Car woes in the south

Well, our little car is still kicking, but we have regular reminders that it won't last forever. What broke this time, you ask? The seat belt. This doesn't inspire great confidence from me. Apparently a spring in the buckle broke, and it wouldn't stay latched. I was driving to the library the other day, and it just kept coming unbuckled. Yikes. So I improvised and buckled into the passenger side buckle. In my mind, this increased my safety by quite a bit, but who knows how effective it really would've been. My car has one of those automatic shoulder harnesses that slides into place for me, so it was really just the lap portion that was putting my life in great peril. Anyhoo, after calling around, I felt that my best option was to visit the local junkyard and have them find a matching seat belt for me, which they did quite easily. I also took the belt to a garage to have it installed. It was pretty quick, and the guy charged my $5. And when I told him I didn't have cash, he asked me to just bring him $5 sometime when I was in the area. I did manage to find $10 in my backup stash in my glove compartment, so I was able to pay him, but it certainly made me smile. While I was waiting for the guy to install the belt, we were hanging out in the front by a McDonald's, and there were 2 men and one woman outside having lunch. They were, by all appearances, typical rednecks, and they were sure friendly. They kept talking about how cute my kids are, and offering us shady places to sit. I felt like I got a little extra taste of Tennessee today.