Safety First! (Day 6)

Last week, when Mandy and I switched vehicles for the weekend, she clarified to me that my suspicions about needing new brakes on my car were correct. Today, I took the car in town, to the garage where my ex-son-in-law (Mandy's ex-husband) works and got new brakes and rotors installed on my buggy! Since I've made three trips so far in the last 6 weeks or so that involve driving down over Seven Mountains, it's a big relief for me now to know that my brakes are new, good, intact and all that happy jazz! I'm not all that well-versed on automotive mechanical stuff and have, at times in the past, driven cars that weren't exactly getting the care that should be given to them -laxity on oil changes, things of the routine nature, mainly. But, when I hear sounds in any of my vehicles, or feel the unit handling differently, my first impulse is usually to call my ex-brother-in-law and describe to him what's happening and he can usually give me a diagnosis over the phone because he's so darned good at imitating the sounds a car makes when there are various problems within it! A lot of the time though, I tend to be a bit on the nervous side as I drive along and try to keep my ears tuned into any new or different (or scary) noises because I always worry -especially now -that if something major goes bad on the car, what the heck will I do for a replacement unit? But over all though, I do try, to the best of my ability, to keep my cars running at least half way decently and definitely do try to keep them operating as safely as possible too. So today, I'm thankful that I know a good mechanic (actually, I can think of 3 that I can or would call on for help) and that the one today -as he usually does for me and for Mandy too -cut me a nice break on the expense of getting my brakes fixed.