*sigh*

Took the Toyota in to the shop today. It's been running awfully rough, and the automatic transmission's been grumbling about shifting into high gear, and I need the state inspection done, and I haven't had the damned thing serviced in two years or more anyway - except for having to replace the starter last summer.

Shop just called, quoting me about $600 worth of charges. Fuck.

Tuneup, oil change, state inspection, all charges I expected. They don't think there's anything seriously wrong with the transmission, but they want me to take it to a transmission shop. (I didn't even know there were special shops for that, grr.) Replace both rear wheel cylinders, because they're leaking and that's a "fail" on the state inspection. $214.15. Replace the distributor cap rotor and wires because (I'm paraphrasing here) they're totally fucked, and do the same for the fuel filter. $220.95. They wanted to service the fuel system for an additional $75, but I asked them to hold off.

We need the car. We have the money. There's really nothing to argue about here. Except that I hate pouring all this money into my rusting 12 year old Toyota. I just have the feeling that the damned thing has passed the point where it was a worthy and economical car, and that we'll just be sliding downhill from one expensive repair to another from now on. When we move to the city, we'll ditch the Toyota and become a one-car family. But we just can't do that in deep suburbia.

Misha reminds me that we've been putting off preventive maintenance on the Toyota for two years. If we hadn't, I'm sure this bill would be more reasonable. And this car really has been unnaturally reliable in the 7 1/2 years that I've owned it. It's just... *sigh.*

And I left my Palm Pilot at home this morning. It's shaping up to be an ugly day.

My friend, the federal government?

I just spent the last couple of hours knocking out the application for a Certificate of Confidentiality from the federal government. Essentially, this will protect us from anyone trying to subpoena research data that might be damaging to our subjects, such as information about their illegal behaviors.

The application was a marvel of simplicity. No irrelevant questions, and everything was perfectly straightforward. When I called for a clarifying detail, the contact person picked up on the first ring and was both friendly and helpful.

I am pleasantly amazed. Maybe NIAID should be running the tax system.