stAllio!'s way

took my car in for 30,000 mile service this morning. i actually exceeded 30,000 miles months ago (i'm closer to 37-38k now) & have been meaning to take it in, hell, probably since before the snowy season started in december (& can you believe we're supposed to have another winter storm tonight? beware the ides of march indeed).

but connie arrives in a couple days, & we might be driving around indiana looking at amish people & stuff like that, so i figured the time was right to actually take the car in for service. it's always good to have a well-tuned vehicle for road trips.

i waited in the waiting room for the dealer's shuttle to return so i could get a ride to the office. then, naturally, my manager was walking by right as i arrived here & sent me an email about how i should always call ahead if i'm going to be more than a few minutes late. oh well; it's not like i'm really in trouble about it.

someone from the dealer just called & recommended i have my wiper blades replaced, as well as telling me that my front brake pads are "borderline" & "it's debatable, depending how you drive, whether they would make it to the next service." i told them to go ahead & fix it all. i will probably wait too long for my next service anyway, so i'd rather have good brakes. that will add another $150 or so to my total, probably making this a $400 service, but whatever. my car should be in tip-top shape when they're done & that's worth some money. i do have the money (i think; today is payday & i get my bonus today in addition to my paystub.... the money for both has apparently been in my "available balance" since saturday night, although my "current balance" doesn't show it yet... it's odd to have such a big discrepancy between those two values, but i'm sure that will be resolved soon, probably within a few hours)