"Feet" continue to be a running theme (pun intended) in my life this week.
Never one to let some pervy foot freak get in the way of me treating my feet to some great new shoes, I spent part of this afternoon casing a DSW store near my friend Wendy's house (Wendy has a bigger shoe addiction than I do but lucky for her budget, she had to stay home and study for her college course finals today).
I went specifically to find some shoes that I could wear to the ASJA Writer's Conference in NYC on Saturday. I had two requirements: comfort, and panache. I'm planning to wear jeans with a dressier top and jacket -- deciding casual chic is probably the way to go with this event -- and I will be on my feet much of the day, so the comfort is a must. And the panache? Well, it is New York, after all.
I came back with three pairs of shoes: two that I can choose from for Saturday, plus a pair of glittery spring green thong sandals, just because. For Saturday, I've got a pair of black pointy-toe slides with a kitten heel from Aerosole, and a cool pair of white Skechers that are partly open instead of looking like a solid athletic shoe. (I do NOT want to look like a tourist!) I have rather difficult feet and often have trouble finding shoes that I like and that fit me comfortably... so coming away with THREE pairs was really fun. A good time was had by all.
That is, until I was driving home and my car started making these horrible clicking sounds. Actually the clicking started yesterday afternoon, very intermittently, and I couldn't put my finger on what was causing it. I checked the oil - full. I checked to make sure no fluids were leaking - they weren't. I looked under the car to make sure nothing was hanging or dragging, like the exhaust pipe - all clear. I drive a 2001 Honda Civic EX 2-door and I just hit 28,000 miles today, so this car has been very gently used, and nothing major should be going wrong with it yet.
After a couple of miles of the on-again/off-again clicking... suddenly that clicking turned into a non-stop loud, obnoxious rattle and I was petrified that something was really wrong with my engine. Flash back to about 1982 when I blew the engine on my Toyota Tercel because I neglected to keep oil in it... it cost me almost as much to replace that engine as it did to buy the entire car, so believe me, I now take care of my cars and never want to experience THAT automotive nightmare again.
I rattled my way down the highway a bit further because I knew that up ahead was a Honda dealership. I got a service tech to take a test drive with me... NO NOISE! (Isn't that always the way?) But after I described the situation and the general condition of the car, and the guy listened to my breaks squeaking (which I have known I would have to fix, they've been squeaking for about 2 months), he said it sounded like the noise was actually a "brake warning system" that is built into the car. Apparently when the breaks start to show signs of wear, if you ignore it long enough, that intermittent metallic clicking sound will start. Then when the breaks are in imminent danger of completely failing, the warning gets louder and harder to ignore. In other words, if you don't do something fast, the next time you put your brake foot to the floor you're likely to smash into whatever's in front of you at the time. Not good.
Sure enough, they put it up on the rack and it was a whole new brake job for The Bold Soul today. They had to completely redo the front brakes, but fortunately the rear ones only needed a llittle cleaning and adjustment. The real miracle was that this happened right near a dealership, and that dealership just happened to have repaved the lot outside the service bays so they had NO other cars in the bays to be worked on when I showed up. They were able to take my car in immediately and in less than an hour I had everything fixed.
The sad part is how easy it is to spend money you didn't intend to spend. I ditched my French class today because it's time to pay for another 10-week block and I was waiting for some client checks to clear this week. Then I bought about $120 worth of shoes (at a discount, at least). And just a few miles from the shoe store... another $265 dollars on emergency car repairs. OY! What is up with the Universe lately? I want money coming IN, not going OUT! And I could have bought more shoes with that money. Or paid for my French lessons.
Mostly I'm happy I found some nice shoes and my car is once again safe to be on the road and I can drive into New York on Saturday without fear of causing a 12-car pile-up in the Lincoln Tunnel. That's NOT way I want my name listed in the New York Times ("New Jersey woman and self-professed shoe addict caused a traffic nightmare today because she would rather spend her money on shoes instead of making her car safe for humanity.")... I'd rather hold out for a byline as a contributing writer!
