Rough day today for poor fRed, but hopefully he'll be okay by the end of it. First, I took him to get smogged. No big deal there. Then I had to take him somewhere else to get an oil change (long overdue) because the place I had a smog coupon for doesn't do oil changes on weekends. When I went to pick him up after that, I was given a list of various other things he needs to have fixed, all of which would probably amount to most of the money I managed to save over the last month (just when I thought I was starting to do pretty well....). Right now, I'm opting to just get the brakes fixed up, since they're the main safety issue. The other stuff has too low of a urgency::price ratio for me to want to deal with it just yet. Sigh. I don't like dealing with car stuff. I know so little about it that I always feel completely clueless. The guys at the shop were very friendly and showed me everything that was wrong, but I sort of just nodded politely at all the intricate little car parts and took their word for it. And it all costs so much. Oh well. I just tell myself that fRed has been a very good car and has taken good care of me so far, so the least I can do is to shell out a few hundred dollars once in a while to keep him in decent shape.