so of course... in the true spirit of murphy's law...
yesterday the stinking auto broker got my payoff check... i now own my car outright (am waiting for them to send me my title)
this morning...
my brakes are effed.
i stepped on them and it sounds like my muffler's dragging behind me - so much that i actually pulled over to check and see if that was it...
no. it wasn't... so i narrowed it down to either being my brakes or something funky with my transmission (it seemed to happen when i was in 1st gear)
so i called my cousin who has a mechanic thing in squan... going to get it taken care of in the morning... that is, if i make it all the way down there tonight

