Missed it by that much

I managed to get out of the house at a good time this morning.  Partially because I didn’t walk the dog on account of rain.  After I got to work I heard from my wife that my daughter was up 5 minutes after I left.  She found her at the top of the stairs loudly whispering “Daddy!  Daddy!”  When she saw my wife she matter of factly states that she’s looking for me.  When my wife explained to her that I had already left for work she was a bit upset because she wanted to walk the dog with me.  Now tell me that wouldn’t make you feel great and awful at the same time.  Maybe I need to make more noise tomorrow morning (I’m sure my wife would love that).

auto service word of caution

So my car is just turning over 60,000 miles and I need to get the appropriate service done as well as service the brake pads.  In my experience the OEM brake pads seem to make a difference so I decided to call a few places to get some pricing.  I called two local auto parts stores and they could not supply me with OEM pads so I decided to call a handful of the local dealers.  The first dealer told me that the pads would be a bit over $100 for the fronts and a couple bucks more for the rear.  The second dealer told me that they would be ~$95 for both and the third told me they would be $90 for the front and slightly cheaper for the rear.  While I was shopping for  pads I thought I’d check on the 60k service.  One dealer told me $1000, another told me $900, and one even told me $650, but depending on the plugs in my car it might be more…probably more… definitely more… around $700 or in the ballpark. 

 

I’d like some explanation of this price difference.  I can somewhat understand the difference for the 60k maintenance.  Maybe one shop does a few extra steps to make sure your car continues to run smoothly.  To be honest I’d consider taking it to the one that said around $700 if it wasn’t for the fact that the service guy didn’t even sound like he knew what my car was (hint: It’s not run of the mill sedan).  The thing that really makes me wonder how much I’m getting screwed when I go to the dealer is the price difference on the parts.  A difference of $40+ between different dealers is not exactly pocket change.  Is there really a good reason for the $40 difference.  Am I getting $40 more brake pads at one location or am I getting screwed by an additional $40?

A walk around the block

There are events in our lives that we forget soon after they happen.  Some even though we try hard to remember them.  Then there are those events that no matter how hard we try to forget them, they stick with us forever.  While some people have a tough time remembering significant dates in their relationship, I’ve been blessed with a computer to remind me when they are coming up.  I’m not sure if that counts as remembering.  Anyway, today marks a non-milestone anniversary of the first date my wife and I had.  It’s fun to think back to that day and how little I knew about our future together and how great it worked out.  Hopefully the wife will like the surprise tonight that I got for her.  FYI: Yes, I’m a big tease since I know she might be reading this.

 

I’m hoping that another event today is something I can remember and look back on happily.  (note to self, mark calendar in computer).  Anyone that knows my daughter fairly well, knows that she’s not a late sleeper.  It doesn’t seem to matter if we move her bedtime back.  So this morning I was just about ready to take the dog for a walk when I heard the tell tale squeeeeeeeeek of her door opening.  Since it doesn’t seem to do any good to send her back to her room to “go back to sleep”, I decided to bring her along to walk the dog.   It was nice to spend those few extra minutes with her.  Just the two of us and the dog.  Apparently it was a big hit with her.  So the plan at this point, weather permitting, is to walk the dog together if she’s up before then.  I’m certainly not going to wake her up at this point to go, but it’ll be fun if this becomes a regular occurrence.