Cars...who needs them

Our one and only vehicle has been causing us some worry lately so we decided to be responsible owners and have it checked out before it died. We thought maybe that would help it be cheaper.

Yeah, right.

A rebuilt transmission and $2400 later it had better drive better. The mechanic is working with us as best he can by knocking off $200 and doing a lesser repair for free. I'm just glad that we could cover half and had good enough credit to take care of the other half. We'll knock that out quickly with Tom's overtime. I can't wait until our emergency fund is fully funded.

Another good thing is I'm not trying to get to work with a car in the shop. Between this and all the Relief Society business I've had in the last two weeks I'm glad I got out of that kitchen. I didn't need the stress from before or the added stress now.

I've found there's something about being stuck at home with no car. It's boring. Suddenly you think of everything you could be doing if you have a car. I've successfully channeled that into other things though. I've been knitting and today I figured out a better way to do the tatted alter cloth I've been wanting to make. It should be more durable and still pretty.

Merced

Usually I post about events chronologically, but this time I thought I'd get the unpleasant out of the way first. Back in April we got the rear brakes fixed before Tim left on his mission. Not long after we started hearing noises from the front brakes. We hoped it would last until after the trip to California, but it wasn't to be. On the first day in Yosemite the brakes were toast. We did the best we could while in Yosemite, but we were NOT going to waste an entire day traveling to a city over 100 miles away to get them fixed. Finally, we left Yosemite on schedule and made our way to Merced, California. We found the Sears there, left the car and walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Long story short...finally 4 hours later we left Merced to drive to Palo Alto and arrived there soon after 9 pm Pacific Time.

Here's James after lunch.

"Hey, I know you're a teenage boy, but don't you think you ate enough?"

(Really, that's all the plates for the entire family stacked up in front of James.)