Freezing in Hell

It's definitely winter in New Jersey--it's about 22 degrees right now and my heaters aren't working. It's almost as bad as yesterday, which wasn't quite as cold.

I had to get my car inspected at the DMV. This meant that a few days ago I had to replace my windshield that was hit by a few rocks back in March. I thought the only thing that might prevent my car from passing inspection was the fact that I need a new muffler (and have needed it for a few months).

My car has failed inspection for some very questionable reasons over the years. The first time it failed was after I bought it (which was a month before I turned 17). That time it failed because my left turn signal blinked too fast. The following year it failed because my rear window was tinted over the third brake light (the tint came with the car and was such a light tint that I didn't even realize it was tinted).

This year, it looked like everything was going well as I stood in cold glass box until they got to the brake test. My car failed because the brake peddle was too loose--you had to press it almost to the floor. But they didn't say anything about my brakes. How does a car fail for a brake peddle but not the brakes? Turns out, I did need new brakes though. And that meant I got to sit in a cold mechanic's office for three hours because there was nothing nearby.

And all the mechanics I've seen agree that my car should run for another 100,000 miles, which should take another 10 years at my current driving pace.