F2: SHE'S HOME!!!

Hooray!  She's home!  We've put stickers on her.  We have claimed her as our own.

Let the healing begin!

State Farm: After 3 1/2 weeks and waiting for factory parts, F2 is coming home!

Thus far, our red girl has been housed at the repair shop for longer than we actually had her here.  Her first payment was made without her sitting in the drive.  However, I phoned shop B today to find out an update and SHE'S COMING HOME TOMORROW!

Y'all, somehow State Farm approved FACTORY replacement parts and what ended up being the replacement of the ENTIRE exhaust system, meaning the pipe from all the way up under the motor there somewhere to the back along with the two mufflers.  The body work has been handled.  The final work was being completed today and tomorrow late afternoon, F2 is coming home to stay.

We have missed her so.

Somehow all the stress, all the yelling, the hanging up, the sleepless nights and all has amounted to everything finally being handled in the way it needed done.  I can give Hertz their Nissan Sentra back, and I can go from being a Minnesota adoptee for a bit to back to an Ohioan.

Am I proud of the way that I/we have handled the situation?  Nope.  Unfortunately we did crack under the pressure and we did not ooze God's love, grace and forgiveness as we should have.  We have asked for forgiveness.  We have re-tuned.  The dust has settled.  :deep breath:

She's coming home.  May the healing continue and the drivers behind us stop before they reach us.

State Farm: Light estimates and low quality replacement parts. Gee, thanks.

My love texts me that State Farm has sent him the estimate for F2, but he can't open it.  I can't either, but I call shop B to make certain that they had the estimate before I went on to call State Farm.  They do, if they find that they need more done, they will phone the estimator.

I phone State Farm.  I was able to speak with a lovely woman from Georgia.  She was able to resend the estimate and  . . . it is $1000 less than the first one which was already a bit light.  They want my market muffler replaced with the cheapest possible muffler around-- one from O'Reilly's Auto Parts, which is basically the equivalent to buying fine china at Big Lots.

I hate State Farm.

So now I have a call back.  We want the parts on the car we just purchased to be the parts that are supposed to be on there, not just whatever cheap crap they decide that they will pay for.  Will I get my way?  Probably not.

It was not our fault, yet we are the ones to suffer for people who don't freaking know how to yield.  UGH.
- - - - - - - - - -
Now that I have received my call back, pressing on with the saga that is State Farm  . . .

They finally passed me on to our "claim team."  The woman told me that she realizes that I haven't even made my first payment yet and that their insured hit me before we even owned the car for a week, but that State Farm was not going to approve use of parts any better than those that are presently on our vehicle. 

I asked for a manager. 

"He's busy.  He won't approve anything better anyhow." 

"What is his name?"

"I can't give you that."

"May I have his phone number or email?"

"I can't give you that."

"What is your name?"

"Cecelia."

"And what state are you in?"

"I'm not authorized to release that."

"Interesting because I spoke to two lovely ladies today.  The first woman was in Georgia and the second woman I just spoke to was in Arizona.  Why could they tell me where they were and you can't?"

"I can't release that information.  I can have him phone you back."  

I yelled at her and hung up.  I'm not expecting a return call from her manager.  

I phoned the shop where the Forester is being repaired.  Keith's lovely wife (I really need to find out her name) went over the estimate with me, explained the muffler part choice and the fact that they are both being replaced so that the back of the car looks right.  (State Farm initially only approved one.)  Keith gets dealer parts at auto parts store prices, so the car will be fixed right, will be in the shop for 2 weeks and all will be well.  

Keith and his wife will be getting a lovely box of homemade cookies.  

Thank you for allowing me to vent.  

State Farm: The continuation of twisting the knife slowly.

Today was the day that I drop F2 off for her $5000 beauty treatment.  Now, we knew that the estimate that M received from the State Farm authorized estimate shop was a lil light on comprehensiveness.  I take her this morning and the shop owner (we took her to a different shop than where the estimate was generated) asked which estimate we were using.

"Um, we only had one estimate."

In pure State Farm fashion, the left hand, right hand and the whole system of talking hands once again DIDN'T WRITE A FREAKING THING DOWN and somehow, they didn't realize that there was already an estimate done.  Yup.  You read that right.  The estimate was submitted by shop A, State Farm called us and said that shop A sent them confirmation that we had an appointment with them to drop F2 off and they were getting some more details.  We never made an appointment with shop A because, well, they sucked.  We told them that we were going with shop B because we had previous work done there and they are the shop of our choosing.  It took M quite some time to get the customer service agent to understand that we would not be going to shop A.  So, did she just delete the estimate?

Another estimate is being done-- I think.  I told Keith and his wife (the lovely shop B people) to do whatever they needed to do.  We appreciated their shop, their willingness to take State Farm (apparently many shops will not deal with them because of continued problems just like this) and for their kindness.

State Farm, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE A CONTINUAL PAIN IN MY - - - ?  The only thing you have been consistent on is your incredibly BAD service!  Neither my husband or I have ever seen such incredible incompetence in all our lives.

The rental car was fun.  It was scheduled.  Hertz was given the claim and they scheduled me to have a  full sized SUV.  I am 5' tall.  I told them children would go missing in the neighborhood.  They ordered up what they referred to as a "mid-sized" SUV.  It was a very large Ford Escape.  The guy, seeing the notation, decided to skip the SUV specification and put me in a Nissan Sentra instead.  The good thing is that it is smaller so I can see.  The pain with that is apparently State Farm automatically charges $30 gas responsibility off the top, so the very nice Hertz guy informed me to run it down to the very last drop because I already paid for the gas.  Will I use $30 in gas?  I have no idea.  However, if I only needed the car for 2 days, I can tell you that I wouldn't need that much and would be right irritated at the $30 charge State Farm applies without saying anything to you about it.  But, why would they?  Maybe the State Farm customer service reps aren't knowledgeable about that charge since THEY DON'T SEEM TO KNOW ANYTHING ANYWAY!

Rental car.  Check.
Flakes in the forecast for the first time this coming winter season?  Check.
Not an SUV.  Check.

So, we are hoping that State Farm pulls through and really does pay for the F2 repairs as they need to.   The back door WAS damaged and the muffler WAS damaged.  It's not light surface damage.  Since State Farm was nearly $600.00 light on the total loss amount, we decided to go through our insurance company and allow them to go back on State Farm for payment.

Gigantic. Pain. In. The. Behind.

State Farm: You suck and your claims process is wearing at the core of our souls.

This might be a long one.  No tl;dr.  Details are important, y'all.

Saturday, 10/12/19- K and I are two minutes from walking out the door for the funeral of a dear wonderful woman from our church.  Poised to put my eyeliner on, my cellphone rings.  It doesn't ring that often, so I look and notice it is my love.  I answer.

"I am okay.  I was just in an accident.  The car is totaled."

I found out where M was, took 3 seconds, threw the eyeliner on, threw out a few texts to the parishioners who were expecting us and off and away we went.

Sweet love, the drive to California would have been shorter.  I reach the hill where my love says he was hit and I don't see him.  K spotted the Yaris first.  She gasped.  He neglected to tell me that it was off the road and had gone into the woods.

I parked in a woman's front yard, threatened K not to get out because I didn't need her all up in whatever was going on and I didn't want her hit by a car.  I crossed the road, inspected my sweets for breakage and leakage.  Both were negative.  Once I found out I wouldn't injure him with a hug, I squeezed him tight for a long time.  Then he dropped the bomb-- the guy who hit him was on his phone.

There were no skid marks.  That is why initially I couldn't find the car.

It is now I will admit that I am not proud of the fact that indeed there were some hefty words that fell from my lips.  Not at the guy.  Not at Mark.  At the situation.  I was peeved.  Dude seriously had total disregard for my husband by cresting a hill and probably driving the equivalent of a football field down a hill and only knew my husband was there when he struck his car with his vehicle.  What was he doing?  He was changing a podcast.  He told M that as well as the troopers.

He launched M over the roadway.  The Yaris touched down on the passenger side (turfed the lawn) went through a split rail fence, through the woods, over some saplings and one of the larger ones stopped his continuation forward.

The man hit him so hard that his glasses flew off his face.

Insurance information is passed on.  Since his car is was an obvious total that had to be flat bedded out of the woods, I phoned our insurance -- Allstate -- to let them know of the situation.  They were all over it.  Phoning us daily to see if he was okay.  Do they need to handle the claim?  . . . Very attentive.

It gets to Tuesday, 10/15/19 and we have yet to hear from State Farm.  Again, we have heard from our insurance several times.  Since we purchased a new-to-him 2013 Subaru Forester (later referred to as F2 since I have one we purchased in February) I needed to formalize insurance for our new buy. I explained to our agent office that we have not heard from State Farm and the accident was several days prior.

"I don't think he phoned the claim in.  Certainly they would have called at this point."  She looked the claim phone number up for me, I passed it on to M so that he could phone.  I thanked her profusely.  We seriously love Allstate and our Allstate agency.

M phoned and they said they hadn't phoned us because they didn't have our contact information.  We had the information from the guy who hit my husband.  We had his name, insurance and policy number.  We could have very easily done an internet search and picked it up.  M ended up talking to 5 different people that day who all asked the VERY SAME QUESTIONS.  My husband's stock question to State Farm has become, "DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?"  I ended up being involved in the last call.  When I noticed M's head starting to smoke and he was looking like he was about to have a Sheldon Cooper lunch table explosion, I stepped in.

"How is it that you didn't have his contact information?  Don't you have a crash report?"

The guy said no, but different people say something different every time we phone.

I explained that no one phoned to check to see how he was.  I explained that no one offered a rental.  I explained that there was no attempt to advance the claim on.  He kept insisting that the car be brought closer.  (It was 45 minutes away and in a tow yard.)  After the third time with M telling him he gave the tow yard permission for it to be released to State Farm and that he got all belongings out of it, the guy wanted it closer so that it could be fixed.  M blew a gasket.  "IT CAN'T BE FIXED!  IT IS TOTALED!  DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?!"

I continued,  "It was your guy who was on the phone, hit my husband probably driving 60 MPH, launched him over a roadway, through a fence, into the woods where he finally was stopped by some small trees.  It's not okay.  The car is totaled.  It can't be fixed.  We need to get this claim handled."

He told us and I quote, "You guys need to calm down."

Oh. no. he. didn't.

He told us that they needed to get the car moved because they were having to pay storage on it.  Kind of not our fault because they never contacted us.  So glad he was more concerned about storage fees than my husband's welfare.  I believe that I told him that.

I told him that I was so very glad that I didn't have State Farm because the way this claim has been handled has been appalling.  If he needed the title, let us know, we will get everything signed and dropped off or mailed.

The personal injury guy has not contacted M back.  M's initial call was on 10/15.  He has another appointment for adjustment this week.  He has suffered from whiplash and it sure would be great to get payment to Cleveland Clinic rolling along.

We finally got a total loss amount back.  M was so mad that he told the guy we were going through our insurance and hung up on them.  Then I asked my sweets what Allstate said because they could offer us $2000 and not the $4400 State Farm did and then we would be royally screwed.

Silence.

He phoned back, apologized profusely and they are keeping the claim open.  We are now waiting to speak to the Allstate rep so that we can have them review it for a total loss claim amount.

We received a copy of the crash report.  The distraction coding seems to have been changed to "distraction outside of the vehicle" rather than the admitted "phone use."  Yes, well, either he paid the OSHPatrol off or they ended up giving him a break for insurance purposes.  We have phoned them to have that amended and, as with everything else, we have heard nothing.

Sunday, 10/20/19- After an enjoyable day to Cleveland where K drove up and around, she handed driving back over to her dad.  I had forgotten my purse at home, didn't have either my license or my Epi Pen (yellow jacket allergy and they have been bad) so M drove.  We got off the expressway and were waiting to yield just like the two giant yield signs asked us to and WHAM!  Oh yes, F2 got rear ended.  No, I am not kidding.  The replacement car we just financed less than a week before was now damaged.

(She hit us at probably 10 MPH, so it is here that I tell you that we are all okay.)

Once again, I was not at the height of humor or love for humanity.  I jumped out of the car and started knocking on the woman's window with my pointer finger screaming at her about now this is twice in one week, a car we haven't owned for a week and what does she say?  "You weren't supposed to stop. I looked back, you stopped and you shouldn't have stopped."  At this point, my love was at my side.  "There was traffic coming.  I had to stop."  She went on, "This is your fault."

Step back for two seconds.  She rear ended us on an exit ramp as we were yielding to oncoming traffic at a yield.  It was not continuous turn with caution.  It said yield!

I phoned the police.  They were all concerned about which direction I was pointed.  Y'all, I don't know what direction I am pointed on any given day much less a day where my husband has encountered being hit twice in 8 days.  After asking me for the 4th time, I believe she gave up.  The police came.  We were on a ramp.  That was highway patrol territory.  Highway Patrol came out.  We explained to the trooper what went on.  We explained that the woman insisted we were at fault.

He laughed.

He spoke with her.  She insisted it was our fault.  He explained that we could stop anywhere we wanted on the roadway and it didn't give her the right to hit us.  He confirmed his decision by giving her a ticket.  He gave us her insurance information.  Who is it?  You guessed it!  State FREAKING Farm.

I tell my love that I can phone this one in since I was in the car with him.  I do, I get Kevin from Washington State (he is an ex-cop, super guy and you need to give him a serious raise) who I explain the situation of now a second claim.  He finds that the State Farm driver hadn't called the claim in yet, so he processes it with me as far as he can.  He will phone her and if successful, they will back to me in about a half hour or so.  In 45 minutes, Pam from Dallas TX (who is delightful and also deserves a big fat raise) gave me the claim number, rental car information and was a delight to speak with.

The State Farm delightfulness stopped there.

F2 went to the State Farm approved estimate shop that appears to be run by some nasticious troll who has an attitude worse than anything my husband has seen.  (It is here that I remind the gentle readers that my husband is a very kind soul.)  He phoned me during the estimate.  "I don't feel good about this shop.  I don't get a good feeling.  This guy isn't nice.  This is a production shop.  He has no attention to detail and this is terrible."

"You don't have to go there.  They told us that we can go to the shop of our choice.  The shop that repaired for us before is wonderful and you spoke of going there."

M talked with the awful shop guy who was trying to hard sell to him and in the end, contacted State Farm with an appointment to get the car repaired that M never scheduled.  Can I tell you how much fun that has been because State Farm was so insistent that we were going to Backyard Bully Bob's Collision Center that my husband just started chanting on repeat the name and address of the shop we will be having repair F2.  He said that the woman lost her patience with him.

Oh, and fun to add that this State Farm representative is confusing the two claims and thinks she is fixing the Yaris.  "IT IS TOTALED.  DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?" was M's response.

BBBCCenter guy never sent the estimate as he said he would.  M said he phoned the shop to tell him had never scheduled an appointment and has chosen to go to a different place.  We believe the guy is withholding the estimate out of spite because, well, that is how this fine trip with State Farm has been.

So, State Farm-- you are the worst insurance company we have ever encountered.  Never have we ever had to phone any insurance company to give our contact information.  Just February, my vehicle was totaled at the shop by our mechanic and their insurance was on with me within hours.  Everything was sorted within a week.  Hooray for Erie Insurance!

Ohio State Waterproofing hit me and K, spun us through an intersection and totaled our vehicle about 12 years ago.  Their insurance was all over it.  Thank you, Cincinnati Insurance!  

My vehicle was damaged at a friend's house by a husband, a strong weed eater and over zealous trimming before a party.  Hooray for Westfield Insurance as they had it handled and easily taken care of!

We have already said, but just to confirm, thank you Allstate for your kindness and caring in regard to questions we have had and advice you have been able to give.

State Farm, Step up and redeem yourself!  Get these two unfortunate claims sorted in a swift manner, please!  You have been absolutely terrible to deal with!

Showing grace: When the mechanic accidentally totals your car.

This story starts well before the mechanic involvement.

I was asked if I would be willing to drop a meal off for one of our parishioners who is in-home hospice care.  Now we love Dottie and Dave.  For those people I love, I make a chicken pot pie nearly from scratch.  (I cheat on the crust.)

I made the pot pie.  K and I went to deliver it.  It was during the polar vortex.

Their driveway is a typical driveway for around here-- with a few twists.  It is narrow (that is the typical part) with a telephone pole at the corner and on the devil strip, and landscape block on the other corner plus a driveway with a hill.  Out of habit of driving stick, I pulled the emergency brake on the hill.

Something let go.

Despite my small heart attack, we went, visited, delivered said pie and went on.  I phoned the mechanic, brought it in the next day and replacement parts were ordered.  It took about a week for the parts to arrive and between that and my schedule, I was able to make an appointment on Valentine's Day morning for the fix.  It would be three hours, but no problem.  I'll just hang out.

It's a two man shop.  Nothing fancy.  I was sitting in their lil waiting room, shop cat begging for affection and the shop owner even turned Golden Girls on for me.  (I have no idea why that show, but it was thoughtful for him to do it.)

Then I heard what sounded like a sheet of plywood hitting a concrete floor.  There was no yelling.  There was no running.  I ignored it and went on with reading my phone.

Then the shop owner came in and mentioned something about an airbag.  I went.  I looked.  It looked like the airbag at my drivers side window went off and hey, that sucks but it's fixable.

The mechanic came out.  R asked how he was and he mentioned something about his back.  I had him pull up his shirt and he had an enormous welt that spanned the width of his back from where he got hit by the airbag.  And then . . .

. . . I found out that the side curtain airbags went off, both sides, all the way down.

:deep breath:

In the going back and forth with their insurance company, we were given a choice-- fix it or total it out.  We opted to total it.

Our totaled vehicle was a much beloved (by me) 2008 Toyota RAV4.  Now, she was a replacement to a previous RAV total.  I loved her, but she kicked and screamed nearly the entire time we owned her.  Almost a secret abusive relationship in regard to a vehicle and owner.  Sometimes damage would whisper.  Sometimes damage would thunk and scream.  Either way, as much as I loved her we knew that if we kept it, we would have continued problems, it would be tagged as airbags deployed, no one would buy it and frankly, we were offered a total out price that we could not get in a standard sale situation.

Rather than scream and yell, sue the shop and smear their name all over the internet, we opted to show grace.

Rather than berate the mechanic who, in a fine detail that should be said is also my cousin, we showed grace.

Hugs instead of giving the silent treatment. We opted to show grace.

My husband and I talked about this as a God intervention.  No one was seriously injured.  A welt was it.  We all screw up with our jobs.  I'm not perfect.  My husband isn't perfect.  This was an imperfect day for the mechanic.  He, in working on my parking brake, accidentally bumped the side curtain airbag sensor and that (I believe) my vehicle read as a rollover.

He is a certified mechanic.

He works at a certified shop.

It is a Christian shop.

They had insurance.

We were able to find (thanks to the internet) a 2013 Subaru Forester at a dealership up around Cleveland.  In what turned out to be a whirlwind car buying experience, we were loaned the vehicle to have our mechanic (yes, the same shop who brought us to the need for replacement) inspect it, we stopped by a local Subaru dealership and went on to purchase it.  She reminds us of our old RAV, but with some thoughtful upgrade features that Subaru has added.  (Hello, heated seats!)  We will now have a small car payment, but I plan on paying it off in three years still making it a payment that we can absorb.

We wouldn't have been able to replace our ailing RAV without this mishap.  Instead of being mad, we look at it as a way God helped us to be able to upgrade a vehicle that otherwise was going to swallow us.

We look at it with thanks and grace.

Making it work and confirming that chivalry is dead.

When we went to leave work the other day, I had a coworker who's car would not start.  She looked, decided that it was because her kids had left her with a gas gauge on E and was officially out of fuel.

Our handyman was working on something and I asked if there was a gas can anywhere on the compound.  He mumbled something and went on to his thing.

With me, he is normally very helpful, but the one experiencing the fuel shortage has been in a bit of a tiff with him.  He was not at all eager to help.

With no gas can, no offer for help, K initially declined help . . . I decided to help anyhow.  I used what I had-- a windshield washer fluid container.  Handy guy says, "They won't let you pump gas into an unapproved container."  Now, I know this.  Here is the thing, the gas station is 3 blocks up.  This is our only option, so we opted to take it.

I filled my WW fluid reservoir to the top, dumped the lil bit left and went to buy a gallon of gas.  My other coworker was with me (I was going to drive her home that night) so she held the container for the 3 block drive back.

We decided that we needed a funnel.  A water bottle was used.  K had a knife that she used to trim off the bottom.

The next problem?  There is a flappy thing that closes off the gas tank.  We needed to push it open.  K suggested a stick, but we needed to make sure that it was thick enough to push and not break into the tank, but not too large to block the funnel hole for the gas.

I held the stick and the funnel, K poured the gas and all was well.  We got the car started and her on her way-- all the while the handy dude and the guy locking up stood and watched.  No, they didn't offer to help.  Chivalry.  It's dead.  Confirming that now.

In 15 minutes, we got everything handled.  We did not pause.  We worked together.  We made it happen.

Today, I get a text from K with a video.  She found out that it was not her kids being irresponsible, but a rather steady drip coming from her gas tank.  The vehicle is now in for repair.

No man, woman, child or empty gas tank left behind-- even if kindness wasn't given to us.  We would never leave them behind.  Hopefully we demonstrated kindness and working together in a way that will inspire them to pass it on.

Hooray for new brakes!

My brakes were making a weird grinding noise.  I couldn't tell if some large clot of snow or ice had gotten caught up in the wheel or if it was a bad brake thing.  I brought it up to my brother, my brake repair guy, a couple of weeks ago.  It was then that the weather went straight back down to -10.8 F.  Two weeks passed and I felt something grinding.  I gave him a text.  He texted back.  He got to business yesterday.

After several hours later in an unheated garage with the door wide open, having given us a lot of time to talk, he replaced the front brake pads, the back rotors and pads.  He said if it would have gone much longer, I would have had to use those front rotors we bought just in case.

Parts were $150.  I asked what I owed.  He said $40.   I paid $75.  (Hazard pay.)  He didn't want to take it, but I made him.  It was slave labor wage given what he did.  He even changed my windshield wiper blades and ribbed me for what the driver's side blade looked like.

I ripped it.  A lot.  I ended up pulling hunks of ice off of the blade and shredded it.

It's all fixed now!  Hooray for stopping!

Of tires, warranties and silver linings.

Tires are a problem for me.  Truly.  They are round.  They are rubber.  They are supposed to hold air.  I swear that every single tire on the RAV has an inner magnetic field that pulls every hunk of metal (including nails, screws, shards and chunks) toward the roundness that allows said vehicle to roll.

I was on my merry way home from work last night when 1 block up, I noticed that the tire pressure sensor light came on.  I admit that I am completely aware of exactly which light this is.  I work in not a terribly good section of town.  I decided to pull off to the local Thai restaurant, run around the car to see if all tires were round and if getting home without assistance was possible.  I went on the car roundabout and saw that my back passenger tire was low.  Visibly low.  The good news is that I didn't hear whistling of air pouring from the tire, so I thought that I could go and top off the air in the tire.  It was 26 F and perhaps it was a cold weather thing.

I went to the gas station where I thought there was a free air pump and it was not free.  It had a Visa or MC logo on the front, so I gassed up the 1/4 tank with the $2.88 in gas/gallon and used my handy-dandy tire gauge to assess the situation.

10 PSI.  That's not good.

I called Hubs and told him that I was certain that I picked something up and that I'd be parked in the neighbor's drive.  I then called Mike, who wasn't home at the time, but he told me his garage code and told us to help ourselves to tools.  In the change of 22 F, the zipper on the spare was frozen shut, so I ran back home, got a measuring cup of warmish but not hot water to loosen the zipper up.  Of course, I had no gloves on because I had to deal with water and by the time we got the tire changed, my hands were blocks of ice.  We did, however, find said metallic substance.

I could see into my tire.  I could see into the interior of my tire.  Hubs has no idea how I made it home.

God.  It's all God at work.  There is no other answer.

On his way to work, Hubs took the RAV to the fine, fine folks at NTB.  "Sir, we can't fix that."  They showed him that I picked up a 1" x 5-6" hunk of metal in my tire.  A bigger concern that they addressed with him was that my 70,000 mile tires had only 35,000 miles (ETA 31,000 miles) on them, but were essentially bald.  Hubs called and told me that NTB offered to switch the tires out with new 50,000 for $100 each as a part of the warranty.  Shoot, we've paid more than that for a single tire for the RAV, so I told him to go ahead and do it.  We also have road hazard (not an option) and an alignment for the bargain price of $530 ish right after giving a huge deposit towards phase one of braces.  HOORAY!  :S  We consider it a blessing to have an opportunity to replace crappy tires that were so very loud (the salesman asked if loudness was a problem) with tires that will hopefully be much better.  We are blessed to have an NTB on the way to Hubs' work and how fortunate for me to be off so that I could run out, drop Hubs off at work (a few minutes late, but they were okay with that) and run back out to do the family car shuffle tonight.

Bonus number two is that I was able to fill Hubs' tank before gas went from $2.86 to $3.29 right before my eyes.  I was sitting in line for gas and the price changed on the sign.  I got to the pump and it was still the previously stated price and I absolutely couldn't scan the credit card in fast enough to secure that price.  I got it, then right after I was done, they shut down my pump.  Wow.

We're fortunate to have the ability to replace tires and get gas for our cars.  The tires weren't built into the budget for now, but we have a savings and I'm glad to have it though we ignore it.  How fortunate we are to have them offer a warranty deal, even though I've been a bit remiss on rotation lately.  How lucky I'll be to have a car that isn't sliding anymore.  (Hubs said, "You were sliding, weren't you."  "Yes, but I didn't want to say anything right now.")  How great it is that Hubs could go to take care of this for me.  I don't pull the girl card often, but I was fearful that I might get the dumb girl run-around if I took the truck and gave a warranty complaint.  They brought it up to Hubs and all is well.  I've never had a problem with NTB.  They've always stood behind the products that they sell and they've always given great service.  Still, I'm glad that Hubs could handle this one for me.

The land of the beepless.

Hubs' newish car (bought last December) is the low-as-you go model of Yaris.  I mean, it has power locks once you get into it, but there is no key remote to lock the doors.  It is standard shift.  Pretty basic.  The RAV, however, has some lovely perks.  It has a remote key for the locks, 4WD, the moon roof, power windows.  That sort of thing.  I really appreciate the power windows when in the Yaris and twirling the hand crank on the door.

Recently, my key remote has been giving me fits.  There are days on end that it will work and mornings that it won't.  I made an appointment to get it checked out because I have a warranty and why not use it?  When I called, the gentleman (not my usual repair guy) answered the phone and went though this whole thing about how it could be wiring and it would be at least an hour and maybe the warranty would cover . . . It was really making me feel like a stupid girl for even calling.  This morning, I went to ye ole local Toyota dealership where I love their service but strongly dislike the sales department to meet up with Aaron.  Aaron chuckled when I told him that the key was angry and no longer wanted to work.  When I told him that Mike was discussing wiring and so forth, he pushed the button and said, "You battery is dead!"  He popped the key apart and I was telling him that my husband said that he could do that but, "Is it, what-- $60 to replace a key?"  "$280.  That's why if you bring it to me and I screw it up, we replace it for free."  And he did replace the battery.  A nice Duracell battery that will last another 5 1/2 years.  You know what?  He didn't even charge me.

Hooray!  Thanks Toyota! :)

Fortunate endings from irritating beginnings.

We're back on our summer schedule, so a few days a week I drive K out to my in-law's house to have her hang with them while we're at work.  It requires me to leave an hour early for work, but we are thankful that they watch her.

I was running a little close on time yesterday, got about a mile away and realized that my tire pressure sensor light was on.

Drat.

I pulled off in a housing development, got out, checked to see if all tires were round, they were and I pressed on.  I phoned Hubs to let him know.  He called back and said that since he is on a shifted schedule this week, he would meet me at work, trade cars and deal with the tire situation.  He phoned later to say that he found a big nail in one of my tires and he was going to drop the tire off for repair.  (Hooray for road hazard purchased with the tires!)  Since my RAV was due for an oil change, Hubs told me to have them check the steering.  He said that it was making a loud sound and he wanted it checked out.

K and I had an early day today, but it ended a bit earlier than I anticipated.  I phoned the dealership, made an oil change appointment and asked if they could check my steering.  "It's making a 'clunking' sound and my husband asked that I have it checked."

When we arrived, the people in Toyota service at our local dealership know me.  We got on to chatting back and forth and kidding around a bit.  We got ourselves settled in.  An hour later, Aaron came to speak with me.

It's the steering shaft.

I've been on the phone with the warranty company.

We have the part.  It'll be about an hour and a half.

"It's been clunking for a bit of time, but there was no play in the steering, so I thought I was okay."

"When the steering shaft goes, you have no steering.  We want to fix this tonight."

"We're happy to hang out.  Do what you need to."

We sat there for about an hour and Aaron came out again, apologizing profusely.  "The shaft was installed, but the bolts weren't lining up right and he placed the other shaft in and he's having trouble getting it in."

"Please tell him to take his time.  We have no place to be.  It's all good."

We left out of there at the hour and a half point that Aaron promised.  Aaron was the gentleman involved in my December dealership holding.  Warranty work was done on my exhaust system and took an additional hour and a half, leaving me to have to find someone to get K from the bus stop and still run to the school to collect a non-driver mom so she could get home for her kiddo.

Aaron had his bag on his shoulder and they had been buttoning everything up for the night.  "Aaron, thanks for staying.  I'm so sorry it took so long.  You know, if it wasn't my vehicle fighting you tooth and nail all the way, I don't know what you'd do."

"I wanted to stay to make certain that it was fixed.  It was no longer safe for you to drive."

I may not purchase another car from that dealership again, but they have my service work forever.  They've always been wonderful to me in the service department and they are honest.

Thank goodness for that nail.  Thank goodness for my husband who had my car and insisted that it be checked out.  Thank goodness for a dealership that took me seriously and put themselves out, staying open late so that my vehicle could be returned to me in a safe condition.  We were there for a total of three hours, but K was an angel and it was time well spent.  All we were responsible for was the warranty deductible.

Hooray!

Hanging at the dealership.

The RAV maintenence light came on a few weeks ago. I knew that I needed an oil change. I made an appointment today, made mention of the airbag light staying on twice, found that there were "three other campaigns" and we're sitting for a long stay. It truly is why we have our oil changed at the dealership. They can pull for recalls and we can get it taken care of lickety split.

Or just lickety. Since I'm still here, I'm thinking that split isn't quite it yet. For the time being, K is becoming quite proficient at operating the vending machines. :)

ETA: Another great reason to go to the dealership- apparently, there is a pipe at my catalytic converter that is rusted. They are ordering a new part and since it falls under warranty, it will cost us nothing. Hooray!

You know you have a reputation when . . .

. . . Your friend e-mails you the following:

Claustrophobia combined with germophobia=O*MG it's a port-a-potty!!!

Yes, I have issues that even my good friends that have never personally met me know. :)

Thanks for the giggle, Rachael!

On an aside, I had e-mailed Rachael a bit more in detail the bit about the boxes o' yuck at the super secret movie location the other day.  They were the most disgusting public toilets that I have ever seen.  Consider yourself lucky to have been spared the details.

Smiles in my day:
-  Celebrating my in-law's 44th anniversary with them today.  We were slightly belated due to Hubs' schedule and their weekend day trip, but it was all good. 
-  K- absolutely LOVING! arts camp.  They've even been teaching the kids yoga!  She loves it and I'll be checking into some kids yoga videos from the library.
-  Being moved up the Toyota corporate line.  The dealership?  Oh, after the message that they left for us today, we have and will continue to be sharing our experiences with corporate (I actually played them the message) and I will be mailing a letter to the owner of the dealership.  He's busy running for some type of high political office.  Has he forgotten that he has a dealership group with his name stamped to the outside?  I may need to remind him.  In the meantime, the corporate level of Toyota seems to be taking our concerns very seriously.  We are Toyota owners for life.  We just need to find a new dealership.  Thankfully, there is a dealership about 20 minutes down the road that we plan on checking out.  After the tire cover deal is dealt with, we will no longer walk into the dealership that we purchased the RAV from ever again.  Too bad.  It is 5 minutes away.

Have a great port-o free day!

The internet in my mailbox, Betty Crocker lives and a tale of car window irritation.

Hello friends! So kind of you to drop in and read my drivel. I usually post earlier than this, but my people were asleep by the time I got home from Festival Choir practice last night at 10:15 PM. Have I forgotten to mention that it was 14 F? Add a wind chill factor to that and it spells C-O-L-D. I'm good with cold, but having a little difficult adjustment to the stinkin' cold all of a sudden. Apparently, my winter ache will be my right hip again. I told Hubs that I have money down that that will be the first part I have to replace. Last year was my tendinitis affected thumb. That has been begging to differ a little to. Oh well.

Onto the good stuff. Thursday was Internet in my Mailbox Day! First, I found a lovely box. I opened it and this came out:What could it be? Why, it is a set of handcrafted cards made by my lovely friend Rachael in Virginia! That is one talented girl. Keep in mind that she not only made my set, but sets as gifts and some as donations for an auction. She also made the gift tag and her whole set of Christmas cards. She is also 5 1/2 months pregnant, works full time as a teacher, keeps house, cooks, cleans and mothers a nearly 4 year old Lily. She makes the non-pregnant of us tired with all she manages to do! In another envelope was a card and photo from my friend Jamie in Pittsburgh. (Browns just won last night against Pittsburgh and I have no idea what happened as clearly Pittsburgh should have just spanked the death out of them, but again, it was frosty cold on the lake. Maybe the weather threw them.) She managed to get an absolutely gorgeous picture of her family while on vacation, despite some vacationary unpleasantness that was going on. Her newsletter online? No wonder why someone asked her to write! She is quite talented with photography and the written word. As for me, I embraced the weather and decided to set a little TV tray out on the back step to use as a cooling area. I felt very Ma Ingalls about it, as my cheesecake was covered in a tea towel, while sitting in the brisk wind to cool. Snow swirled about and the air was crisp. It cooled my baked goods in no time! I told you I baked. Peanut Butter/Peanut Butter Chip, Butter Crisp and Red Hot Sugar Cookies. And baked some more. Almost Candy Bars. And after that, I baked some more! Ginger kisses. (Recipes to come on WFMW.)

My sister and Leland met up with me this morning to help me set up my tea table at church. We have an annual Christmas Tea, where women in the church volunteer to set up themed tables, you come to eat, drink tea and be merry. We have the most wonderful homemade broccoli noodle soup and wrap sandwiches. A lady in the church makes cookies by the hundreds to provide to each table. This year will be the first year that K- and her cousins will be attending. I've made them tea goodie bags with Fun Pads, crayons, a journal and a mechanical pencil to keep them happy. I also found some fun red and white striped ornaments. For the ladies, I have cardinal ornaments, a nature-themed journal pad and some simmering spices. And yes, you'll see the pictures come Monday for the Christmas Tour of Homes.

After setting the tea table, LeAnne, Leland and I went over to my 92 year old grandmother's house to set up her Christmas decorations. Everything was set, we went to leave and I noticed that when I came up to my car, my back passenger window was down. It was not broken out. Nothing in my car was missing. (There was nothing of value in there then anyhow.) I pulled on the window and heard CLUNK! The freakin' track fell off the bottom of the window again. I called the glass guy, was polite, but obviously irritated that it was 20 degrees and my window was down with no way to get back up. He told me to come up. I called my mother, using the few choice words that I refrained from using with Rick and mom said that she would call my dad. (My dad knows the glass guy.) I'm pleased to say that my window is repaired with no charge and should not be a problem any longer as they urethaned the seal to the glass. See, what happened was that K- tried to roll her window down to wave to Jim the crossing guard. She said that the window was stuck. She stopped trying, but I put the window lock on just in case. I explained that we didn't want to jimmy with the frozen window, as that is the window that gives us fits anyhow. Apparently, the motor pulled the track off the window at that point and I didn't know it. I went on about my business and the world was fine. The temperature went up to a warm and toasty 25 degrees. When it did, it warmed the seal that was keeping the glass in place, melted the water that was frozen between and let go of the glass.

So that leaves me to now. It is 5:07 PM. I should really be warming taco dinner leftovers and clearing K-'s school trappings from the table. Hubs will be home in a half hour and I suppose that I should quickly find the table top so that we can sit and eat as a family.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful weekend. May the weather be kind to you and may your automotive windows behave as they should.

Smiles in my day:
- Getting the tea table busted out with my sister. We divide and conquer as our mama taught us to.
- Getting grandma's Christmas things put up without any complaint from grandma. Usually, she has some decorative issues, but we did it in half the time that I'm usually able to. LeAnne and I did it tornadically, so I think that the speed made grandma's head spin.
- The laundry is all clean, on the line and awaiting deposit in their proper creature drawers.
- Leftovers.
- Hubs and his cookie baking support as clean-up crew.
- K- and her willingness to put her taste buds on the line to test drive the cookies for me. :)

Tales from the Trenches: Agida

Julia discusses agida. State of mental aggravation? Check.

The retail public puts me into a crabby mood this time of year.

Everyone is in a hurry.

Everyone assumes I'm an idiot because I work behind a cash counter.

Everyone assumes that I'm unable to take a price tag off.

Everyone assumes that I can drop the customer that I'm currently helping in order to help them.

Everyone needs every blasted thing wrapped, regardless of whether it is 50 cents. What the heck is up with that? I mean, really. If you don't want to wrap it because it is so small, it doesn't mean that I want to do it anymore. (I'm not kidding about the 50 cent thing. They were erasers.)

Everyone assumes that I know exactly who they are every trip they make past the counter and drop items off because they CAN'T CARRY A BLASTED BASKET TO KEEP THEIR TINY PURCHASES WITH THEM! (Keep in mind that I help other folks as they "add to their pile.") I mean, do you really have to walk by the counter and drop off every $2.00 item individually because you can't be bothered to carry it or a basket to contain your items? I only have so much counter space.

Free gift wrap is just that. I do a beautiful job. Please don't stand across the counter and whisper complaints to your friend because I didn't wrap your Christmas items in red and green. I can hear you. I'm not deaf. When you questioned my use of brown on a Christmas gift, I showed you what I was using and defended my choices. You seemed fine. Your friend told you how gorgeous the $5.00 magnets were that I individually gift wrapped for you.

Do people really need to come to the gallery drunk in the middle of the afternoon? Oh, my favorite is when they fall all over themselves playing with very loud toys in the toy room.

People really need to teach their kids that when they tell them NO they mean NO. If you tell your kid to follow you (we thank you for that, by the way), then you need to actually make them follow you, as opposed to bargaining. You are the parent. They are the child. Wear the mama pants and BE THE PARENT!

They purchased new white paper for us to wrap in. It is like wrapping in crunchy organza. They may have been trying to save money, but I have to use extra amounts of it. I'm costing them more money.

I have a co-worker who has issues with personal space consideration. Keep in mind that I am claustrophobic, so this time of year can put me on edge. The entire counter can be empty and she'll be standing right. next. to. me. Move down, please. I did find a way to work around it. I just need to get ribbon from our drawers instead of off the rods. She has to move down to let me in.

When I leaving Giant Eagle the other day, I noticed the Salvation Army worker silently standing there next to her kettle. I grabbed a buck and put it in, as I was saying, "They don't let you ring the bell, do they?" "No, they don't." SHAME ON YOU, GIANT EAGLE!

And for the top of my venting list today:

To the person in the parking lot of Hallmark,

I stopped by Hallmark to purchase a Star Wars ornament set for my daughter. They didn't have it in stock, so I was in the store for just 5 minutes or less. I just wanted to let you know that as I briefly shopped, you allowed your stray cart to bash into the driver's door of my year and a half old vehicle. You managed to dent my car door in two places because you were unable to take your cart to the corral. There are many in the parking lot. The funny thing? I had three free parking spaces on either side of my car. I don't know how you managed to do it, but now I'll be paying to fix the dents that you left behind. Thank you for costing me at least $100.00 to fix the problem from your laziness.

I hope that your vehicle doesn't become victim of someone's negligence like mine did.

Few people realize that there are people out there that take care of their vehicles. We purchase our vehicles and have them forever. I wax mine (no small feat) a couple of times a year, as well as wash it regularly. That particular side of my car has already been repainted twice due to a stoning with a weed eater (and a blown window.) So, thanks. The car isn't paid off yet, though I have two lovely cart dents staring at me every time I get into my vehicle. It's like the knife is being twisted slowly.

I know, I know. It is just a thing. Even so, it irritates me. I park at the back of parking lots and hike into stores. I steer clear of cart corrals and on Black Friday, I even parked at Staples in order to go to Kohl's, clear on down the parking lot.

It's not like I'm a front space taker.

Please put your cart back in it's proper creature home. Oh, and if you do bash into someone's car, at least a note of apology would be nice.

Thanks.

Smiles in my day:
- Leftovers warmed and on the table for dinner when I got home.
- I made it to the post office this morning and the Christmas cards are on their way. So is the package I needed to send out. Little did I know then, but I do believe that the recipient really needs a lift this week. Hopefully the surprise box will make them smile.
- K- writing her first, middle and last name on her paper. Because we sing it to BINGO, she knows how to spell it!
- My dad coming to check out our fuse box. Good news is that everything is fine and I was just being paranoid.
- I cleaned our computer desk Monday morning. Wow. It needed it.
- Taco leftovers for lunch.
- K- actually ate most of her lunch on Monday! It's been forever since that has happened. I bought some shaved chicken lunch meat for her to have a sandwich and made little crinkle cut carrot coins. Both were almost all gone. Hooray!
- I hung the K-'s school calendars up on our kitchen door so that I don't miss another Show and Tell. She was very forgiving about it this last time, but I felt horrible. With this month so jam packed, I didn't want to miss anything. I'd rather have the calendars hanging, then to have my kid miss out because mommy was so preoccupied.
- $5.00 subscriptions to Real Simple and Southern Living Magazines through Magazines.com. I was able to purchase a few for gifts!
- Free shipping at Snapfish, so I was able to order a minimal amount of photos with free shipping. It only cost me $2.68! I ordered the picture of the chalky kid hands holding the lime green nicotiana to use as thank you cards for K-'s birthday. Perfect!
- 10% off and free shipping at the Vitamin Shoppe! (We get Hubs' work out stuff through there.)
- More points by buying all that stuff through Mypoints.com! That means more gift certificates! I'm saving for Easter for K- right now. Hooray!

Forgive me for my venting. (Tuesday is my day.) Thanks for lending an ear.

Have a great day!

If you bonk me on the side of the head, perhaps my eyes will become uncrossed.

After having read this post, I've figured out that my brain was scattered because I was too upset about my tire (read below.) Things flow in 12 directions. Just read and excuse.

Folks, we did it. We made it to 100! I read 9 Uncle Wiggily's this evening and Hubs followed up with the 100th book being "What is a Wookiee?" Oh praise His Holy Name, we've reached 100. My eyes? They are spinning in my head. I've never been particularly strong at reading aloud. I'm happy to say that I'm improving on that. I had hazy head today, though. Hazy head does not make for good out-loud reading. It is done, though. 100 reading steps for the 100 book challenge are done. Should I tell you that she would really like to earn the end of the year limo ride with the Principal to CiCi's pizza. How many reading steps is that? 1000.

Here's big news. My brother called me. He phoned. He talked briefly. He said that it is over between him and his wife. I told him that we aren't mad at him. I also told him that I knew that there was more going on in his life than the marital troubles that they have been having for quite some time. "We're not surprised, Billy." I told him how he just needs to take what he's been through, use it as a learning bit in life, pull up the bootstraps, make positive changes and move on.

It appears that his accident was a bit of a doozy. He fell asleep and rear-ended a 2008 HHR. It smacked the car in front of it. It is totaled. He went to court today and told them that his insurance had lapsed. He will be without a license for a year, has a $230.00 fine and is working out financial arrangements with the HHR insurance company to repay for damages.

Frankly, I think that the car bit was the final straw. It is just an object, though. He's trying to make good and I applaud him for that.

In other news, the tire pressure light was on in the RAV this morning. I think that when I skinnied around the construction vehicles that had my way hopelessly blocked yesterday, I made the tire unhappy when I very slowly drove up over a curb. I swear, if you touch the tires on this car in any way other than happy, they lose air. UGH. The evening update is that Hubs topped the tires off and the right front appears to be leaking. He thinks that I picked up a nail. Crap. Another one bites the dust.

I went to check the tire pressure, as I knew that the tire gauge was in my car because I saw it this weekend and VOILA! It had vanished. I stopped by the auto parts store, got a new one (chrome with a case-- oooo!) and explained to the lady at the counter that having shared custody of the tire pressure gauge with my husband was not working for me. Hubs is to tackle that this evening. Hopefully just putting more air in it will work. Let's face it. It's my vehicle. Nothing is ever that easy. My other brother doesn't work for Goodyear anymore, so this means that I may actually have to take it up the street to the other tire place. Double UGH.

Have I mentioned the pumpkin patch trip tomorrow? No? Well, we have an 80% chance of rain. Requirement of uniforms is suspended in want of warm clothing, preferably jeans, sweaters, rain coats, boots and the like. I did talk to K-'s teacher who told me that it is possible that it would be canceled if it is bad. She said that standing in the cold rain for 5 hours doesn't sound that appealing to her.

I had a field day at the thrift store. Oh, listen to what I found!
- A brand new Groovy Girl. She's still in the box! She was 2.50. We're going to put her up for the Christmas stocking. Previously, I found a Groovy Girl bed. K- will love them!
- A brand new perling bead set (fusing beads.) A stocking stuffer for 90 cents.
- A deluxe set of fusing beads with a bunch of bead boards. I paid 2.50 for that. We did some when we got home.
- Three computer games for K- for stocking stuffers. Two were 45 cents. One was 90 cents. We have Reader Rabbit, Madeline in Europe and Hot Wheels car creator. Hubs will go ahead and change the cases. The disks are in beautiful condition.
- A brand new bathing suit for K- for 1.00.
- Two pairs of winter boots for K-. One pair, an LL Bean size 12, were $1.50. They are muckin' winter boots, so she'll wear those to the pumpkin patch tomorrow. The others were 2.50 and are a size 13. Very much like the muckin' LL Bean.
- Uniform legal turtleneck sweaters, button down long sleeved shirts and long sleeved polo in a variety of prices, but none over 1.50.
- A brand new pair of GLITTENS! They are from Andes Gifts and are handmade in Bolivia of Alpaca fibers. They still have the tag on them! K- is so excited.
- We've netted some more crock-pot recipes. I'm so glad!

While surfing this evening, I ran across this piece from the Today show. How it breaks my heart that an adopted child was returned to the system to be adopted out again because at the age of 2 1/2 and after having been in custody of his new parental unit for 18 months, he wasn't attaching in the way that his adoptive mother had hoped.

ADOPTED CHILDREN ARE NOT CLEARANCE RACK PURCHASES THAT CAN BE RETURNED IF THEY DON'T FIT. IF YOU CAN'T GIVE YOURSELF COMPLETELY TO ADOPTION, THEN DON'T DO IT!

I'm sure if you asked the mother, she has probably never given it a thought to give any of her 5 biological daughters to the system. And yet, there is a family that took a child that was abandoned on a roadside in South America into their home, guaranteed him a good home and backed out of the deal. It is unexcuseable. And no, I don't apologize for the way I feel. I am an adoptive mother.

Picture This!

As the hum of summer hangs overhead, things are growing!
The purple plum is getting ready to burst its little buds soon! The little grape hyacinths have bloomed. Their greens were nipped brown by the frosty snow last week, though.Some blooming little weeds I found.
Little Wild Violas were blooming underneath K-'s slide.
Some more blooming little weeds. Hey, it was a long winter and in Ohio, we'll get whatever blooming we can get!
If memory serves, this is myrtle. Or vinca. I think it is myrtle, though. Nope. Myrtle is Vinca and Vinca is Periwinkle. Apparently, it is all the same thing. Good to know! A view from outside the garden window. The tomatoes are basking in the toasty window. Those roots are growing and growing. That's another reason why I love to use these translucent cups. I'm able to check in to see the root development. K- was busy outside. She was playing with gravel right outside the door, looking for neat rocks and fossils and I was at the table clipping coupons. I could see and hear her. She had gone to the backyard and was swinging, or at least I thought. Nah. She decided to fill her sandbox with gravel. Yes, we are busy sifting all that back out. Either that or we can put a sign on the gate that says "K-'s Sand and Gravel Pit." Lovely.

Lots going on.

I'm writing this Thursday night because I love to give y'all a post every day. I try anyhow! So, today ends with exhaustion from accomplishment. Oh, do let me give you the run-down.

The day started with K- going to preschool. We got up at 7:15 AM, I saw that it was BLUE outside and so BLUE that it was a NACITS (not a cloud in the sky) kind of day. They had promised 63 degrees +. Do you know what that spells? Strip the beds, wash the linens, then line dry the sheets! Hubs didn't have to go in until later, so he got up to greet K- and I stripped our bed and had the sheets in the washer before I left to drop K- off. I came home and found Hubs resting on the couch. Apparently, he had plans to snuggle back in bed for a few more minutes but found the bed bare. Oops. Sorry! I laundered the clothes that were in the basket and the towels from the bathroom. There was a breeze, so everything was drying rather quickly. I decided to go ahead and line dry the towels. I figured that the breeze would snap the stiffness out of them. Can I tell you that I was wrong? I've just used a noisy towel (yes, noisy) that felt like I was drying myself with a long sheet of steel wool. But line drying otherwise was very pleasant. (No, we don't use fabric softener because of allergies.)

I drove back up and got K- and shuttled on back home to have a bite for lunch. I had signed her up for a Wildflower program at 1:00 PM, so we needed to trot on to the park for that.

The program was lovely, but I'd like to ask something. What the heck was up with the loud chatty moms at the table I sat at? They paid no attention to the program, no attention to their kids and did not catch the hint when I turned around not one but THREE times to give them the polite but stern mommy shhh! look. I could have beaned the women! In between Chatty and Patty and their loudness, (and a difficulty hearing because of them) I learned the following:

1. Garlic Mustard is invasive and not good at all. Nothing eats it and the seeds are spread by wind. Their roots overtake soil that native species would live in, thus resulting in a lack of natives and a boom of invasives. They actually have Garlic Mustard pulls as a result.
2. It takes a Trout Lily 7 full years to bloom. If you pick the bloom, it will die because then it has no seeds to regenerate.
3. Even a spider is considered a "pollinator."
4. Skunk cabbage really does stink.
5. Blue Bells were in bloom.
6. We saw Cut Leaf Tooth Wart.
7. We also saw Violets.
8. Spring Beauty was in bloom.
9. We saw Mayapples emerging. Though they are considered poisonous until just a certain point (that Miss Pat, a previous coworker of Hubs, admitted that she wouldn't eat one due to uncertainty), I was able to share with her later that I had eaten a Mayapple. It is pulpy and tastes grapey/appley. It is also very seedy. Hubs' boss picked it and insisted that one of us eat it. Hubs would not. K- was grossed out and that left me. We couldn't disappoint him!
10. Jack in the Pulpit's flower is not the big flowery type tubey flower that we all thought. It's the flowery stem inside.

When we left, K- was fast asleep within 5 minutes. We went back home, K- played with Barbies for a while as I talked to Grandma about this past week with the girls. (Which was great that Grandma was willing to watch all 3 of the girls at the same time. They all get so excited and wear poor Grandma out!)

Then it was time. My vehicle needed freed from what winter had done to it. Our winter started early, at the end of October and our last snow was just April 8. During this time, I had taken my vehicle for one car wash. Toys, crumbs and bits of dried foodstuffs littered the backseat.

It was time to take the car back from Old Man Winter.

K- and I spent 2 hours cleaning the car. Now, in the land of cars, mine probably ranked middle of the road in the untidiness of it all. You see, K- has taken toys, coloring books, crayons and the like into the car for these past 5 1/2 months. During that time, things went in, but rarely came out. It was like a spin on Umpa Loompas, except for people did leave the vehicle. I set out a storage tote that I had been collecting items in already in the back of the RAV for her to clear out the backseat. She was quite a worker. I had a little garbage bag for her and found A PARTIALLY EATEN APPLE! What, my child, were you thinking? "Sorry mom." Rotting apples? My car would have smelled like fermenting garbage soon! I swept and swept. Now, I did see a few chex squares and a pretzel that I was just unable to get. It would have called for the removal of K-'s booster, which since it is rather large and is held in by anchors and tethers, I decided to bypass the 10 minute re-installation and just know that a few chex squares and a pretzel weren't going to kill us. After all, it wasn't a partially eaten apple.

After sweeping and wiping down the inside, we moved to the exterior. I washed and scrubbed. K- took the wheels. We wiped and washed. We were both filthy and wet, but the car shines! I found a few ker-tunks from rocks and think that the 13 degrees below zero may very well have shot the paint pen that I accidentally forgot in the glove box. I may need to order a new one.

She's clean now. Now I'm not embarrassed to get my oil changed tomorrow. While there, I'm going to tackle this pesky, "My Tire Cover Wants To Fly Off of My Vehicle" problem. It's under warranty. They said that they'd look at it and do whatever they had to do. For now, it is stowed away in the back of the RAV. Don't worry, we didn't forget to clean it.

My friend had invited, but actually insisted that we come to visit and give her some sanity today, but then called as we were washing the car to leave the message that her littlest man had a runny nose and a cold that has made him not quite himself. I'm not afraid of a runny nose, but the not-quite-himself sent me to call her and say "thanks, but no thanks." That sent me scrambling for dinner for K- and me. Heather had prepared a lovely ham and potato soup, but declining also meant declining on the lovely meal. No fear! I had chili in the freezer from 2 weeks ago. I heated it up, put a little cheese on it, had crackers and we were good to go.

That leaves me to now. I've made the mistake of sitting down. This probably wouldn't be a big deal except for my bed hasn't been re-sheeted. (I make up my own words. You'll learn to love it about me.) K- is in the bathtub, soaking the day off of her body. I had plans of cleaning the bathroom this evening, but the remainder of the housecleaning will just have to lop on over to tomorrow. We had to take advantage of the excellent weather when we could, right?

Speaking of, today is the day. Friday, April 17, 2009 is the day that I'm registering our one and only for Kindergarten. I've filled out a majority of the paperwork and gathered the necessary items of proof to register her. Oh, heavens. It makes me teary just thinking about it. I'm dropping K- off at a friend's house, going to the school and doing the necessary things and going back to scoop her up. I'll have her school spirit shirt that she'll probably insist on wearing. My goofy kid is growing up. How I'll miss her when she's at school!

Edited to add: Kindergarten registration was long. People spoke for an hour and a half. We met all the Kindergarten teachers, learned about a lot of things they will be teaching our children. Um, I'm thinking that Kindergarten is equivalent to my second or third grade learning.

After getting little miss all signed up, I trotted on down to our local Toyota dealership for an oil change and to solve the mystery of the tire cover. I admitted that I didn't know if I was being a girl about it and just didn't get something weird about the tire cover, but when they returned my keys to me, they told me that they would be ordering a new tire cover. Apparently, they found it to be a problem, too. Or, I found it seems that someone dropped it top side down onto concrete and gouged it all up and that is why they are replacing it. Maybe a combo of the two, yes? At any rate, that is marked off my list.

Right now K- is sleeping in her booster in the car. I rolled the windows down and unlatched her, so she can get out when she awakes. I figured her body told her that it needed a nap. Mommy decided to listen to K-'s body was saying, too. Besides, I need to make a grocery list, so it gives me time!

Have a great rest of your day! :)

Ramblin' Thursday

Rambling seems to be my Thursday theme. As I was preparing my ramble, it occurred to me that I have yet to give you the full pet low-down. This is Smudge, our 10 1/2 year old Maine Coon cat. (She wasn't completely cooperative for the photo or I would have gotten the big green eyes.) Smudge was a park dump. She was following visitors back and forth to the visitor center, meowing and just wanting someone to take her home. After a few visitors reported having seen a hawk scoop her up and drop her back down, Hubs decided that she needed to come live with us.

She was a mess. The front of her face was ripped off. She had ulcers in her mouth. Her one eye was swollen shut. She had fleas, ticks and burrs in her fur. She was a wee widget of a thing. (Hence the name.) We think that she was a park dump because she couldn't be sold. She wasn't of show quality (it's a theory, anyhow since Maine Coon cats are kind of expensive.) She has a curled end tail (a malformation of the tail bones), so she doesn't have a long wiggly cat tail. She wags it more like a dog. Her eyes aren't clear green. They are mottled with some hazel, and I'm sure that wouldn't run well on the show circuit. She was probably the runt. At any rate, she came to live with us. After I'm sure what amount to as thousands in vet bills, she is well and a happy, pissy cat. She does have a urinary bit that requires us to purchase prescription cat food (Royal Canin Urinary SO) at the whopping price of $45.00/bag every few months. It did stop the bladder infections and the peeing around the house. That is a good thing.

Girlfriend is a big cat. She's about 12 pounds or so. She's not fat, she's just a beefy cat. That's her build.
Then there is Spike, our Green Iguana. He is probably 8 or 9 years old. He was able to spend some quality time outside on Sunday. He was a happy camper. Oh, he has longed for the outside air and sun. Just look at him with his lunch plastered on his face. (The girls were feeding him cherry tomatoes.) He just couldn't be happier. In fact, if you look closely, I'm sure that there is an iguana smile in there somewhere.

Spike was part of a rainforest exhibit that was at Hubs' previous park district. After the exhibit, Spike needed to find a new home. Hubs went to take him to an iguana rescue, and he said that it was absolutely disgusting. He said that iguanas were piled into cages, the house had paths to walk through and he wouldn't leave him behind. So, now he is with us. We ditched his original name of "Iggy." "Spike" was what Hubs would agree to. Believe me, I tried something more exotic.

Spike has his own interesting stories. We thought that Spike was a girl. That is, until he hit maturity. He gets so snippy sometimes. I used to handle him, but I don't anymore. (They can lay into a woman that is in the throes of PMS and whatnot.) We did have him on tranquilizer injections, but it took two of us to give them to him. We just let him work his frustrations out now.

When Spike came to us, he had a bump on his tail. We thought nothing of it. Later, we found out that it was an infection. It takes a very long time for a reptile to develop an infection and a very long time to rid the infection. We had to have part of his tail amputated. In fact, why do I think we had to do that twice? At any rate, we finally got rid of the infection, but it took one sweet forever. Then a few years ago, right before vacation, a neighborhood cat left to run free outside (a major pet peeve as I keep my critters in my own yard and this cat acts like it lives here, peeing in my gravel driveway, pooping in my flower beds and basically living under the butterfly bush all summer long), had a stare down contest with the iguana, freaked him out and he dropped his tail. It wasn't a clean drop and Hubs had to help the shedding process along. He said it was disgusting. Thankfully, Hubs was able to handle that the night before we left, but ewwww! On other rambling news, Hubs decided to try to make his Tercel look like a Jeep on Sunday. Kidding, of course! Seriously, the hinge in the door was begging to differ. I could no longer open and close the door, so my driving it wasn't an option. Climbing over the passenger seat and the stick shift was just not comfy-- if you know what I mean. You would have to lift the door to open or close it. It was tricky enough on the outside, but on the inside you had to lift on the metal. That hurt my girlie handies! Hubs uses my truck to haul our little aluminum row boat to go fishing. I told him that I refused to drive the Tercel until it was fixed, which meant no boating. I had to issue the same refusal last year this time when the Tercel was convulsing the first 15 minutes or so you drove it. All it needed was some type of relay replaced. Hubs was being lazy. He got over that quickly when he knew laziness meant no boat.

It's been sunny. He fixed it. But look how klassy we were on Sunday afternoon:
The door is back on, the door interior is reattached and Hubs' car no longer looks like the dump mobile. You can actually close the door with an interior handle! Now, I will be fine with driving it on boating days. Jamie, the borough would have been called. Rachael and Janeen, the housing community enforcer people would have probably been called. Again, klassy, but it is fixed!

He decided to go on Monday to get new tires for the Tercel because you could see the steel belts popping out of his tires. WHAT?! He really needs to take better care of that car. We cannot buy another one for at least a few years.

Then, Hubs called me Tuesday morning to tell me that he went "smoking into work." "What?" Apparently, one of his brake calipers stuck and the brake pad locked in place. He ended up having to beat on the caliper with a hammer to get it to let loose and left work early so that he could take his wheel off and clean the brakes and caliper all off. Apparently, rust had built up (gee, how could that have happened with our incredibly crappy winter?!) Thankfully, he was able to fix it.

Then there is my RAV. I think it likes looking like this. I think that it just thinks that it gets better gas mileage without that pesky extra tire hanging off the back. And yes, if you missed it, I picked up ANOTHER screw and a bonus shard of metal. (My brother accidentally found it when repairing the screw hole.) The screw was in there for a while. The head was worn down to the tread. I think that I've been picking this crap up in the parking lot at work. They had us switch parking lots-- both of which are gravel-- but the new lot is adjacent to a lot for a restaurant which is basically a bar and patrons are littering the parking lot with a variety of things. (I've officially switched back to parking in our old employee lot.) Beautiful. Just beautiful. But, now I have a tire with two patches. It will serve as a spare only. I nervously drove around for several days -- very carefully -- while my tire was sitting for my brother to fix at the good ole Goodyear Tire Center. A shout out to Goodyear-- thanks for the family discount! :)

We've opted not to put the tire cover back on, because apparently the elastic has lost elasticity already and the cover wants to come off. Oh don't worry. Toyota will be replacing it. (We have an extended warranty, but they would have anyhow.) I'll deal with that when I have the oil changed here soon.

We went last night to the local park to watch the reptile and amphibian migration. Though it was far too cold for the salamanders to cruise across (we checked the vernal pool and didn't see them there, either) but, we did get to hear and see Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs. Apparently, Wood Frogs only sing for about a week a year, so my husband said that it was quite a treat to hear. K- got to bed late tonight, but she can go to school tomorrow and tell Mrs. K- that she saw a frog with the letter of the week on it's back-- there was an X on the Spring Peeper!

So, that shall end my rambiliciousness. Anything rambly in your life?

An Anthem for My RAV

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
-- Queen

Can you guess? The tire pressure sensor light was on yesterday morning. I gave a visual check, as Hubs had taken the tire pressure thingie BACK out of my car. It seemed fine. Last night, Hubs topped the tire off. This morning, the tire was flat. Hubs lovingly changed my tire-- again and found a big ole screw in it. A very well worn screw, so it's been in there for a while. This is the same tire, however that ate a pothole about 6 weeks ago. It appeared as though the loss of air at that time was the seal having been jostled. Apparently, we were wrong. That would be repair/replace number three since the end of October. I swear that my vehicle has a magnetic pull toward tire damaging things and just longs to have the tire pressure sensor light on. The pothole? It was 1/2 block away from the house, covered in snow and I was going less than 20 MPH. No, I'm not a bad driver. Seriously. The curb that I ate was my fault. I'll admit that. The screw in the tire in October? That was dumb luck. This second screw? Double dumb luck. My younger brother works at one of the Goodyear Tire Centers and I think that they swear that I'm single handedly trying to keep them in business.

UGH!