Well, in an unexpected but oddly not unwelcome start to the new year, the brakes on the truck started to grumble a bit on new year’s day. Jan 2 was crazy, getting work up and running again, but on the third I made an appointment and took her in to the brake shop. I was figuring just new pads and shoes, get out for around a hundred bucks, no big deal.
Or not.
Say hello to Rain. He’s busily engaged in rebuilding Andromeda the 4Runner’s front brakes (which process took substantial parts of the afternoon – turns out you can’t just stroll around the corner and pick up brake rotors for a truck that’s 15 years old no matter HOW cool it is…), following which he will quickly reline her back brakes, hand me my key and turn me over to the guy in the office, who will nick my wallet pretty good. Nearly $600 later, we’re out of the shop and on the road, and not only are the brakes quiet but they stop much more quickly.
This is a good start for the year. Yeah, I spent $600 on the brakes, but I spent nothing on the grille, nothing on the front bumper, nothing on the radiator, nothing on rebuilding the engine, and most importantly nothing on rebuilding the owner after a catastrophic brake failure. (Admittedly there are days when the photographer could probably USE a rebuild, but I don’t think I could afford it and I’d like to be able to plan for it a bit more precisely than “scree–crunch!” anyway.) So on balance I’m not unhappy.
The timing could have been marginally better, but nothing that matters is significantly inconvenienced. I had no real moneywork waiting on that Zeiss 25 I was wanting. Later. There are other more important things to buy…. like road miles.
Sun’s gonna be up soon; lock and load, there’s pictures to be made.
