Woo hoo! A car repair!

Our vehicles have conspired against us. Between needed-repairs (electrical, alternator, etc.) and scheduled maintenance (timing belt, brakes, blah, blah, blah, etc.), we've had major auto expenses lately. So of course...perfect timing for me to make a silly mistake while driving, right?

Our neighborhood has some traffic circles along the main road.



I'm so used to driving around them that Friday as we drove toward the library, I zoned out and misjudged where I was. I took the traffic circle too wide and hit the curb. It was hard enough for me to quickly pull over and check my tire. Sure enough, a little chunk of the tire was gone...not enough for it to be flat, but enough for me to drive straight to Discount Tire and see if it needed to be repaired or replaced.

(Oh, and I also hit the curb hard enough that I just might have let loose with a word I really shouldn't say around my kids. Not proud of that, but...if I'm going to be honest about my faith, I suppose I could also be honest about my potty mouth, right?)

We made it to the tire store where I found out that the tire needed replacement. That's when my day really got good.

Yes, I said good. I found out that we had purchased full replacement coverage on the tire. All I had to pay was $17.50 (to continue the warranty on the new tire.) The tire shop didn't have the tire in stock, so they sent us to another location.

We had lots of library books with us, since we'd been headed there to return them.



We haven't read much lately, so Chickie, Zoodle, and I got some great, quality reading time while we waited for the installation. We actually had a really fun time in the waiting room.

By the time we were through, though, I was quite hungry. I'd forgotten to eat breakfast (and I pretty nearly always eat breakfast!), and all I'd eaten was some of Chickie's Goldfish crackers (plus some pretty bad tire shop coffee). But wouldn't you know, on the way to the second tire shop location, we'd passed a gas station with this out front:



It's kind of hard to see, but that's a little trailer that says, "Customer Appreciation. FREE Hot Dog. FREE Soft Drink. FREE Chips." Yep, the gas station was giving away FREE lunch! We filled up our car with gas and enjoyed our food, sitting outside in the shade. (See the Cheetos powder on Zoodle's fingers and face? Mmmmm.....)



Chickie, Zoodle, and I came home, free food in our bellies, with the happiness of knowing we'd enjoyed each others' company for a few hours, in a car with a practically free brand new tire.

I wish all car repairs were this much fun!