Facie’s Ramblings

I just cannot seem to come up with a coherent blog post. It is just easier to post pictures, tell a story, or do a bulleted list. Here goes my bulleted list (and why is it that blogger thinks that "bulleted" is not a word?) Last week when I got on the bus, I sat down next to a guy. Said guy had a can of something between his legs. My first guess was beer, particularly since he reeked of alcohol, but then I decided it could have been one of those canned energy drinks. When he turned towards the window (and away from me) to take a sip, that was a pretty good indication he was drinking a brew. Upon further review, I confirmed it. Miller Ice, I believe. As my bus driver friend said, "As long as the bus driver is not drinking, you are golden." After my third trip to my mechanic in five months, I told him that, no offense, I hoped that I would not see him until January 2015, when my next inspection is due. I don't even want to add up what I spent on the car in 201...

I swear that whenever I think my car will need new brakes or something else, it almost always ends up being fine as is. Just this past fall, the Saturn was fighting me almost every time I tried to turn the key in the ignition . I was fulling expecting to pay a lot of money to replace my lock cylinder, but my great mechanic tried graphite, and my key has failed to turn only one time in the past four months. Sure, the Vue is living on borrowed time, but I am happy to put that off as long as I can. Yesterday, I said to the hubby as well as to my mom that I really cannot think of what repairs my car would need during today's inspection. I am very hard on my brakes, but since I had those replaced less than two years ago, I figured I was fine. And after my tire debacle about a year ago, I was quite sure my just-under-one-year-old tires were going to be good at least until the end of this year (even though, of course, they are warranted for 80,000 miles). So what was left? Yes, there a...

I am sitting here waiting for the oven repair guy (or gal) to show up. Earlier this year, our oven, which looked brand new when we bought the house 10.5 years ago but was probably several years old, would randomly shut off during baking. Fortunately, if we turned it back on, it was fine, so we chose to ride it out. Then, a few weeks later, it would not light/start (whatever happens with a gas oven). So hubby scheduled a repair and mentioned only that the oven would no longer light/turn on. The repair guy fixed that, but within a day or two, the oven would shut off again. Since hubby failed to mention the randomly turning off issue, we knew we would have to pay for another appointment, so we, once again, ignored the problem. Unfortunately, it has gotten worse, and the oven hardly stays on now. And that is why I am waiting for the repair person and hoping beyond hope it won't set us back more than $150. Wall ovens are not cheap to replace! But wait, there's more. Back in July, ...

Well, my brake-car conundrum did not turn out as I had expected. Not surprisingly, the gurgling sound my car was making pretty much stopped after I made the appointment with my mechanic, which is precisely what happened the last time my car was making funny noises . But since I needed an oil change anyway, and my new brakes do squeal, I went ahead with my appointment. According to a guy at my mechanic's, my brakes are fine . He said a "different" material was used on the brakes, and I am probably just not used to the sound. Although I feel good (well, better) knowing that there does not appear to be a problem with my brakes, I don't feel great knowing that I can most likely expect to hear these various sounds again. One would think with the money I spent on my brakes in June, I could expect them to be noise-free. One (i.e., I), however, would be wrong. Worth noting is my mechanic did not charge me to try to figure out what was the wrong this time, although let me ...