Catching Rides with Strangers

Off to Les Schwab for the estimate I have been waiting for for a long time...
I walk in the door like a escaped con awaiting his sentence, knowing that after a few moments of inspection and a few questions that all will be revealed and the tire irons will come out to prevent my unlikely escape...
Well that was the scene I was expecting, and probably the one that deterred my visit in the first place...
I had been on borrowed time for longer than I can recall and it doesn't make sense to dodge them forever...
So I am working on being more responsible, with working being the ongoing endeavor.
Anyways, I got the wisdom teeth out last year, so the car was next on my list...
I came in and asked about an alignment, and they offered to do a quick once over to make sure nothing was about to fall off, and shortly returned with a three page estimate that I had known was long in coming.
I need:
New breaks (front and back), new rotors, and a few other things...
We are set to operate tomorrow, with a projected damage list of no more than $700
They will call when it is finished...

So this left me just a few blocks from home waiting to wander on my way in the wonderful 94 degree sun...
After the polite young man had absconded with my keys he mentioned that Les Schwab offers drop off for customers in transition from repair work.
He told me to take a seat and that Kirsten would be back shortly to help me on my way...

So I hunkered down with my popcorn, watching in terror at the little screen in the lobby as all the year's escaped murderers and celebrities scrolled across the screen...
But what was more interesting was the scenario that was developing up at the counter.
A seemingly well off older man with a gold watch and a cheap wife were arguing with the man behind the counter over what was often being referred to as a dissolving front axil. All I could do was listen and hang on the words I had been afraid would have been meant for me... Things like, legally I can't let you drive it off the lot, and your options are fix it or have it towed, and the trashy woman at the counter insisting it wasn't that bad and that she had been driving her kids to church in it like that for years...
The conversation went back and forth, with the hillbilly asking to use the phone to call all of his cronies and see if he could find a better deal elsewhere... In the end they looked like they were seconds away from a major altercation and the total being argued over sounded as though it was only 70 dollars... a far cry from what I was signing up for...
Kirsten ushered me out the back door and off into her truck before I had the chance to see how it all panned out, but it seemed like an above average day in customer service...

Sorry I don't have the grand list of items to be replaced, but it is a long one... I am sure they are all very important and needed items... I should have done it sooner, but I thought having bad rotors was the next best thing to getting those massaging chair inserts or the car...
One thing at a time...
Next I will probably be getting a new transmission, engine, and finally car...
One thing at a time.