(fantastic image found here)
Here at the Dotson house, we have experienced a practically proven (I think) phenomenon.
When it rains it pours.
I don't mean literally, although we have had a lot of rain lately. I mean figuratively. In the "are you kidding me? not again!" sort of way.
Last Thursday Matt got home from work, parked the car, and came in the house. Same as he has for years. On Friday morning he went to get in the car and saw that one of the tires was flat. Bummer! For the average person, this is no big deal. For us, this puts our 2nd car out of commission. The 1st car is sitting in the side driveway with... A FLAT TIRE.
Sunday night Matt put the spare on the 2nd car with a flat and took it to get fixed Monday morning. Guess what. The tire can't be fixed. Whatever the cause of the flat tire (we have no idea), the sidewall was pretty shredded. That means we need to replace 3 tires (we already planned on replacing 2). OUCH! Also, the tires (and possibly a part) have to be ordered. That means it will be out of commission until Thursday, but probably Friday. You know how it goes...
Monday night Matt put the spare on the 1st car with a flat and took it to work on Tuesday to get it fixed. No sweat - 2 new tires, an alignment, and an inspection. WRONG. It didn't pass inspection. The back brakes (this link is helpfully informative) are too low. Now that car is also at the shop so we can get an estimate and then get it fixed.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could research an estimate yourself? Have more control? Well, take a look at this site! (you'll want to see this. I'll wait here.)
Type in the make/model/year of your vehicle and follow the instructions from there. It's pretty impressive. This same site will also list the top dealers and mechanics in your area (with reviews of the location). Here's an example of some places in Dallas (too bad I don't live there!).
To top it off, this site will also give you reviews on specific vehicles. I will be using this feature of the site soon, I'm sure. For example, if you were looking at a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado, here's what your page would look like. Isn't that fantastic?!
Go ahead, put this site to good use. I know I will!
Hopefully by Friday both of our cars will be fixed and we will be on our merry way...
(my fingers are crossed)
