meet moppety to paint, and I heard a weird noise every time I slowed down into first gear as I was driving to meet her.

This morning, the noise was still there, and I didn't hesitate to drive directly to the dealership to have it examined. There were two choices: breaks or transmission. The guy at the dealership hopped in, hoping to hear the noise, and within ten seconds he said "metal on metal, your break pad is totally gone."

So my car is at the dealership, and I had to catch a shuttle to work.

Joy.