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This weekend I have been recovering from some kind of illness. Kind of a bad cold, with sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, etc. I have been taking sudafed, and it works great, but leaves me with two side-effects. The first is dry-mouth. That’s not that bad, as I have been drinking tons of water. The second is that I get this yucky taste in my mouth, and everything smells smoky. Not a nice bbq smoke, either. It’s more like a cigarette type of smoke. And not like you walked into a bar and smell a cigarette (I actually like that smell), but it’s more like you just smoked a cigarette, and have that taste in your mouth and want to brush your teeth. It’s both a taste and a smell. Kind of hard to describe, but let’s just say, it’s unpleasant. Anyways, I am much better and back at work.

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Last night I had a dream that I was watching Barry Manilow being interviewed on a late-night talk-show. He said that he often has trouble switching to a low note while singing, so when he was singing at a concert in Hawaii, he would pause before the low note, then say, “Aloha” to the audience, then continue with the low note. He then said that throughout the rest of the concert, he would say something in Hawaiian before he had to hit another low note. He said that he didn’t know what the phrases meant, but the audience loved it, so it must have been ok. (The talk-show audience proceeded to laugh hysterically at this point)

Sometimes I am amazed at how the dreaming mind can make these things up.

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My little Sentra just passed the 50,000 mile mark, and I have never had the brakes looked at. I know that’s terrible, but, well, that’s just how it is. Anyways, I must say that going to the brake repair place is an awful experience. It all worked out fine in the end, but the first place I visited to get my free estimate really put the guilt-trip on pretty heavy, and made me feel like I was going to kill myself, or someone else, if I got back in the car. This was a complete change of attitude from when I first walked into the place. The attendant was like my best buddy when I first met him, then after he inspected the brakes, he turned into a complete snake. (Read more for the happy ending)

The price they quoted was super-high, and when I said that I would think about it and come back later, he produced a second estimate, if I just wanted to change the pads. He said that I had only a day left of the current pads. A single day! Give me a break. He then said that if I didn’t have the service done today, it could be “metal on metal” and would cost a lot more to fix. This is probably a pretty common tactic for brake shops to use to get you to agree to the work then and there. I said “no thanks” and left with the estimate. The guy kept giving me the guilt-trip as I walked out the door.

Next, I went to another place for an estimate, and get a similar quote, but without a somewhat lesser guilt-trip.

So today I go to a third place, and get their free estimate. About ten minutes after the mechanic started looking at it, he comes back into the waiting room and said, “I want to show you something on your car.” I thought that I was going to get the hard sell again. But surprisingly, the mechanic (not the store manager, mind you) showed me the pads, explained that I had about 10% left, then showed me the rear brakes, then showed me the uneven wear on the rear tires. He explained the options honestly (as far as I could tell by examining the brakes with him) and didn’t put any kind of scare-tactic into the conversation. He also said that he could have it done within the hour. I asked him how the calipers looked (which the other places said needed replacing) and he said they were fine. Just as I suspected. So, I had the work done, which was about 50% cheaper than the first place. On another note, the place had a tv with espn on it, a fresh copy of the newspaper, free Internet workstation, and free coffee.

Towards the end of my “visit”, however, I did see more of the same slimy sales technique applied to a teenage driver who was in for some tires. The sales manager came into the waiting room, and pulled up a chair. Not a good sign. He then proceeded to give the kid the hard sell on four tires, since the tires he is driving on “could go at any time”.

One difference was that at the third place I went to, I didn’t say anything was wrong with the brakes. I just said that my schedule said that the brakes should be serviced. The first two places, I said that the brakes were squeaking. I think this had something to do with the first two places digging for more money.

At any rate, my brakes feel great now, and I feel my Sentra will last another six years easy.

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Tonight we had some really tender pork with chinese-style sauce, accompanied by chinese veggies. It was yummy! The meat had been in the Le Creuset for hours, so it was so tender!