Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Unexpected Day Off

Guess I spoke too soon about being on a roll…thanks for not pointing out my shortfall :) But here I am. I now have a clean, perfectly shiny kitchen/downstairs bathroom/laundry room/pantry! Well ok, perfectly shiny as long as you overlook the cat paw & butt prints…

What am I doing mopping my floor on a not-my-Tuesday-off you ask? Funny you should mention it. You see, it’s like this….
I got up & functional just like normal for a late Tuesday today. The boy had his breakfast, and spent a peaceful morning watching Sponge Bob. I actually had a bit of peace…got dressed, got the boy dressed, told him to gather up some toys to take out to Uncle Mike’s, and he did it the first time I told him…He asked me to make the label for his DVD, which he’s been asking me to do for several days, so I sat down to do that, just to find that apparently the part of my PictureIt! program required to make labels is yet another victim of the cable installer. And if that wasn’t bas enough, I apparently have every software disc for Works! that came with my computer, except the one that program is on. Yep, that’s right! I have 1, 2, 4 &5, but no 3. Go figger *sigh* I’ll hafta to go to the Microsoft website later to see if I can get it there, without having to pay an arm & a leg…Needless to say, the labels still haven’t gotten made :(

So, off we go, over the river & through the woods to Uncle Mike’s we go, the horse knows the way…ahem, but we do go over a river & through a woods….I dropped the boy and headed to the nail place to get my nails repolished – no I’m not that lazy, just that unskilled. Besides, in my defense, it is an unusual polish job, see..?

Nails

Wow! They say you can tell a person’s age by their hands…I must be about 80….

Anyways, as I was driving to the nail place, I was talking to Hunny, as usual. Mind you it’s a dreary gloomy day in Indiana today, cloudy, and it was just starting to rain – or so I thought. My first stop, as always, was Speedway, to get some iced coffee. (They have the best french vanilla iced latte! Starbucks..? What’s Starbucks..? You mean that over-priced, bitter after-taste stuff that advertises itself as coffee..? Ewww – Speedway’s is much better – and cheaper!)
***Background note – Hunny replaced my front rotors & brake pads back in July because every time I hit the breaks it was like being on one of those old exercise belt machines – are you old enough to remember these..?

exerbeltmach

My point is, the brakes were just replaced in July. By August, I had the same damn vibration when I hit them. About a week ago, they started grinding. When I told Hunny, he said there’s no way. Be that as it may, they are grinding.
So, as I’m crossing over the interstate on my way to Speedway, the light turned red. I hit the brakes. My car kept going. Oh Shit! It did finally stop 1/2 way through the intersection. Luckily there weren’t any cars coming off 70. Ok, I think, it’s a little slick. I hit the gas, I went fine. Traction control didn’t come on. But at the next light, we again barely stopped.
Me: “Oh great! I have no brakes.”
Hunny: “What..?!?”
Me: “I…have…no…brakes!”
Hunny:”Are you sure..?”
Me: “Well, since I pressed on the brake pedal and the car didn’t stop, it’s a safe bet…”
Hunny: “Are you sure it’s not the roads?”
Me: “I guess it could be, but I can take off fine, and my traction control hasn’t kicked in.”
Hinny: ”Is the button turned on?”
Me: “I don’t think it has a button, I think it’s automatic..”
Hunny: “It has a button…” *it does, he was right*
Me: “Well, it came on the other night when it was snowing, and I haven’t changed anything, so I would say it’s still activated.”

Turns out it was indeed the roads. Although my warranty expired a week ago, so….I limped on into Speedway, then on to the nail place. At about 25 mph. I still had plenty of time to get to work, as it was only about 12:45 at this point – though it is a good distance…see..?

map2  

I got in, got done & left. It was about 2:00 or so when I left. I was calling work to tell them I was driving on a sheet of ice and might very well be late when Hunny called to say he hadn’t heard from me & was worried. (side note – any time I am driving & on the phone, I use a bluetooth device, so I don’ wanna hear bout no “hang up the phone & drive” comments from the peanut gallery…) I got voicemail at both numbers I tried, so called Hunny back to let him know I was fine & on my way, and why I didn’t answer. At this point, traffic was moving at about – oh, I dunno, 10 mph..? He said 36 was at a crawl, too. It took me about 15 minutes to get to my turn, but I caught a break and hit it on green – although that’s not really that exciting when you’re going 5 mph…So, I barely hit the break, start to turn right, and my car turns for 1/2 second, then goes straight – straight at the median, and the mini-van just on the other side of it…Of course, I was saying “Shit, shit, shit…” the whole time, and Hunny is on the line going “What?!? What?!?!” then a big thud. I thought sure she was gonna jump the median – it’s just one of those little ones, maybe 2, possibly 3 foot across, and about 8 inches high? – and plow into the mini-van, but she was looking out for me, I guess. We hit the median and stopped. Whew. About that time Hunny’s asking “Did you wreck? You okay? Didja total it?” “Nope, just hit the median while turning at 5 mph…” “Call into work, I don’t want you driving across town on these roads.” I told him I’d be fine if I could make it to the interstate, but he said they were just as bad, apparently 74 was shut down for a 15 car pile up.

I was going to go get the boy, but he had a friend there today so wanted to stay “until Daddy comes”. SO, I am at home, no husband, no kiddo, and taking advantage of it to mop the kitchen/downstairs bathroom/laundry/room/pantry. And so we go full circle & I’m back where I started *grin* I keep telling you there is a method to my madness…LOL

Ok, gotta go, stuffs to do.
See ya laterzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

winter48blank tree.0007

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember those exercise belt things! My stepgranny had one, and we loved to play with it. I just remember it made you itch like crazy

Dawtch said...

Yep, that's the one! My Mom had one when I was a kid, it was great fun! You get in it for five minutes, then felt like you were shaking for an hour!
Not so much fun when hitting your brakes causes the same sensation :(
bb
Jodi