"Are you sitting down?"

Heard some things from the Nissan lady that I didn't want to hear. Any time she opens with the joke, "Are you sitting down?" I know I'm in trouble. That's our typical phone conversation. It's also the reason why I hate taking my car to the mechanic. They always seem to find something wrong -- usually in a different place than I expect.

She told me that my ball joint on the front left wheel needed replacing -- meaning the entire front left strut assembly needed replacing ("you know," she said, "the thing that holds the wheel to the car"). Also, the belts needed replacing. And, I've got a slow leak at the back of my engine, which means they've got to pull the entire tranny (heh, tranny) out. Oh yeah, and they berated me for driving around with winter tires (true enough, I'm actually getting some new tires soon). The good news was that my brakes (the pads) were just fine. Three of the four calipers had seized, meaning I was almost entirely without brakes, but since they weren't being used, the pads were just fine.

Whoa. So, no brakes, and my front left wheel was going to fall off. Cewl. That's all fixed. I'm going to have to leave the tires and the leak for now, simply because I don't have the $$ or the time to leave the car in the shop for 2 days. At least the car's in good shape now.

This probably also means that I'm not buying anything for the garage for the next little while either. I suppose I can just finish the framing, and that will have to do for now.