Thursday March 13, 2008 March 17, 2008

Here was a brief description of my exhausting day on Thursday March 13, 2008:

On Wednesday March 12, 2008, I started to leave my house to go back to work after my lunch break, I was doing a 3-point turn on my street when I heard a muffled pop. I just thought that maybe I ran over something, since there didn’t seem to be any difference in how the car was running. But while I was sitting at a stop light I noticed that the amount of pressure I usually put on the brake pedal wasn’t working to keep the car from rolling. At first I just thought that maybe I was putting my foot on a different spot on the pedal so it was sliding off, or maybe it had something to do with the shoes I was wearing (typical girl response, right?). But on my way home to walk Foley (my dog) before I picked Peter up from work, the brake light came on. Soooooo, I called Peter and told him what was going on, and he thought that maybe it was just the brake fluid. When I got to Peter’s work, he looked under the hood and saw that, yeah, the brake fluid was really low. He works right next to a mechanic, so he walked over to grab some fluid and filled up the reservoir. On our way to church I noticed that the brake light was still on and it would still take more pressure than usual to keep the truck from rolling once stopped. I thought that maybe it was just working out the air bubbles in the brake lines….that’s a real thing, right?

But in the morning I was out running errands for work, and about a block away from work when I could just barely stop. I realized that that wasn’t good. After I parked, I popped the hood, to see the brake fluid reservoir almost empty! I went into the office and saw 2 of the guys talking. I asked if one of them, a coworker/friend, could take me up to an auto parts store to help me pick out some brake fluid. Out of concern they asked if mine was leaking, so I explained the situation.  They both took a look at it and told me that it was more serious that a bottle of fluid. Peter and I had just had all of the brake pads and rotors changed back in October so I called the place that had done the work and asked if they could take a look at my truck. They said that I could just bring it by anytime, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop if I didn’t get some brake fluid in there. So my friend took me to an auto parts store and when we got back to work, he even filled it up for me. Then he followed me over to the mechanics. Before I had left I talked to my boss and he said that I could use the work truck if I needed to. Fortunately for me the place is only about 2 miles from work so even though I had to use the E-brake when I was at stop lights, and I couldn’t get any closer than 2 car lengths to any vehicle in front of me, I made it!

So when I dropped the truck off, I had no idea what was causing the leak, how much it was going to cost to fix it, or even how long it would take. However, within 20 minutes of getting back to work, I got a call from the brake place. There was a crack in one of the hard lines (whatever that meant!). It was only going to cost about $10 for the part, about $45 for the labor, and $60 for them to bleed the brakes and flush the whole system. PLUS, it was going to be ready by 4! So total I ended up paying $120, and really it could have been much worse.

But God is so good! Here’s why: (1) I know I didn’t use the work truck, but it is pretty rare that it is even here, since we have been so busy at work lately the truck is usually gone on well-site, so the fact that it was available gave me a peace that Peter and I wouldn’t be completely stranded. (2) This happened one day before my payday. Not just any payday, but next month is Peter’s “magic month” so we will be getting an extra paycheck, which means that we have a little bit of extra spending money. (3) This happened on a beautiful spring-like day that had followed a week of spring-like weather. If all of this had happened on a day like today when it has been consistently snowing since last night and the roads are super slick, then I would not have been able to drive the truck over to the brake place. I would have had to have it towed, and that would have been tons of extra money. Even though the day was emotionally draining, I couldn’t help but praise God for being SOOO gracious to me!