for more selfish reasons than Wings but I had been excited about having put aside some money to order herbs and then...

This morning we decided to drive down to Trader Joes to get the things that you can't find in the 1 and 1/2 stores in my township. We recently moved across country and had gotten our tags/registration on our 4-Runner done. The temp. tags had not expired yet and in the state we are from you can get them done anytime as long as its before your temp. tags expire.(our weren't going to expire until next month) So we were dumb and assumed we still had time and could do it this weekend. So as we drove to Trader Joes we felt the sick fear and confusion that rushes all over you as you see those whirling lights behind you.(cop) My husband had been going the speed limit so we were bewildered to say the least. So long story short the police officer told us in a patronizing way that we had only 10 days to get emissions and it was past 10 days. So he gave is a $120 citation because it was past the 10 days. He also told us the tint on our 4-Runner needed to be taken off because tint is illegal here. He told us to go to a tint shop to get in removed. WHAT? If its illegal then why are there tint shops?Why are we always seeing 7 out of 10 cars with tint? Ugh. We paid $300 for the tint a year ago when we bought the car now we have to pay more $$ to get it off???So then later that day my my husband goes and gets the emissions done at a tire shop because that's where you do it here. Well we found out why! They actually take the tires off your car and look at them as well as everything in your car. The tire guy tells my husband that the front two tires have to be replaced because the car was slightly out of alignment and caused the tires to wear unevenly and so they needed to be replaced. The tires are only a year old! He hands him a $730 bill. $600 for the 2 tires and $120 for the emission! He also told him he had 5 days to get it done or we would have to pay half the emission fee all over again!!!

He refused to have them do the tires because he knew their prices were outrageous. So later today he was calling around trying to find a better price.He did find some that were cheaper but 4-Runner tires are never really cheap!
The things is he used to work at a tire shop when he was a teen and the uneven wear wasn't anything that was bad enough to warrant NEW tires right now! So now we have to buy new tires, pay the ticket, pay to remove the tint all because of one thing! ARGGGH! I had been feeling down and discouraged latley and then this really got to me for some reason. (Sorry such a LONG post but thanks for reading my rant)