Was: Retail Therapy Now: When does it end???

So, Lise and I are in Ottawa and saw my mom this morning. We stayed and fed her lunch then left the hospital to go have lunch ourselves. We had planned to have lunch, stop in to the Governor General's place and maybe find a mall for some retail therapy. Then back to the hospital to feed mom her dinner.

Well, those plans flew out the window when, after lunch, as I pulled away from the restaurant, I heard this terrible grinding from my brakes. Not only was I hearing a nerve shattering grind, but I was having trouble stopping the car. That is not a good thing.

It's the Saturday afternoon of the Labour Day weekend, I'm in downtown Ottawa and I'm almost 800kms from home. What the heck do I do?

Since I couldn't reach him on the phone, I decided to try to hobble the car to my brother's place. I made it a few blocks then I remembered that I have CAA and was about to pull over when I saw a Midas muffler shop - and it was open. I'm thanking the heavens that it was open because just as I pulled into the lot, my brakes gave up the ghost.

They took my car in almost right away and checked it out. Bad news. The left front break pad broke right off, the rear brake slider thingys that squeezes the calipers had seized and the right front tie rod end was ready to fall off. There was no way that I was going to make it back home.

So right now I'm sitting in a coffeeshop waiting for the Midas guys to finish working on my car wondering how I'm gonna pay off the $800 they are charging me all thoughts of retail therapy vanished.

I hate to be a whiner but shucks, we've been having such a run of bad luck. First Lise gets her new contract at work and finds that she has to take yet another pay cut (oh the joys of working for non-profit charitable organizations), then Lise's big speeding ticket, then the roof, then mom's stroke, now the car. I sure hope this snowball looses its momentum soon.