So I pick up my drugs, get back in the car and head on my way to the grocery store. And I'm driving along and I had a fleeting thought that went something like, "gosh I like my car. It hasn't had any trouble in SO LONG!"

People, I will never learn. Murphy's Law is alive and well in Portland, Oregon. I should KNOW BETTER.

Five minutes after that thought passed fleetingly through my brain, I stepped on the brake as I pulled into the grocery store parking lot and the brakes made this odd noise that sounded sort of clunkyish. As if metal was being scraped against concrete. Or something.

Fabbbbbbbbbbbulous.

The brakes seemed to be working fine - they just sounded awful. So I maneuvered the car carefully into a parking space and proceded to freak right the hell out. And then I went into the store and did my shopping. Because, well, I needed food and thinking about what might possibly be wrong with the car was not something I wanted to spend any time doing.

By the time I'd finished my shopping and loaded the groceries into the trunk, I'd also formulated a plan: open the hood of the car, peer in and pretend I know what I'm doing. So I did just that, and even took a gander at the oil level. That looked low, so I told myself I'd head straight to Jiffy Lube to have them change the oil and ask them to check the brake fluid too, while they were at it.

By the time I'd gotten a mile down the road the horrid noise had stopped occurring when I stepped on the brake. So I decided to chance things and pulled into the gas station for a fill-up and then the New Seasons Market next door for a couple additional items on my way to the Jiffy Lube. And, of course, by the time I was done with all of that the allergies had gotten so bad I couldn't even say 5 words in a row to the clerk without sneezing in the middle of it.

Add to all this the fact that I'd been up half the night taking care of Miss Rennie, who'd had some trouble with diarrhea, and you get the picture that my sum total was not a pretty sight: sneezy, drippy nose; red, blood-shot watery eyes, stuffy nose, dark circles UNDER the eyes.

Not one of my finer moments.

So I high-tailed it out of that store, jumped in the car and sped home as quickly as my questionable brakes would allow. They seemed fine and I felt so terrible that I swore to myself I would take the car in for an oil change tomorrow or Saturday (at latest) in an effort to soothe the car-repair gods.

The car made it home just fine, with no further incident, fortunately. Since returning home I've taken two Benadryls, some Nasalcrom and a dose of Allegra, in addition to taking a shower, washing my hair and changing clothes completely. And I am STILL having a sneezing fit ever other minute along with stuffy nose and sore throat.

I make a pretty picture, oh yes I do!!

Fortunately, thanks to the somewhat-regular, very small meals of boiled-chicken-and-rice, last night's 3:30 am temperature-taking fiasco which I would just as soon forget, and then the 3:35 am dose of Pectillin (Kaopectate for pets), Rennie appears to be feeling much better. At least one of us is ok!

So now I've done everything I can do for both myself and Rennie, I think I'm going to head to bed - I think being unconscious for the rest of it is the only way to salvage this day.

But could someone bring over another box of tissues? I'm almost out.