I don't know if anyone's been obsessively checking my blog this morning, wondering when the results will be up.

All I have to say about my supposed 8 am CST deadline is, don't EVER take your car in for maintenance on a Saturday morning.

I needed an oil and filter change, and as my steering had been tight and squealy, I asked them to check the other fluids (my car is 6 years old, has almost 50K miles on it, haven't had the fluids changed...well, maybe EVER...maybe back around 10K, I don't remember).

You guessed it - both the tranny fluid and the power steering fluid needed changing.

So I sat for NEARLY THREE HOURS while the sole "tech" wandered from car to car, tightening a bolt here, loosening a nut there...I got my grading totally done and then began to twitch.

The good news is that the steering is much better and since they changed the "cabin air filter" too, the defroster works a lot better. The bad news is there's "looseness in the tie rod" that they want their alignment guy to check out, so I have to bring it back. (And there's another system-flush I want done; I think it'll improve my gas mileage. But they didn't have the flush stuff today.)

I realized that my voice took on a tinge of a whine when the guy told me I'd need to bring it back: "How long will THAT take?" I snapped. Well, an hour, he said. So Tuesday afternoon I need to load up with some grading or SOMETHING and trek back out there. (Small whine: this is where having a Significant Other would help, well, significantly - they could drive out with me, drive me back, and go back out with me to pick up the car. Yes, I have friends. No, I do not feel as if I can ask them to do this for me because many of them are picking up their children at the school at the same time my appointment is for. So, no, I sit and wait and fume if it takes longer than anticipated and if it looks like the techs are havin' a big old 45 minute coffee break while I'm sitting there.)

I'll post the results in a new post, that will be on top of this one. Because, I know, that's what you care about, not my frustration with being a single working person in a town where trying to get "service" is challenging at best.