My Friday Evening: The Bad, The Good, and the Potentially Scary

Bad Thing: Brother's car breaking down on the highway. His cell phone has also been broken for some time.

Good Thing: A friendly driver pulling over to help when Brother finishes his nap and gets out for the long walk to the nearest gas station.

Bad Thing: Having to drive through rush hour AND construction traffic to pick up Brother and then go to his car, with two kidlets in the back trying to be patient.

Good Thing: Having a boyfriend who is an auto mechanic and is willing to diagnose the probable issue over the phone, therefore determining that it is in fact worth trying to save Brother's P.O.S. car rather than calling the nearest junkyard.

Bad Thing: Mechanic boyfriend is on the way up north to go dirt biking with some buddies. The car is stranded Very Far from anyone's house, including my boyfriend's.

Good Thing: My boyfriend is willing to call in a major favor and get a buddy with a tow-truck to come get Brother's car and tow it all the way to my boyfriend's house for less than half the price it would normally cost.

Bad Thing: Brother now will have to pay to fix the same car that already cost him a pretty penny in various fees and fines for other problems--ironically, he was on his way to court to work some of this out when the car broke down.

Good Thing: Brother happens to have the cash on hand and will get a Much Better Price from my boyfriend than he would going to a regular shop. This would be true even if he wasn't my brother, please note (though I have a feeling the towing favor would not have happened had he not been my relative.)

Potentially Scary Thing: I now owe my boyfriend Big Time.