Archive for October 31st, 2008

Auto repairs

Friday, October 31st, 2008

One of the things that has to be the most frustrating experiences, as a woman, is finding a good place to take my car for auto repair.  I’ve had a lot of experiences taking my car to a repair shop and being told that I need repairs that I really don’t need, which infuriates me.  For example two years ago I took my car to a national brand name oil change chain – just for an oil change and they tried to tell me that I needed a new air filter (the one on there was less than three months old) and a new battery (because there was a little bit of corrusion around the terminals.)  Well, let me tell you something – I told them I’d look into it (they wanted to sell me theirs for big bucks) and that battery is still going strong two years later!

So now I’m big into getting auto repair estimates before I get any work done – I’ve become quite suspicious since then!  I think that I may need to get a timing belt replacement estimate on my car soon (my owner’s manual is suggesting it) and I’m going to use this great website that I found called repairpal.com to help me find a repair shop to give me the estimate and do the repairs.

Thermal underwear

Friday, October 31st, 2008

I’ve decided that this winter I am going to buy thermal underwear and wear it under my regular clothes at home so that I can turn the thermostat down a couple of degrees.  I’m concerned about the high price of heating the place this winter, and I think that by investing in some thermal underwear that I will be doing a good thing for the environment and a good thing for my checkbook!  I’ve found some thermal underwear that is smooth and silky to the touch that is only $7 for a top, and $7 for the bottom, which seems like a very good price at the local big discount department store.

I don’t like the waffle-weave thermal underwear because it is always too small, no matter how large a size I buy!  The pants only come down about half-way between my ankles and knees; I like the pants to come all the way to my ankles.  The kind that I like used to be called “Cuddleduds” but now it seems they’ve been renamed to “WarmWear.”  I don’t care – they will be comfy and help keep me warm!