I had a rather nerve-wracking drive home from Sleepy Eye on Saturday. Early in the week I heard some grinding in the rear of my car, for some reason I didn’t bother to even think about what on Earth it could be. I pulled out of Sleepy Eye on Saturday and as I went down the highway I tapped on the brakes a bit when approaching a curve in the highway, and the brake light came on. It had a “P” next to it so I thought maybe my parking brake was stuck or something. Well then I came up to a stoplight along the highway to find that I had no brakes. Very frightening, but I pumped them a few times and they started to work and I was able to stop for the light.

I pulled over to seek some expert advice, and learned that I still should have enough front brakes to at least make it home. I made it, but it was a scary drive especially when I got to the city. In Minneapolis, if you are more than a car-length behind the car in front of you, you’re just driving too damn slow so everyone has to cut you off. It was especially scary to have cars so close in front of me, in the stop-and-go traffic, when it took a few seconds of pumping to get my brakes to start working.

Took the car to Midas, they seem to be the best guys in town, especially the one in Edina. The manager is awesome there, he was busy and they closed at 4PM and I walked in there at 2PM, and he still got my car in and tried to fix it. After I told him I couldn’t wait until Monday afternoon because I have to drive south for work, he went above and beyond to get me in. They did all the work but then couldn’t get the brakes to function right, and then unfortunately they learned that this was because the Master Cylinder also needed to be replaced. They worked on my car an hour past their closing time, which is incredible, but they won’t have it done until Monday morning. He said he’ll get in as soon as the parts store is open and get working right on it. He also gave me a free oil change, and a card for two free oil changes for later on. In Midas, an oil change is about $40 so that’s a really nice deal. It’s good to see that people out there really understand customer service. After the way I was treated Saturday, I’ll probably always go to Midas as long as I need cars fixed and can’t do it myself.

The places I’ll absolutely never go to again:

Jiffy Lube… Three words: SCREWED ME OVER. Since when do oil changes cost $110? I got an oil change at Firestone, and had a fuel filter installed along with it, and that only costed $90. And Jiffy Lube told me I need to get the corner lights on my car fixed or I could get a ticket. Then they wanted to charge me $20 per bulb. They lied to me and told me that’s cost, I went over to a parts store and picked up the bulbs at about $2.00 each. I was tempted to go back and show them the receipt, but I didn’t have it in me that day, I guess. Never ever go to Jiffy Lube, unless if, I suppose, you know the people there.

Firestone… My first year of college I went to this place three times. Twice for an oil change, and then once to have a flat tire repaired. They didn’t overcharge me as bad as Jiffy Lube for the oil change, but $90 was really rather rediculous. As for the tire, I had to go back twice because they didn’t fix it correctly the first time. Their specialty is tires, and they can’t even fix a tire right? It’s not like there was more than one leak, they just didn’t fix it correctly. They tried to tell me it was a different leak, but the cashier didn’t realize I stood there and watched the guy re-do the patch that he had just put on hours before. Probably the most annoying occurence was the other oil change I went to them for. They had a big sign on the building that said “Oil Changes 29.99″ so I went in to have it done. The person in front of me was charged $29.99 for their oil change, walked out with no problem. I came up, they billed me $50. I asked, “What about the $29.99 deal?” The clerk said “That’s if you have the coupon.” I said, “Well, since it just says it on a big sign outside, do I really need the coupon?” Apparently yes, because even after arguing with the guy about it, I still got charged $50 even though I had been lured in by the low rate. He absolutely refused to even consider doing it without the stupid little piece of paper that was just going to go in the trash anyway. Never ever go to Firestone, unless if, I suppose, you know them.

Those are pretty much the only two I’ve had problems with. I don’t have a clue how places can get away with charging $90+ for oil changes when a competitor in town does it for half that. $40 at Midas. I’ve been to two Midas stores and they’re both pretty good, so if you’re in a large city and need to go to one of the chain auto repair places, I guess it’s pretty clear who I’m recommending.

Sorry if I sound like a commercial, but after this weekend car repair is about all that’s on my mind. I’ll admit, the brake job was pretty expensive, $650 for everything including the Master Cylinder. But I messed up the brakes pretty bad by not getting it looked at right away when I heard the grinding. Plus the salty Minnesota winter roads rusted out all the brake lines, which is likely why they went out in the first place, so EVERYTHING in the brake system had to be replaced. I would hate to see how much it would have costed at Firestone or Jiffy Lube.

Well I hope you all had a Happy Halloween. I know, Halloween is more of a kid’s holiday. Oh the memories I have of Halloween up in Cooperstown. It’s crazy that this time of year is already here. The Christmas stuff is already out in the stores. Personally, I’m mostly excited about Thanksgiving. Nothing beats Thanksgiving dinner. And it’s coming soon.

I won’t be making that dreadful trip early in the morning to North Dakota on Tuesday. I got an absentee ballot and sent that in, which saves me a lot of hassle. Personally I can’t wait until this election is over so we can all just move on with our lives. The problem is, neither side is going to want to except that they lost. We’ll be having recounts until July probably. Minnesota is a battleground state, so it’s getting pretty ugly around here. I drove Lizzie to work out in Edina since my car is out of service, and along the way we saw quite a few people along the streets with their Kerry or Bush signs. The funny thing is that most of them didn’t even look old enough to vote.

Well, I should get some sleep. Monday morning will be busy, I have to try to get things straightened out with my car early so that I can leave soon enough to make it to work. Speaking of which, work has been going pretty good. Keeping really busy and I’m not getting tired of it. It’s still really a fun job, actually.

Good luck with your voting on Tuesday, I hope you are as confident about your vote as I am about mine. I’m sure we’ll all be glued to the TV’s/radios/internet, what-have-you, on Tuesday night to see which man this country thinks is the best man for the job. See you next weekend.