A week ago Sunday, after we drove [...]]]> Yoda:  ”Senator Amidala, your tragedy on the landing platform… terrible. Seeing you alive brings warm feeling to my heart.”
Padme:  ”Do you have any idea who was behind this attack?”
Mace Windu:  ”Our intelligence points to disgruntled spice miners on the moons of Naboo.”
Padme:  ”I think that Count Dooku was behind it.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

A week ago Sunday, after we drove Bob and Eileen to the airport, Dad Windu and I noticed a strange whining sound coming from the front passenger side of the car. Odd, we thought. It appeared to be getting steadily worse throughout the week, so I took the car into the auto repair shop yesterday. Two front bearings and rotors later, we had a quiet car and a reduced bank account.

Since we have an older car, we set money aside every year for auto repairs. “Cheaper than a car payment,” I like to remind us (as I gaze wistfully at the shiny new pretties that I love so dearly). Long and short of it, we had $582.64 left in the auto maintenance category early Monday morning. The repair came to $584.62. Suffice it to say, I think we need to hide the budget info better – or at least hope the cats can’t read.

I dropped off Dad Windu’s car at the repair shop yesterday. The one that we put into storage for the summer. It has a few ‘issues‘ that need to be taken care of, such as a horrid screeching noise coming [...]]]> “How are you going to pay for all this?” - Watto, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

I dropped off Dad Windu’s car at the repair shop yesterday. The one that we put into storage for the summer. It has a few ‘issues‘ that need to be taken care of, such as a horrid screeching noise coming from the front, a grinding noise that greets every right turn, a shifter that wants to stay firmly in the Park position first thing every morning, a slow leak in one of the tires, and a gas tank that doesn’t want to let the nozzle at the gas station know that the tank is full. A gasoline waterfall is what all the cool cars are wearing these days. And once the car was up on the lift, the mechanic found that both springs on the front suspension were broken.

Yeah.

Oh, and next week I get to take my car in for repairs.

Double yeah.

End of year bonus in. End of year bonus out.