sorry sorry sorry!
Well, I'm sorry to be gone so long that you all actually missed me. (Well, Bet missed me anyway.) I just got.... busy. But now I'm back, and I'm going to tell you about the mechanic who probably saved my life.

For more than a few months now, I've been feeling listless after driving in my car for more than an hour. For a while, I thought it was either stress at work, a knee injury that was taking an age to heal, or just driving (which I really hate). One weekend, it occurred to me that it might be carbon monoxide seeping into the car, but there were no evidence other than my feeling tired. So, feeling like a fool, I took it to the shop to ask them to find a leak in the exhaust. The front desk lady (not the usual one) treated me as if I were strange, didn't understand what I was trying to tell her, but booked the car for an appointment anyway. I knew fixing the exhaust can cost about $500, but I guess I have to do it.

It turned out, they say, that I'm not crazy (not because of this, anyway). There was some kind of leak in the trunk. They fixed it, which also made the car much quieter (I had thought the noise indicated something wrong with the suspension, which was not found the last time I took it into the shop).

The cost? About $70.

So, my four-hour Thanksgiving road trip did not kill me. But what am I going to do when I move away from this town? I guess I have to start a long-distance relationship with this mechanic. My BF suggested I introduce him to my sister.