Alright, I give up.
I phoned the garage that has my car. It needs a new head gasket. Didn’t sound too bad to begin with. Bad but not awful. My husband has replaced head gaskets before and it wasn’t awful. Well… the cost is $2000 with parts and labor. That’s right $2000. Mike can’t do it because of the placement on this car. It isn’t worth it to me. That car is dead to me.
So instead of looking for two cars, it is now three! yippee.

Boy, did I have the monday blues.
Started out bad and ended bad with some nice thrown in so I wouldn’t completely give up.
I woke up early because I had to cancel my appointment with the cardiologist for my annual checkup. I had to cancel because I had to go bail two stupid dogs out of the pound where they landed after stealing cat food from neighbors. They didn’t bother the cats, just the food. I got cited for letting them run at large. I did. No excuses.
Came home and prepared for my trip to Columbus for my annual checkup with my gastric bypass doctor.
My husband was on the phone trying to round up a transmission for my son’s car. He found one, but in order for it to be shipped they needed a deposit. today. So I said I would drop it off in New Phila on my way.
Before i left, I had my husband check the level on my antifreeze because a friend had told me it was a little low. Hubby had to add just a little.
So, I’m driving to pick up rog and ali because they were out of school for the day and agreed to ride with me. I get about five miles from home and my car starts to overheat! It has never overheated before. So I call Mike and he comes over and checks it out. We drove a couple miles and it didn’t overheat again and the fans were working so he said it was probably just a glitch from topping off the antifreeze. He came back home and I went on my merry way.
I got about two miles down the road and the light came on again. I called my Mom this time. Just to moan about my poor luck with cars lately. (More on that later.) She suggested I have it towed. I did and they arrived in ten minutes. (This is amazing since we’re talking Carroll County here. Middle of nowhere. ) I then called and cancelled this appointment for the second time.
So Mom Came over and picked me up at the garage and agreed to take me to New Phila and to Mineral City. We went to Mineral first, so I could take the car my son borrowed from a relative to another garage to get it fixed. Then we went to Phila to make that down payment and go to Walmart to pick up a couple necessities. Took the kids home and Mom brought me home. One of the bad dogs was off the tie out again. But I had anticipated this and bought a new one at Wally World. Foiled her nefarious plan to escape again. (laughs evilly)
I stayed home, but the bad day continued on, because when Mike got home, he had gotten a citation for not wearing his seatbelt after being stopped for not using a turn signal. He pointed out to the officer that there was no traffic anywhere and wasn’t cited for the turn signal. The cop was sitting in a parking lot when it happened.
So in one day, I visited three different garages for three different cars and Mike and I both got citations.

Now for some background history. You may want to stop reading now, if I haven’t bored you to death with my whining so far.
A few weeks ago the transmission in my car went out. I took it to get it checked out. They wanted $2,000 to replace it. After investigating somewhat we decided to go ahead. The next day, my son calls and says there is something wrong with his car. He brings it home, and tells my husband he can’t get it to go into reverse gear. Husband checks it out. Yep, needs a new transmission.
My husband’s car began leaking more oil about that time, too.
So, we have been looking for a truck for my husband and another car for Rog. We’ve seen a couple we liked but haven’t settled on anything yet. The loan we applied for took extra time to be okayed because there is a lien on the property from 1978. Now, we have had two previous loans and never had a problem. My husband and his ex-wife paid off the loan in question after it was taken over from another bank. He doesn’t have any records of the name of the second bank, because he had a fire in March of 1989 and his house burnt to the ground. During the divorce his parents bought his ex’s share so Mike could keep the property. He rebuit and we were married in Oct. of ’89. After we were married his parents went to the courthouse and signed over their share to Mike. He supposedly had a clear deed at this time. Like i said, We have had two loans since and never ran into a problem. But there is indeed a lien on record at the courthouse. We have never received a bill.
The bank went ahead and granted us a loan but if we ever intend to sell, we need to clear it up. Not that we do, but…
Back to the cars. Rog had borrowed a car from a relative to get back and forth from school. He was to return it at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. He called at 1:45 and said it wouldn’t go over 20 m.p.h. A friend of his that is mechanically inclined, somewhat, said it seemed like the …transmission! I had an attack of Tourrette’s (didn’t even know I had it)
All I could say was “S..t! D..n! F..k!” about twenty times. I called my brother to go check it out and he said he thinks it is the catalytic converter which is what the guy at the garage thinks, too.
Well, with all this stress, I discovered that I needed the gastric bypass five years ago because when i am stressed, I graze. Anything and everything edible in sight. I ate all night Sunday. Yesterday I was able to get it under some control but it was hard. Realizing this is an epiphany. I have struggled with my weight all my life. Stress has been an almost constant companion.
I cancelled my dentist appointment this morning. Need a tooth filled, but it’s not causing me a problem and I re-scheduled for Nov. 2. I am just vegging (hiding) out this morning before I go to work this afternoon. Mike is quietly contemplating a stroke. But he wants to hold it off until the loan insurance goes into effect on Thursday. ; )

I guess the above fits. I am a writer and an artist, although maybe not very good at either.

I’m a little sad today. I graduated from a small class. Many of my friends’ parents have been in ill health, as have mine. My Dad has been ill for many years but has had a great improvement with his move back home. Some of my friends have had to deal with the passing of a parent. Today is Ron’s turn. Ron was a very popular classmate. He was my first schoolgirl crush (first grade). His father would come to every basketball game with his camera around his neck. He was very proud of his son. You could see the love. And Ron often would look to his dad for assurance. His father has been ill for a few years now and he passed away yesterday.
I can’t imagine what that is like and I don’t want to know. But I know I will someday. All this makes me sad.

Yea!!! It’s Thursday. To begin, I have the day off. After working a double shift, it is more than welcome. My back started aching about a half hour into the second shift. but, eh…
Second, my hubby is off on Thursdays and Fridays, so Thursday is like my weekend. Not that we do much, but we do it together.
Third reason is that I can usually count on seeing Roger and Ali on Thursday. Probably because every other Thursday is my payday, but hey, I’ll take a visit for almost any reason. The last reason I love Thursday is that television viewing is really good on this night. Grey’s Anatomy and ER. Who could ask for more?
I am especially looking forward to next Thursday. It is my birthday, and although I am scheduled to work, I will be off, because my mother is having her second cataract surgery. We will go to lunch after with Dad and my sister (and maybe brother-in-law). Then Roger and Ali will probably visit and after they go home to study, I will settle down and watch my shows with my man. That’s the plan, anyway.

It seems like this year has went so fast! It can’t be October already.
It seems like just yesterday I was planning my summer of concerts. Which, by the way, was way cool! Started out with Rob Thomas. Love him.
Next was Mindless Self Indulgence. Too Funny! Then came Nine Inch Nails. Great music. Great night with Rog and Ali. Nickelback, third row from stage… provided entertainment for stage hands. They thought it was funny to see two “old” women jump when they set off the fireworks. (I even knew there was pyrotechnics!) Great show. Then came Ozfest 2006. Wonderful day hanging out with Rog and Ali and friends. Got lots of pictures, and walked away with a new love and respect for Disturbed. Lacuna Coil was wonderful….again. Traveled to Pittsburgh to see the Dixie Chicks with Rog, Ali and Carolyn. (Miss her- she’s now in Chicago)The show was Awesome!!! Also saw Anna Nalick! Downtown Pittsburgh is beautiful at night. Driving there was a little tense but once I got a sense for the streets, it was kinda fun! Pittsburgh is so great that we went back in August to do school shopping and to walk through downtown. Beautiful architecture. Went to the Art Institute. Rog and Ali hope to attend school there some day. Went to Saks- too funny! Rog was dressed in typical Roger costume- black and makeup. As soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted by two security type gentlemen. They were Real nice but you could tell they thought we were a little below their store’s standards. We told them we just wanted to see store. They gave us little bottles of water and told us where everything was- including Saks’ gift shop area, so we could take a little token of our trip through Saks home to relive the moment! We just walked out of there with the bottled water. I still have mine. Maybe if Ali and Rog have children (sometime in the far off future!) they wil name one of them Asher (a name we discovered in Pittsburgh) and we can use the Saks water for the baptism! hehe!
I must say though, Roger is a connoiseur of off beat fashon ideas and Saks provided us with the best idea for an outfit. The entire outfit easily cost over $1500 at Saks, but we were able to put one together that was very similar for about $50. Thank you Walmart and Goodwill.
On the home (zoo) front, I have a new kitten. I went walking with my friend the vet one day in August. It was the first time in months I had been able to walk that early. As we were walking I heard meowing coming from the tall grass at the roadside. There were four little kittens in a box! some a**hole had thrown them out where no one was likely to find them as there were no houses around. They were very hungry and very frail. They all had upper respiratory infections and their eyes were mattered shut. I took them home even though it could very easily have incurred Mike’s wrath. It didn’t. In fact he helped me with them. The vet lady gave me medicine for them but it was too late for three of them. The fourth has lived on to become known as The Evil Tud. Tud came by his name due to the fact he had diarrhea from the antibiotics for a few weeks and was too little when he was taken away from his mother to have any grooming skills. He was just a ball of feces-covered hair! But he has discovered his grooming skills and is now a beautiful young man. But spoiled!

Some time in the summer I thought I would try verizon wireless- what a debacle! Went back to tracfone. ‘Nuff said. The photos to the right are an assortment from my summer! Too much fun!