Country Living

Okay as some of my readers know I live on the far edge of suburbia in a rural area. Well, I had my car repaired at a local shop maybe 10 miles away or so. It was a major repair and I wasn't carrying around that kind of cash and I didn't bring a check since using one is such a rarity these days. Any way I drove out to the shop in a rental and the guy asked me if I was going to pay by credit card. The answer was yes, I was going to use my check card.

Well I was told the phone lines were down apparently some animal had gotten into the lines and the phones in the area were out. The phones being out meant he couldn't run my card! He also stated a bear had stopped by the shop a couple of hours ago! Well I made arrangements to try again tomorrow to pay for it and pick up the car. I just hope the bear didn't do the repair job!

I just thought I would share a story about country living!

Saved a lot on a car repair..

Last Friday the cable in my drivers side power window on my car broke after a morning stop at McDonald's. The end of a very good morning. I mean I was out of the house and on my morning commute with enough time to hit the drive-thru. Then there was a weird a sound and my car window would not go back up.

Saturday, I took it to my local mechanic. He explained what had happened and told me I would need to go to a dealership. He's a great mechanic and gives lots of free advice. So, I went home and called dealerships in three states. Of course no one could do it over the weekend. I did get a quote of $560. Ouch! $410 dollars for the part and $150 to install it.

I found on the web I could get the part for $88 including shipped to my door. A friend of ours recommended another mechanic and I was able to get it done for $80. $168 is a lot better than $560. Hmm...I knew there was a reason for not wanting to go to the dealership.