Who needs air conditioning?

This past Saturday, I was at Kohl's on the west side of Lansing, when I went back to my car and tried to move it. What made this difficult was the fact that I couldn't turn the wheel...no power steering!!! Well, that and the fact that I'm a weakling, but that's neither here nor there.

So, luckily, my friend Mike was around, and he's good with cars. We learned that the serpentine belt broke (boo), and that was a problem. So, trying to figure out what to do, we ended up deciding to take the car to Sears to get it replaced. After attempting to drive it there, and it overheating, we decided to use AAA to get it towed. After finally getting it to Sears, they replaced the belt, told me my AC compressor was bad, and sent me on my merry way.

Since then, I've driven back and forth to Muskegon, and back and forth to work. As I turned on my car last night to go to dinner, it started smoking and the power steering went out again. Sigh. Really? How did this happen, you say?

After getting it towed to the auto repair shop (yup, forget Sears), and then getting dropped off at work, I have learned that the AC compressor is the reason the belt keeps breaking. Somehow, I wish the guy at Sears would have mentioned that part. I feel as though it was a vital piece of information he failed to tell me. So, my poor Ford Taurus will be going without air conditioning the rest of the summer, but that's ok, because it costs way too much to get the AC fixed.

All shall be well tomorrow morning, when I'm scheduled to get my car back. Well, almost all will be well, except my bank account...