Who is the mechanic who fixed Allyson's car? Get recs from friends for reputable independent mechanics who will do a once over and estimate. Only agree to look at if if your mechanic can check it out. (My pricey but excellent guys charge $50-$90 for that, but will also give you negotiating points and saved me 3K for that cost.)

Is that standard?

Yep.

For the seller to let you take the car?

My last seller came with me to the garage.

How much would a mechanic usually charge for such a once-over?

Our mechanic did it for free to engender business. Others might charge a small amount. Set it up beforehand. Mostly they're going to check for emissions and look for leaks and signs that there might be bigger issues.

brenda, you've been in my thoughts today. Are things still feeling too big?

ita, sorry about the car. We've had good experiences at Carmax, though (both buying and selling).

I sat in an hour long after school meeting About Nothing. I'm kinda annoyed.

From the Annals of Crime Makes You Stupid: [link]

A phone thief takes a picture of himself that is automatically uploaded to the phone owner's Facebook account.

Thanks, Kat. It really helped getting some of that stuff out and talking about it. I got through yesterday much better than anticipated, and actually had a pretty good day. I'm taking tomorrow and Monday off, which will also help a lot.

Our furnace is on. It will warm up a touch in a couple of days, and I appreciate this little warning bell of a minor winter storm--Hubby reported short-lived snow on the grass at the house today, thus it's a winter storm--before the real deal settles in.

We went to get new wiper blades for my car, and the garbage can outside the auto part store was full of wiper blade boxes where all the other people had said, "Crap, I need new wipers!" The store manager was highly amused at the uptick in wiper sales.

JZ, I'm glad you said what you said. You're right, and I'm sorry for my part in it. I try not to do that, either backchannel or here, just for my own peace of mind, because it feeds my own brain monsters too much.

Consuela, I'm glad the work presentation went well!

I'm so sorry to hear about Deena's health.

ita, there's also a service that costs you about $25, and it lets you run the VIN on a car and find out if it's been in any accidents. I forget what it's called--Carfax, maybe?

Man, the temperature has really dropped here this week. I had to break out my pashmina already.

Fall weather is blowing in (loudly) here in the Languedoc. I'm kinda glad that I didn't schlep my fall coat here for nothing.

I'm also sad to hear that Deena's doing poorly.

ita ! I'm sorry about all the garbage the universe has dumped on you - I hope things get better.

I'd like to add to Consuela's note - check and make sure any care you're interested in hasn't been in a flood as well as accident. Seemingly, a number of cars that were flooded in the eastern part of the country are being fixed up and some are being sold without disclosing their watery history.