Letters to the Cars

Dear Alice,

I will get you an oil change next week. I know it's a little overdue, but I need to get paid.

I'm sorry that weekends at the faire are so hard on you. The dust is hard on me too. But, I need you to run, and I promise I'll take care of you.

I know you're doing far more work for me than you ever did for my grandmother. I'll keep you in top shape to the best of my ability.

Love,
a cruise-controlling Fyrecreek

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Hedwig,

I know I said I would be with you until you died. I'm sorry it's not going to work out that way.

I promise to find a good, responsible person to buy you. I know you'll take care of them like you took care of me.

When I do find that buyer, I'll miss you. I'll always remember what you did for me. You'll always be my first car.

Love,
a purple-loving Fyrecreek

Hi July

I have been a homeowner for one month today!

I'm really loving it. A couple weeks ago, Robin asked me if I got lonely. No. Bored? No. Sad? No. Angry? Only when Miss Luna decided that 0200 is time for breakfast!

Dad and Fox and another of our friend from the Renaissance Festival did come over on the 21st. I met a few more neighbors at the beach. We kayaked maybe four miles of the twelve-mile lake. Despite power boaters and jet skiers and water skiers, it was really quite nice. There is a very small part of me that is thinking about getting a little power boat. You know, after the truck. So we can load the kayaks on it and start at a different part of the lake. Yeah. That's it.

I only have a small reel mower. The thing with that kind of mower is that you have to keep up with the lawn, because if the grass gets too long, the mower will just push the blades over and roll harmlessly over them. I managed to eat something yucky last week and got sick from it, so the lawn didn't get mowed. And then it was hot so the lawn didn't get mowed. I woke up early on Saturday hoping to beat the heat of the day and take care of the lawn before it got to be too much for my mower. There is no such thing as "before the heat of the day" over here! After forty-five minutes and not even half my yard, I nearly passed out! I visited my mom that weekend and she bought me a battery-powered electric mower. I think it was an act of pity.

Mowing the lawn is on my list of things to do this evening.

The funny thing is that I've had more visitors to my home in the month of being there than I had in two years at the condo. And I'm further away from everyone, so it wasn't about the distance. I don't get it. Not that I'm complaining, of course! On Sunday, when my mom followed me home with the lawn mower in her CRV, we put it together, ran out to Applebee's for carry out, and then sat in my little living room and watched a movie. It seems like a simple thing, but it really felt nice.

Hedwig is for sale. Robin helped me put her on Craigslist. I've never sold anything on Craigslist, so this is a little interesting. I've had five inquiries so far. It's hard to get my home in order and worry about selling my car, though. It was probably a little premature to put it up before I could really devote the time to it, but it will be nice to get that off my plate. I'm sorry to be selling her, but I really don't need two Saturns and I really do need a truck. If I could, I would keep her.

Do any of you, dear readers, need a good ten-year-old car? Except that the A/C isn't working, she's in fabulous shape. I was expecting to get at least another five years out of her. I'd be willing to deliver a reasonable distance (reasonable as in something I can get to without killing myself on a Saturday or such!).

I know I said once the move got out of the way, I'd get back to regular postings. Thank you, gentle readers, for your patience with me. I'm still not completely unpacked, but I am mostly settled. I'm sure I'll be able to get back to posting with regularity. Be warned, you might just hear about how tall my lawn is getting!

Oh, and if you shop on Etsy at all- a large group of sellers got together and planned a massive Christmas in July sale! The official dates are July 15th through July 25th, though some shops are doing the whole month. Each seller is running their own sale, so search for tags "ChristmasinJuly" or "CIJ" to find some great sales! Yep, I'll be in on the action too!

New Computers and Old Cars

I have a new computer. It's a monster! I love it though. The problem now is that I don't have any of my pertinent files or programs from the other computer on it yet. Does anyone know of a way to install a program from one computer to another if you don't still have the install disks?

In other news, I mowed my lawn yesterday! I have an old reel mower. The grass can't be too high and it can't get very close to edges but it worked. And then I got bit by a tick. Welcome to Virginia!

Ok, I know I've lived in Virginia for the past two years. I suppose a part of me always thought I'd end up back in Maryland. Now that I've bought a place, I think it means I'm here to stay. I certainly have no intention of moving again, but one never can tell the path they'll take.

Hedwig gets some work done today. My mom mentioned that it would be great if I didn't have to sell that car, but I really do need a truck. Honestly, I'd like to keep it too. I always said I'd drive Hedwig until she died. It's not like I don't have the drive space for three vehicles (two cars and the truck that I need to get), and two of them are paid for, but I would have to still insure them all, and that may prove difficult.

Two Weeks and Counting

I CLOSE ON THE HOUSE IN TWO WEEKS!! AHHH!!!

But, I only have one week to pack because I move my stuff in this weekend. I've got all my clothes boxed up (except winter coats). I have too many clothes. I'm going to finish the books today, and pack up the bathroom (what I don't need for the next two weeks, that is). Then, I'll pack up the DVDs, which shouldn't be too bad. Depending on what time does to me today, I'll get started on the myriad of craft things.

I want to have all the things packed by tomorrow, or just a few things left over on Thursday, so all I have to do is take apart the IKEA furniture on Thursday (and there will be time to do some of that on Saturday, I think, too). I'm heading home with my dad Friday night so we can start as early as possible from there on Saturday.

Miss Luna is safely out of the way at my parents' house. I miss her. I know it's temporary while I pack and move, but I miss having her around. I think she'll be very happy in a house with no other animals. I found two bites on her when I took her home this weekend. I can't be angry, because none of us can control what cats do and there's no telling that she didn't bite any of the other cats, but it still upsets me. At least they didn't abscess. I'll be glad to give her the run of the place.

I finally got my grandmother's car titled in my name and registered in Virginia. It's now my car! Her name is Alice (the light pinkish lavender color makes me think of Wonderland). Now, if only LDS would get a move on buying Hedwig from me, if she is even still interested in doing so. Robin said we shouldn't have a problem selling it locally if it comes to that. At the very least, I might just need to buy a couple tires to get it sell-worthy. Well, we'll see where LDS is about that some time today.

I think that's everything. Holy smokes! I settle in two weeks!!

The Process

I've been trying to write this post all day!

Work is busy. WAM crossed the line this morning. She came over to ask my opinion on something work-related that she was doing, and I told her I thought it was unnecessary. She went on and on (the way she does) about how she has to "cover all [her] bases." And when I didn't change my mind about it, she said "you have to cover all your bases when you're buying a house." That's when I told her to shut up, and then explained what happened to Adolf, who wasn't in the office yet at the time. Adolf gave her a talking to, and apparently she's been spoken to about how she spends her mornings before. I know that she was crying or close to it when she went in to her meeting. Then she left. There are still things on her desk, so I don't know what that means.

I feel bad that it turned into a bad morning for her, but honestly, whatever she thinks she has to do for her job is completely unrelated to what is going on in my private life. I'm going to share my news with people, that's the way of people, but there was no reason for her to bring that up at all - to imply that I didn't know what I was doing or wasn't doing something right when she has no idea about how I'm doing on that front. I know I shouldn't have used the words "shut up" but I just couldn't help it. What is going on in my life had nothing to do with what she was talking about and she had no place to mention it as a means of getting the last word.

And, about that.

My contract was accepted, but at a little more than what I had offered (but still less than the listing price). He wants to close on June 1st, which means I'll have one night of no where to live. Since he understands that, he's letting me move my possessions in the weekend before so I'll have time to get the condo cleaned and all of that. Miss Luna and I will just stay with my folks for a few nights. We had the home inspection on Tuesday and found some little things and a few large things that needed to be fixed. As far as I can tell, the owner did not argue with my Realtor about any of it, so it looks like he's going to do them. Thank you, dude!

My official loan application is being processed. My insurance company has been called to set up a homeowner policy. Everything is going right where it needs to be going. I had the mother of all migraines a couple nights ago because of the stress of everything, but it's better now. Better, because everything is coming together as it should be.

My grandmother's car is also in my possession and needs some work to get back up to where it needs to be. Still, my mechanic thinks it's going to be great once we get all the work done. The money from the sale of Hedwig to LDS will just cover it. I was hoping to use that for something else, but I'll make do.

So, really, everything is great! A friend of mine said there is a special kind of hell that is home-buying and I'm in the middle of it, and she's right. But, at the same time, I'm where I should be.

And it's grand.

Up and Moving

I'm taking the car to the mechanic this morning. I don't think I talked about what happened at the new place. They put the car on the diagnostic thingy, told me the code that came up was related to the Oxygen sensors, but said they wanted to do $500 worth of other work to "rule out" the Oxygen sensors. HELLO?? I'm not a silly girl who doesn't know what's going on with my car! My family has owned seven Saturns among five people. We know what it means when the "service engine soon" light comes on, it's always been the same issue. I'm still getting more than thirty miles to the gallon (and that's not highway driving anymore) so why in the world would my ten-year old car need a power steering flush and an induction service when the code says it's the Oxygen sensors?? I'm not authorizing a thousand dollars worth of work when only five hundred is needed.

So, the car is going to the tried and true place where we've taken our cars for decades and I know they're not going to dick me around. Then Turtle will pick me up and we'll head over to the funeral home.

I've got the wrong position on this, I know. I wasn't happy that Turtle insisted on keeping our plans rather than rescheduling when we were talking about it on Thursday, but I've come to a different understanding. It's not that I don't much care for going to funerals, or that I didn't actually know the person being honored, or that Turtle and I haven't spent any time together for about two years and a funeral isn't the best place to start catching up. What's really going on is that my friend needs my support. And I'm going to be there.

Some Troubles

Hedwig the car needs new front rotors and pads. The check engine light comes on for a few days, goes off for a few more, and comes back on again. I took the car to the shop this morning, took one of their free loaner cars so I could get back home, and they are fixing what ails my car.

Han was supposed to visit today, but something came up. That's life!

Yesterday's post is written and drafted, and I just need to get the pictures loaded. That will be today, tomorrow, or Wednesday.

You Cannot Say Dat is Not Good Car

Virginia has some funky laws about automobiles. In addition to the regular emissions inspection, you need a safety inspection (the requirements to pass one of these must be pretty low, judging by some of the lemons I see on the road). If the property taxes won't kill you, the sales and use tax will, but you only have to pay them sales tax if there is still a lien on the vehicle. I say thank the stars for that!

You have to bring in fifty pieces of identification to register and title your vehicle in the state. That's only a slight exaggeration: I needed my current drivers license, a passport, a social security card, the change of address confirmation from the post office, a paycheck with my new address on it, my previous vehicle title, proof of insurance, and my emissions inspection and safety inspection receipt. Then you have to choose one of about two hundred license plates that are available, some of which have annual fees, and some of those have annual fees that are donated to some cause. And decide if you want a personal message on your plates, which is an additional annual fee. I went with cheap: no annual fee and no personalization (what I wanted to do was taken anyway).

Virginia driver's license pictures are horrid. My brother looks like he's got some evil zombie disease, my Chinese-American sister-in-law looks like she has sunburn and blue eyes. At least I was prepared for that, so I wasn't too shocked when my picture showed skin the color of Mars.

The very pleasant guy who performed my security inspection on Tuesday told me I had good car. (Not a good car, just good car. He sounded Russian, but I'm not certain on that.) He also said his daughter had a Saturn and believes that I should be able to get it to last me the three (or more) years I would like it to. That's great!

I felt a little bad for the guy at the DMV yesterday. I tried to be as organized as possible, with all the forms I needed to fill out and all the documents I needed to supply and a couple checklists to make sure I had everything. It was just a lot of things. See, Virginia requires that you re-title your vehicle within thirty days of moving, but you have sixty days to get your new license. This is a little odd to me, because why not just do it all at once? Alas. It's all done. I guess I'm officially a Virginia resident now. I have government issued identification! WooHoo!! Or something....

My Car Takes All the Abuse

My mother has gotten into the habit of backing her big CR-V into the driveway. This is fine, except that my little Saturn also has to occupy the driveway. We usually marvel at how close she can back up without actually hitting my car. I'm certain it's been lightly tagged a few times.

Yesterday, I drove Hedwig up the driveway and my mother backed in like she normally does behind me. I opened my trunk to get my work bags out, and opened my door. Halfway out of the car, there was a jolt and a strange crunching sound. Mom backed her spare tire right thoroughly into my licence plate. Thanks, mom.

I'm ok, and the trunk still closed, but it's no longer flush with the sides of the car when closed. I haven't tried to open it yet. People need to stop hitting my car! And I need to listen to my instincts more. As I was driving up, I thought "what if mom hits my trunk while it's open?" Then I thought, "nah, she's been good about not hitting me when she does that. And she'll be extra careful since I'm still in the car." Shows what I know.

Results are In

The dealer didn't even look at my car yesterday. This was quite a point of annoyance. But I did get a call today, and they said it's all fixed and will only cost me less than $500 (A little less than half of the range I was given). They were also quick to tell me that I ended up saving about $900 because I did not need an entirely new transmission. That helps. A little.

So, I worked through my lunch yesterday in anticipation of leaving early to pick up my car. This means I already have the extra thirty minutes to leave at 1500 today to make it to the dealer in time to pick up my car. I regret that this will have to go on the credit card, but it won't be there too long.

My costume is coming along. I may even finish in time for Day of Wrong. If not, certainly in time for Halloween.

I am extremely tired today. I've been fretting about my car and something else that I'm not going to talk about here. Maybe with the car taken care of, things will improve.

Ready, and Back Out! Or Not.

I did not want to spend my birthday like this. When I say "like this," I mean sitting in a parking space at the AC Moore being unable to move because my car won't go into reverse. I had to give her the old Fred Flintstone trick. You can laugh, I'm sure if someone was around they would have found it funny too. Of course, if someone was around, I would have asked them to help me!

Hedwig had only a slight hesitation moving forward, but could not move back at all. Unless I was on an incline, like my driveway. So, you know it's bad when reverse acts as neutral.

I took Hedwig to my mechanic hoping they could at least point me in the right direction to getting this fixed. They don't do transmissions, but assured me that the dealer would be my best bet since they most likely would not insist that I need a new one. That's good, because I'm not completely sure my car is worth a new transmission that would cost one fourth the price I paid for the thing.

Yes, I got to sleep in on my birthday like I wanted. And yes, I did get the dye I wanted. And yes, my fabric came out the most perfect shade of purple. But I would have loved to do all of that without the car issues. There's nothing I can do about it, though. Hopefully the dealer will call me soon and tell me exactly how much it will cost to fix. I have to leave early today to make it down there in time to get it. Everyone say rah with me now. "Rah."

Why Me?

How many of you remember this?

I was driving home today, thinking about what to blog about when I got home, sitting a mile into stop-and-go traffic around 1640 when I heard this BANG! I had long enough to think "hmm, I wonder who got hit" when there was another BANG! And a jolt, and a lurch forward, and another second to think "don't hit the car in front, you don't want your airbags to deploy." It's amazing how much thought can happen in so little time.

Thankfully, I did not hit the car in front of me and my airbags did not deploy. But I did have a heavy metal barrette in my hair that got pressed rather hardly against the back of my head on impact. Hello, instant migraine.

I'm glad I drive in the left lane, so there was room to move on to the shoulder to find out what happened. A big white SUV hit the big black SUV that was behind me "hard enough to knock [her] foot off the break," causing the big black SUV to hit me. No airbags went off, but the SUVs' had considerable damage from the initial point of impact. Actually, I'm really grateful that black SUV was there to take the hit, otherwise the white one what did the hitting would have been in my little Saturn's back seat.

Regretfully, the person who did the hitting was not very forthcoming with information (and had really awful penmanship). He told us he had insurance, but failed to tell us with which company. The middle driver was not concerned; she got his tag number and VIN. And I have her information and she has ours. I will get compensated for this. My car has damage to its rather new bumper, but otherwise looks ok. People need to stop hitting me! They're reducing the value of my car!

I don't have a doctor right now, and I know from experience that a primary care physician would most likely not look at me at all, so I drove straight to the ER, sat and waited, and came away some two hours later with a pretty prescription for yummy pain killers. I'll go pick them up in a minute.

This sure was not how I wanted to spend my evening.

Finally Friday

Man, this day took forever to get here! Fox and Fae and dad and I are going to the Celtic Fling and Highland Games tomorrow. We're driving up to stay at a hotel tonight, and will head home on Sunday. It should be a nice day and two nights away. Don't worry, I'm not planning on spending a lot of money.

And I get to drive mom's CR-V. It might guzzle more gas than my Saturn, but it's good on long trips because of that cruise control thing. And the ton of room. And the 6-disk CD changer.

That's all I have in store. Nothing is special about today except that the time is just crawling! I'm so ready to get out of town for a weekend!

Yesterday, some strange man came to the house to inspect our air conditioning unit. Miss Luna hates strangers, so she bolted up the stairs and into her favorite hiding place, my closet. I finally heard her creeping down the stairs about an hour after the technician left. I followed her down, and when she noticed me coming, she tried to run back to the closet. I caught her and brought her all over the house. So she could see for herself that the stranger had gone, right? A little bit later, my dad had to go out to his car to get something. When he opened the door to come back in, Miss Luna high-tailed towards my closet again. Poor dad stood in the foyer saying "Luni, it's just me!" But Miss Luna wasn't hearing any of it. She had barricaded herself in the closet again. What a cat.

Callie's story for the day is not so interesting. She clawed the heck out of me for no reason. She was laying on the bed next to me, and I moved my hand, and she became attack kitty. I recovered the shreds of my fingers and calmed her down a bit. Maybe all the packing for the weekend made her nervous.

What if I bobbed my hair?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone! I hope your day was filled with beer and very few pinches.

We went shopping for a new car for mom and ended up with a slightly-used (expensive) Honda CR-V. It has less than 30000 miles on it and is three years old. That's not so bad. It will take some getting used to; the steering wheel is slightly off-center of the seat, and it has automatic everything. This is the first time that someone in my house will not be driving a Saturn since I got mine in 2001. I'm jealous, it's a really nice, not too big, SUV. In Silver, and it's name is Paddy, in honor of the day.

We tried to go to Bennigan's for lunch but they were playing this awful rap music. I like to say I can take all kinds when I comes to music, but that was the total opposite of what I wanted to hear, and they were playing it so loud and I've had a headache all day. So we went to Red Robin, where they were putting green color in the Guinness. Whatever works!

This evening, my mother and I sat down to a long night of Peter Jackson's King Kong and this is what I found in the couch.

There's a Callie-cat there! I wonder if she thinks Miss Luna can't find her.

Anyway, movie time! Go easy on the beer!

Erin go bragh.

Poor Branwen

The weather has been lovely. We're in the 70's today, and will be tomorrow, and Thursday too. Saturday is looking at a tiny bit of snow with the coldness, it probably won't be enough to do anything. This is good. Because car shopping is on the list of things to do on Saturday.

My mother's little green Saturn, the first Saturn that we had, is sick. It's making funny zipping noises. The mechanic said it needs a new water pump, has something weird about the engine, it's had an oil leak for about a year, and it has constantly squeaky breaks.

This is a '97 model with 185000+ miles on it. We bought it new. Maybe it is time to bite the car bullet. It's a shame though. That little Saturn shuttled me to and from college. And I hope and hope and hope that my car lasts just a smidgen longer than 10 years.

We're going to look at a few small SUV's. Something we could hitch a trailer on and carry a few kayaks around. There are also a few little cars my mother wants to look at, our current method of hauling kayaks works. The Honda CR-V is at the top of out list. I'm slightly jealous, because I'd look good in a vehicle like that. But I love Hedwig too, and want her to last many more years. I'll get to drive whatever mom gets anyway. I'm the official driver, after all!

Here's to you, Branwen! (In case you haven't guessed, Branwen is the name of mom's car. We picked a Celtic one to go with it's shiny greenness!)

I Almost Killed my Car

You know how it is. Busy. Working 50 miles away. Mechanic closed on weekends. Before long, that oil change you were supposed to get just didn't happen. And it didn't happen again. And again.

Yesterday, halfway to work, Hedwig started clicking. Have you ever taped a playing card to your bicycle so it would click in the spokes? That's the sound my car was making. It wasn't a problem with the axle, it still clicked when not moving. It seemed to be louder and faster the more RPMs. I don't like my car clicking, so I called the mechanic and arranged to drop my car off last night and I'll get it after work today.

My dad said it was probably a 'valve lifter,' whatever that is. And I mentioned that I didn't remember when I last changed the oil, so dad said it might be low on oil.

The prognosis? It was low on oil. Less than a quart, actually. You know how coffee burns if you leave the carafe on the burner with just a tiny bit of coffee in it? If you don't it's super disgusting, the coffee gets all burnt and sludgy. That's the mental image I got when the technician was telling me what my car's engine looked like. The click was the valves, rubbing from lack of lubricant. Burnt oil is all over the engine (I guess that's more like in the engine, or under it, or something), but they were able to clean out some vital parts.

Yes, this was all due to my lack of oil change. My car hit 101,000 miles yesterday. Do you want to know when the last oil change was? Oh, it pains me to report this, I'm so much better at taking care of my vehicle than this. It was in the early 90,000 miles when I last had it done.

Today's advice: NEVER DRIVE 10,000 MILES WITHOUT AN OIL CHANGE!! If I pushed it any longer, I could have locked the engine. I just paid it off!! :.(

My car will live. My mechanic will yell at me. I'll counter with "that's what happens when you don't give me a sticker!" And I will concede. My car drives more than 1000 miles a month. I predict that early March we'll be due-up for another change.

And Hedwig has earned herself a nice bath and some expensive premium gas for this. I'm sorry, Hedwig! It won't happen again!

No Sleeping In

Oh, how I would have loved to have slept in today. I could have stayed up a lot later last night. And when my alarm was going off, I was so comfortable in my bed, I didn't want to get up at all.

But poor Hedwig was sick! (ok, I know it's been awhile, but Hedwig is my car, the purple Saturn, in case you forgot.) Last winter, it was cold, as winter is want to be. And sometimes it was so cold there was ice. And sometimes the ice was on the windshield of my car. And sometimes the presence of that ice would cause the windshield wipers to freeze to the windshield. And since the de-icing spray does not spray before the wipers start to go, the driver's side wiper doesn't go, because it is frozen to the windshield. This caused the wiper to not go even when there is no ice to hold it down. Or, sometimes it would go, but slower and out of step and get caught on the passenger side wiper. And this is the house that Jack built.

I've had my regular mechanic order a part and 'fix' it, but it happened again. Two rain storms ago, the wipers tripped over each other so bad that they got stuck in an X position across my windshield. You can see that this is not a good thing, and very not good since the cold winter is approaching and I will need wipers I can rely on.

So I got up bright and early on a Saturday to bring my little car to the dealer. I always dread going to the dealer because everything is more expensive. But I packed up my laptop and my pocket PC and my mp3 player, and got there promptly at 0809 to give them my keys and tell them to fix the wipers.

Three hours and $85 later, they were done. The motor unit was fine, it just needed a little adjustment. Honestly, this is what I was hoping for. I was expecting they were going to need some expensive part and the whole thing would cost $300 or more to fix and I would be there for 5 hours, but hoping it was just a little adjustment and everything would be back to neat. Go dealer!

They actually make it very nice. There's coffee and donuts and WiFi and desks and TV and comfy chairs, and all the new models of Saturns to look at. The folding keyboard on my pocket PC drew a lot of attention. I barely noticed the 3 hours I spent there, but that's really because I brought plenty to keep me occupied. Then dad came up and we went to lunch and here I am.

Still wishing I could have slept in, but very glad that the dealer says my car is fine. I can't really test it because it's not raining, but I will be armed this winter with a nice can of de-icer. I will spray those wipers down before I try to move them! HaHa!

By the way, I don't think I said this last month:

NO MORE CAR PAYMENT!! YAHOO!! MY CAR IS MINE!! MUAHAHAHA!!

No nap for me, it's time to go shopping!

Another Reason to Hate Doctors

As if I needed another reason.

I was in my first auto accident today. Morning rush hour around Washington is always pretty bad, but some person in a big jeep took his eyes off the road for a moment, and ran into my little Saturn. My car's plastic bumper did what it was supposed to do, and we were completely stoped in traffic so didn't run into anyone else. I was leaning forward at the time so the bump jerked me around quite a bit more than it would have if I were sitting back in my seat.

Right now, my entire right side is hurting, from my ankle to my wrist to my neck. I decided to not go to work, and called my insurance company, who was going to file the claim with his insurance company on my behalf. I called my doctor when they opened and was told by the receptionist that they 'don't do auto accidents.' I tried calling my health insurance company, but couldn't get through to a live person who might be able to help me find someone who will help me. I tried calling the HR department at work to see if they have a live person number for the insurance, but couldn't reach anyone there. My mother gave me the number of a doctor that my grandmother sees, but I was on hold for 15 minutes and got cut off. I've never had to deal with this before, so I'm really at a loss. All I know is that I hurt and I can't find a doctor who cares, and I'm tired of hitting a dead end everywhere I try.

Looks like ibuprofen and heating pads will be my friends for a while. And the search for a new primary care physician is on, and there's another reason to avoid a doctor.

Why Me?

Remember the kayak mishap of Sunday? That's right, I have to take my car in for work again.

Have you ever been driving on a dirt road behind a tractor, with your car bouncing in the grooves made by the tractor's wheels? That's the sound that my front right break makes when I press on the pedal. I was really hoping I didn't damage something when that s hook spun around the wheel, but I think I did.

It's not fair, when I paid off my loan in March, I was supposed to be adding to my savings account, not drawing from it!

We're still working out the kinks of to work or not to work on Monday, but I'll let you know then how my poor car is doing. =( I guess this is number three. This had better be it for a long time!!

Kayak and Fondu

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

My dad wanted to kayak (yay!). We had dinner reservations at 1600. We loaded up the cars, and off we went.

Well, on the way, my front right line swung around the front of the car and took a spin around the wheel well. The S-hook was wrenched from the tow hole (this is why we use the metal parts of the car!) with a terrible sound. It's now more of an L-hook.

Don't panic: my sunshiney kayak is undamaged! We were able to take the hook from the back of the car to use in front, while looping the back through the wide tow hitch. It worked, and we got to the dock (and back home again, if you want to know) just fine after that.

We had a nice paddle, 1.5 hours or so. I rode tandem with my friend and my mother used my kayak. In hindsight, we could have left my kayak at home and she could have used my friend's Hobie, but this worked fine. (We weren't sure if his wife would be coming, she's been ordered by MD to stay away for a month! Poor thing!)

After our paddle, we met my brother and his wife at a place called The Melting Pot for a huge 3-hour, 4-course fondu meal. The cheese was the best part. I think if I were to go again, I'd just want a cheese pot and a chocolate pot. It was so much food, I had to get up and walk around [not to mention my back was bruised from the boat beating me up yesterday (yes that means I was hit with more than the boom!), so it hurt to sit for so long.]. I won't be going to bed anytime soon, I think!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!