Albany, NY -- Jason Brzoska, Good Samaritan

I just went to Price Chopper in Slingerlands to do a bit of grocery shopping (one of those trips where three items turns into $80, and you still forget to buy two of those items). On my way out of the store, I was about to unload my groceries from my cart to my car, when a woman asked me for help. She was driving her daughter's car, and had just dropped her daughter off at work. She had found that the whole exhaust system was coming loose from the bottom of the car and was dragging on the ground. She needed help getting the muffler and exhaust pipes off of the car, but they were held firmly in place by a thick rubber strap. I crawled underneath the car to try to free the pipe, but could not.

I don't keep tools in my car (typical Jewish boy), so I asked her to go into the store and get the sharpest blade she could find. She came back a few minutes later with a boxcutter, and within a couple of minutes I had the exhaust pipe freed and she was on her way.

Only thing is, I have no idea if I've done something bad -- can the car actually function without said pipes, or is it dangerous? I wish I had time to take a course in auto maintenance -- for one thing, I should know if replacing an intake gasket (like I had done yesterday) should really cost $700 or if the dealership is ripping me off. But, I'm going to go on as clueless as ever on the topic, I guess.

Well, I did something good for someone today. I've been watching too much My Name Is Earl -- I feel like I should be crossing a to-do item off my karmic list.

posted by jbrzoska @ 4:00 PM Trackback Link