Early blog-heading out

7-17-09

What an afternoon.

The plan was to go to the beach. I had the car loaded, kids picked up early, and was heading to my bank before going down towards Redondo Pier. I was on Del Amo, heading up this small incline when all of the sudden, my car just died. I had no power whatsoever, and there were cars behind me. I quickly turned on the hazards and breaked as hard as I could since it took a lot to make the car stop completely. Crap.

What amazed me was that once the small swarm of traffic went around me, and I was stick there, hazards on, that cars that approached after actually honked at me! As if I didn’t know I was in the way. Sheesh. Plus, it was super easy to get around me.

It was at this point that I freaked.

I couldn’t start the car, and I kept yelling, “Shit! Go car go!” which did in fact results in Bobby repeating a few hundred times, “shit shit shit shit shit shit shit”, and Dax going, “go car go car go car go car!” Awesome.

I couldn’t go forward, and there would be no way for me to push the car on a hill. Luckily, there was parking on this street. But I was in the second lane. I had to do this just right. I put the car in neutral and waited until there was a lull in traffic (which luckily was every 30 seconds or so) and cranked my wheel (power steering, it turns out, sucks when it doesn’t work properly) and coasted backwards down the street. I had to pass a couple of parked cars, and luckily there just happened to be one spot that required no pulling forward to be in it properly. When I finally came to a stop, my hands were shaking so bad it took a minute to text Ken.

I texted Ken and Stephanie. Both showed up at the same time. Ken had gotten a battery thinking that was all it was. He also considered it to be maybe the alternator. My fear was transmission since the car stopped the exact same way my old Temp did when her transmission gave out. Ken said that it didn’t appear to be that, so thank goodness. The bad news, though was that Ken couldn’t determine the problem. His guess was that the computer (there is a computer in my car???) that does the timing was bad. Time for a tow truck.

Now by now, the boys were out of the car, playing with Sabrina on the grassy area next to the car. It actually was probably the best possible place to break down. Big area for the kids to play, not gobs of traffic, and despite scaring this shit out of me going backwards with no power, I realize that had I been on flat ground on perhaps another road, it would have been a bitch to get out of the way. My car was in the shade and there was a spot for Ken to park in front of me. All in all, it could have been worse.

Ken called for the tow truck and Stephanie, the kids and I walked up towards my bank. It gave the kids an adventure, and it still gave us all an outing, even though it wasn’t the beach.

We stopped at Babies R Us since Sabrina had to potty. Couldn’t have been a better place for a kid to need to pee since they have one of the most kid friendly bathrooms ever. Even a small sink! Bobby was fascinated with the paper towel dispenser, and this nice lady actually asked Bobby if he wanted to crank it for her paper towel. Bobby was shy for a second, and I told him to go ahead and he was all excited.

We had to run out there because Ken needed to give me the truck keys since he went with the tow truck and my car. We then headed towards the bank. It is a much longer walk when you are walking with kids not in a stroller. But it wasn’t bad. The kids were all so great the whole time. The boys spend a good chunk of the time showing off for Sabrina, who seemed to love the attention. I felt bad for Stephanie because she did carry her for a chunk of time. On the plus side for her, though, Sabrina ways next to nothing compared to my brute boys, and Stephanie is in way better shape than me so I was super jealous at the ease in which she could do that.

On the way back from bank, we stopped at Penguins frozen yogurt to get the kids some yumminess. It was a sweet, sticky mess that everyone enjoyed. All around goodness.

We walked back to the cars, the kids all hopped up on sugar and happy and I will say, for having my car break down, it was a good day!

I got home with thoughts that I was going to end up missing work today since I had no car. But Ken had gone and got me a rental. Yay! For all we know, my car won’t be ready till next week, so a rental makes sense. I do realize that today we need to go to the car place, whether or not the car is ready, and get the car seats out. If I have a rental for a few days, I need to be able to transport children.

This evening will be fun. Stephanie is coming over and Ken is going to watch the kids for a couple of hours while she and I go out. Happy hour at some bar, maybe even the local Acapulco where we can get chips and salsa too. Not sure yet, but we will figure something out. She has had a lot of stress with the new house/old house stuff and work, and really, it will be quite good for me to get out sans kids if even only for a couple of hours.

The only other big issue for today is my eye.

Last night it felt like I had something in my eye. It was hurting and so I got some of the eye drops to help it out. They helped enough that I could sleep. I woke up with my eye sealed shut with goo. Eww. Plus, my eye feels like someone socked me in it, and it keeps watering and is all red. Fun. This means I am sans makeup for the day. Plus, my eye looks awful. I expected someone to notice by now, but the only two people I have seen face to face have been guys, and as stereotypical as it sounds, they really just won’t notice.

My eye all watery like this makes it hard to see things. Specifically the computer screen and things I need to read. I can see general stuff, so driving isn’t a problem. I may have to bust out my glasses just to give my good eye a boost. I keep drying the tears, but they keep coming back so I give up for a while.

I always freak out when my left arm hurts a bit. I am sure a heart attack is looming. Never mind that my right arm hurts a bit, as does most of my body just from walking a bunch, and still not recovered from being a mom to two strapping young boys. Logic doesn’t keep me from the mini panic attack, which oddly enough feels enough like a heart attack that I freak more.

My mom is all bummed that I am not bringing the boys over today. She likes to get her fix. She will see them twice on Sunday, and then twice next week and then will be without them until the 7th of August, so it will be 2 whole weeks without them. I know, that seems like not a big deal, but you don’t understand how much my mom adores them.

Ken has Star Wars week next week, which means he will be a wreck. I actually feel a little guilty about bailing on him Monday night to go see Conner, but perhaps on Friday night, I can send him out with the guys or something to blow off some steam.

Crap! I realize we still don’t have a sitter for the 31st!!

I actually like the fact that I am sore from walking. It feels like I did a good workout.

Bobby kept pouting about us not going to the beach. I do feel bad. I didn’t tell them about the beach until I picked them up. I even considered not telling them until we got there, but I ended up telling them, thinking that would speed up the process to get out of Maria’s. When the car died, I told them I was sorry but we could not go to the beach. Bobby says, “Wait! I have an idea. Daddy can come get us and we can go in his car!” He is really just too damn cute.

Luckily, I had provisions. I had cookies, juice, new toys they had not seen, and had I not had multiple rescuers, I even had sandwiches for them. And actually, the idea occurred to me while we were hiking to the bank, that had it been something where I had to wait until Ken got off work to come get us after his class and we were stranded until 5, it would have been fine since we could have walked to McDonald’s, which really wasn’t too much farther than the bank. Boys could have played, I could have fed them and it would have worked out just fine. Like I said, my car died in probably one of the best spots aside from my own driveway.

The new Harry Potter movie is screaming at me. I don’t want to see it, mostly because it is not the book. I love the books. But they take things out and change things and overall, I just can’t get on board with the changes.

Just heard from Ken. My car is not well. He had a massive coronary, essentially. There was some timing belt issue, and valves are broke. There is a pretty real possibility that the car’s repairs are more than the car is worth. I am going to go by and see if there is any warranty on it (we may have gotten the extended warranty on it when we got it in January of 2005 and if it does cover this, yay!) in the glove box, and if not, then we may be saying goodbye to Barnum. It does mean there is a distinct possibility of using the 401K money I had mentioned towards another car. However, that may take some time, so it means I may need a rental until that time. We have decided to turn it in today since I don’t need a car this weekend, and that saves us $60. I wonder if there is a cheaper rental. Anyway, it means I am probably soon to no longer be a PT Cruiser driver. It is funny, I had just been thinking that really, my car is just fine for what we use it for.

Ok, I made an appt-it is at 2. I am going to leave at noon, go by the car place first, then head over to the doc early. Hopefully I will be done no later than 3, then I can head home, drop off the car on the way, then walk from the rental place. Lucky for us, it is only a few blocks up the street. Then I can clean the kitchen and do a once over on the house so it isn’t a complete disaster for when Stephanie and Sabrina come. Maybe I will end up having a patch for the night, so I may need to change into my pirate shirt for happy hour.

So of course now that I know I am leaving in a few hours, my day will drag.

Of course, I just overheard the boss say something about a meeting. I was about to freak that I can’t miss a meeting, but I realize with 2 people out today, it isn’t a big deal since he won’t have it until everyone is here. I didn’t tell him I am leaving yet. I am just going to email him at noon when he goes to lunch. I don’t need him getting stupid.