It’s Sunday night but this evening doesn’t really have the feel of any particular day to it – I just know that I’ve had a busy few days with lots of activity and it won’t be long before I crawl into Ralph’s bed with a new book and read myself to slumberland.
Yesterday morning I was ready to leave bright and early for the Rotary District 6080 conference at Tan-Tar-A – so I hopped in the car, turned on the ignition and NOTHING HAPPENED. I was in shock – my “car that always starts” didn’t. Of course I called on trusty hubby to take care of me – he charged the battery and gave me instructions not to turn it off for at least an hour and said I’d be fine.
I met my friend Faith who was riding with me and we hot-footed it to the outlet mall at the lake for a bit of retail therapy before the conference. A couple of hours and several dollars later, I was once again in shock when the car was dead. Urgh! A good Samaritan got us running and suggested we drive to O’Reilly Automotive to have them check the alternator before just buying a new battery. Their diagnosis: bad diode, whatever the hell that is. I’ve never met a diode before – good or bad.
The O’Reilly dude told me to forget Wal-Mart and sent me to the local Goodyear guy who was one of a handful of places open on Saturday who might be able to fix an alternator. Mr. Goodyear ran some tests on ye olde Honda, ate his lunch, shot the crap with some of his buddies who came in and 2 hours later told me it really was the battery – not the alternator. Apparently that was good news since he claims the battery was cheaper to replace than the alternator.
I told Faith that when I called Burl to tell him I was getting a new battery he would say “well you should just go to Wal-Mart, it will be cheaper” and sure ‘nuf, those were his exact words. I informed him that after Mr. Goodyear had spent all that time I was NOT going to ask him to get it running so I could go somewhere else where I’d probably wait another 2 hours – just to save $20. I’m not sure he got it.
He replaced the battery and we made it to Tan-Tar-A in time for my presentation although we had to sacrifice the shoe department at the Super Marshalls due to the time crunch.
Last evening was all the social stuff for the conference – a private champagne reception, banquet and then hospitality room. I crashed early and was on the road by 7:30 this morning en route to Des Moines. According to Rand-McNally, it was only 325 miles from the lake to Des Moines but I quickly ascertained I didn’t want to take all 2-lane roads that went through every little burg in Missouri and Iowa along the way.
So – I made up my own route that was equally as long as Springfield to Des Moines in mileage and time but after going through a downpour and narrow windy roads in the lake area, I encountered sunshine just east of Kansas City and it smiled on me the rest of the day.
By time I got here it didn’t matter how long I’d traveled – when the girls ran at me with big hugs and shrieks of “I love you, Grammie” the miles melted away and I was a happy camper.
They took naps and then we went to Target and the grocery store so I could fix dinner for them. I was pretty low on inspiration so I suggested we down and “upside down” meal and have pancakes and sausage. They loved the idea of breakfast at night and started thinking of how maybe tomorrow they will eat sandwiches for breakfast and cereal for lunch – all the while erupting into fits of giggling.
Naturally we had to go to Snookie’s for ice cream – as much for me as it was for them.
Julia did crack me up tonight with one statement. Lydia was misbehaving at dinner by opening her mouth when it was full of food. I let her know that was not something she was to do and Julia chimed in with “that’s not acceptable behavior, Grammie, even in casual settings.” Where the hell did she come up with that one? Obviously Ralph has made a similar remark about something and it stuck in her young, fertile mind.
Here’s to more giggles and grins tomorrow.
Glad you made it safe and sound. Thanks for the photo of the girls. I can’t wait to see them next week! And thanks for the Julia story. It made me laugh out loud. That kid’s a hoot.
Wow! What an adventure! We had the same thing happen with one of our cars and those batteries sometimes just die.
The picture of the girls is fabulous and graces my desktop.