My website was down for a bit, but it came back up this afternoon sometime. Now that it’s back up, I can no longer get Movable Type to work–Solo must have done something to the server. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
I got my truck back today, after being in the shop since Saturday for $480 in brake repairs. Last weekend while I was out driving in the mud, the front brakes suddenly started making a loud grinding noise whenever I applied the brakes. I was certain that the brake pads had simply worn down too far, so Saturday I bought some new brake pads, got the front of the truck up on jack stands, and removed the wheels (after breaking off one of the lug studs). Not only were the brake pads worn down badly, but each rotor had a big crack in it. The calipers also weren’t working all too well–the pistons were just about seized, and I could barely turn the rotors by hand because the pistons in the calipers weren’t releasing enough.
I didn’t have time to replace all of that myself, and I probably don’t have the right tools to do it correctly, so I put the wheels back on and took the truck to Grako’s. The parts alone were over $300 (not including the pads I’d already purchased), but they only charged me for one hour of labor, though I’m sure there was a lot more involved than that (not that I was going to complain that they undercharged me). They also repacked the wheel bearings since everything was torn down that far.
I was beginning to get worried that we wouldn’t be able to make it to our camping trip this weekend, but now everything is back on track.