Thanks to the fact that I never owned a car until I was married, I've never had to take a car to a repair shop. Brandon always took care of it. And it's not just repair shops. I've never taken the car to get registered or to even to get an oil change. I just always let Brandon handle that kind of stuff. In fact, Brandon was surprised I even knew how to put gas in the car.
Well those innocent days ended this week.
You may remember that I dropped Brandon off at a hotel the night before he was sworn into the army. And you may recall that I couldn't get the car to start after he said goodbye. Fortunately, I only had to go through a few panic inducing minutes before the car started again and I was able to go home.
The same thing happened to me two more times over the next few weeks. It was a little disconcerting, but I was busy, I didn't have time to take the car in to be looked at. And I really didn't know where to begin.
Last week one of Brandon's best friends asked how the car was running. I mentioned the rare not-starting issue, and Friday he came down from Logan to check it out. He'd promised Brandon that he would keep and eye on the car for me. He followed through with that promise. In addition to checking the battery and alternator, he changed the oil, gapped the spark plugs, filled up the tires, bought me a whole tank of gas, and probably did a whole bunch of other things too. He's basically the nicest guy on the planet. I can't print his name here because that would ruin the whole "bad guy" reputation that he likes to maintain.
I was thrilled with the work he did. Especially since I figured I could continue in my car care ignorance. However, after he left I noticed that the brakes were acting funny and the brake warning light was on. I asked Brandon's friend about it and he said he hadn't done anything to the brakes.
My initial plan of "ignoring the problem until it went away" didn't work. On Monday I told myself I was a big girl and took the jeep into Midas to get the brakes inspected. (I picked Midas because that's where Brandon took the car.) I was able to handle the whole thing like an adult. However the diagnosis on the jeep came back grim. All four brake pads were worn down to almost nothing. The front two were below the passing inspection limit, and the back two were close. And there were some other brake problems that concerned the mechanic as well.
Now this may seem like a terrible problem. However, I view it as a miracle. Here's why: Back when the Jeep was inspected for safety in January of 2011 the mechanics warned Brandon that the front pads were low. They still passed, but we figured they probably wouldn't pass again. So when Brandon took the Jeep in for safety at the beginning of this year we held our breath. We had just survived 4 months of unemployment and we didn't have money to replace the brakes. Miraculously, the jeep passed inspection on the first try. And miraculously the brakes worked through all the things we did in the last 10 months.
Now that Brandon makes more money this actually was the perfect time for the brakes to give out. I had more than enough money in savings to cover the cost of replacing all four brakes. And with another pay check coming in a few days I didn't have to work about being left with nothing in savings.
I was feeling pretty proud of myself. I'd successfully taken the car to the repair shop, and now all my car problems would be solved. However, I should have waited before patting myself on the back. Not only were the brakes bad, but the brake cylinder also needed to be replaced. The mechanics didn't find that problem until just about closing time. I had to leave the jeep with them overnight.
They finished up the jeep on Tuesday. As luck would have it, all my kids were sleeping when the shop called to tell me they were done. I called a neighbor who came and sat on my couch while I walked the short distance though the neighborhood to the shop. I paid for the repairs with my debit card (Dave Ramsey would be so proud) and came home.
But I wasn't done growing up yet. Last night I noticed a grinding noise coming from the brakes while I drove. I tried my ignoring plan again, but, surprise-surprise, by this morning the problem hadn't gone away. I called up Midas and told them the problem. The mechanic who worked on the jeep happened to be the one who answered the phone. He immediately remembered that he'd forgot to snap something into place (or something like that.) He told me that I could bring the jeep in and he would fix it right away in the parking lot.
Charlotte and Lydia were asleep so I called my upstairs neighbor and told her she was in charge of them, but she could stay upstairs. I would be back in less than 15 minutes. I loaded Derrick up into the car and we drove over to Midas.
I parked in front of the building and turned off the engine. Jay, the mechanic, came out (he heard me pull up) and crawled under the car. In two seconds he was back out. He'd fixed the problem. He told me to back the car up and drive forward again to see if the noise was gone. I tried, but there was one little problem - the car wouldn't start!
My first reaction was embarrassment. My car was making me look bad in front of a mechanic. But then I realized that this was the best place to be with a car that wouldn't start. Jay had been a mechanic for 41 years. Both of us figured he could get the problem solved in a jiffy. I popped the hood and he told me and Derrick stories while he worked. First he cleaned the connector thingies. When that didn't work he checked the battery. When that didn't work he changed the battery. And when that didn't work he tracked the electricity and found that the starter had gone out.
The whole process had taken almost two hours. During that time Jay and I had become great friends. He'd shown me that mechanics aren't scary. They are actually really fun. At one point I totally bought into a major BS story he told me. I told him he could tell me all the BS he wanted as long as it wasn't about the car. I would have loved to stick around and continue talking to him. However, by this point my amazing upstairs neighbor was feeling the girls lunch at home, and Derrick needed to take a nap. So I left the keys with Jay and hitched a ride home in the courtesy car. (I would have walked, but Derrick is freakin' heavy.)
Once again this may seem like a terrible problem. But you have to remember the car not starting was my original issue. I'm so glad that the starter decided to seize up right in front of a repair shop. I was at least able to save on the cost of a tow truck. And I'm so glad it didn't happen to me while I had three crazy kids with me. (I don't even want to think about how bad of a situation that could have been.)
Midas gave me a good deal to replace the starter and within a few hours I was able to pick up my jeep for (hopefully) the last time. Once again I was able to pay for the repairs with my debit card - though I will add that I am VERY grateful that all our bills are already paid for the month.
So what's the moral of this story? There are several.
1. Always pay your tithing. I am convinced that we were spared major car trouble until the time we could afford it because we paid our tithing.
2. Make sure you have savings. I could have gone nuts with Brandon's first pay check and bought a lot of fun things. I also could have gone ahead and made a double payment on the student loans. But I felt it was important to have money in our savings account.
3. Face your fears. Hoping the problem goes away is no way to get things done.
4. Pay attention to what your husband does. 'Nuff Said
I'm glad everything worked out with the car. I always kind of feel like an idiot when I take our car into the shop and have often wondered what I would do if Noel wasn't around. I should pay more attention to that sort of stuff.
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