I’ve been noticing a weird creaking noise in my brakes lately. This has been going on for more than a few weeks. Also for about the same amount of time my car has stayed on after I turn it off. Not the whole car, but a fan or something. I suspect this has something to do with my flogging the AC for all it is worth on the recent 110+ degree and 60% humidity days. Also there are little floppy things of Styrofoam on my dash from where Mazda didn’t reinstall my dash properly when they removed it to check out a rattle a while back. I’ve been debating about when to get these fixed lately. At first I thought I’d get my car (the body and paint work) fixed in June …then July…. then August… I wanted to wait until the car’s body was done before taking it to the dealership so I wouldn’t have to face any warranty voiding issues.

As you know, two weeks ago I hit a freaking lobster cage on the 10 west and I’ve had several other problems with this car.

After work yesterday I decided I needed to get these brakes and stuff checked out. If only for the fact that Amy and I were planning to drive out of town this weekend. I called Glendale Mazda and they said they’d take a look at my brakes that night if I could bring it in immediately. I was on the 118 east getting ready to get on the 5 south (which goes all the way to Glendale) when I heard a weird noise behind me. I looked up and BAM a van behind me slammed into my bumper. We pulled off onto the birm. The car behind the van was a Mercedes and it was totaled. Nobody appeared to be injured. The CHP came and got my information, gave me an accident ticket and told me to go home and call my insurance. Less than a mile down the road two more cars (trucks) had pulled off after apparently doing the same thing. That part of the highway is notoriously bad because one popular freeway (the 405) comes into the 118 less than a mile from where people exit to get on the 5, so you have people trying to go over two lanes left and people trying to go over two lanes right at the same time. It can get very congested (as it was yesterday) and I’ve been involved in close calls before. The collision repair companies should take turns sponsoring this strip of highway as I’m sure every body shop from here to Orange County has had someone in their shop that got hit there.

At this point the whole situation with my car is comical. I might as well treat it like an old college kid’s Volvo or something and put stickers all over it and let my friends paint stick figures. At this point only the passenger side in profile is blemish-free (except for a ¼ inch scratch by the back door from my guitar case – D’OH!), every other part of the car looks beat to hell, mangled, or vandalized.

I’ll have an interesting conversation with my adjustor when he calls today or tomorrow for sure. I’ve also been advised to contact lawyers. It helps having a friend that works for a lawfirm. We’ll see what happens.