I knew something was happening to my brakes yesterday and it was so subtle. At the end of pressing the pedal, there wasn't as much resistance as there should be. The pedal felt like it was pressing too far down, but only at the bottom end of the stroke. I could stop the car easily, but it also could creep a bit with the brake pedal depressed and that shouldn't happen. I was out with my mom at one of her doctor appointments. After I dropped her off at her home, I called the auto repair shop and made an appointment for today. I drove home with the flashers on and kept my speed under 30 and manually downshifted to 2nd and first gear when I needed to stop, and then applied the brakes with my hand on the emergency brake just in case. I would like to thank the drivers who were patient with me even though they didn't know my slow speed was a precaution for everyone's safety. There were several who flashed their brights at me and and passed me as fast as possible. I didn't worry about that because I had to focus and think through my every move to keep control of the car, and I wasn't going to drive at an unsafe speed no matter what criticism I got. If there was a safe place, I pulled over and let traffic pass several times on my way home, and when I got home, I had less in braking ability. I cautiously drove my car to the shop this morning with the same precautions using mostly 2nd and first gear. I avoided highways as much as possible, and when I did need to drive on the 50MPH road, rush hour had it at a crawl. That was just perfect for me! I got through all that driving safely and I had given myself lots of extra time to slow my disabled car down as I began that long before I got close to where I needed to stop. And, yes, as I suspected, my left brake line had opened up from the front to the back and lost the brake fluid. It caused the calipers to seize and contact the rotors, so I had an expensive repair today, but I count my blessings because I knew what was wrong, and how to handle the situation to get home safely. I'm glad this didn't happen a few weeks ago when I'd made a solo drive up to Mayo. That was only because I had appointments, and my husband could not get time off from his job.

I'll need to tell another car repair story. I used to have a pickup truck with a serpentine belt that ran everything and recharged the battery. One Sunday, we had visited a friend, and when we left that night, the serpentine belt broke. We didn't want to intrude, so we tried to get home, but the head lights were getting dimmer, and we wouldn't make it, so we stopped and stayed at a motel on the way home. We called our friend and made arrangements for him to come help us in the morning. So the three of us went to an auto parts store and bought the belt and an adjustable wrench. The only problem was that my rescuers didn't know how to install the belt. They didn't want to be interrupted while they were thinking, so I had to wait until they scratched their heads. Then I took the wrench and fixed it in a minute. Oh how sweet that was, and I showed them the little diagram under the hood that showed how to thread the belt and the lever that lets you loosen and tighten it. I didn't grow up repairing vehicles, but I had watched a repairman do the exact same repair on this truck several years earlier even before I had met my husband. I guess the story here is be grateful for the things that go wrong and learn from them.