Is That my Hubcap?

My car is dead. Well, I guess it isn't totally dead. Just mostly dead. We first got it in 2003. I think it was 2003 anyway. My memory isn't all that great anymore. Anyway, I had been selling Tupperware and had been driving a company car for the past couple years when I decided I just couldn't keep up with the work any more. For those of us who look forward to dental visits just to get out of the house, those home party businesses are a great opportunity to get a little adult time a couple times a month. If you really want to make money doing it though, you have to work it like a full time job and with five kids, I was having a hard time keeping up with the business and doing two or three parties a week. So, I had to relinquish the company car and quickly find another van that could seat us all. Enter my current van. I remember going to the used car lot and seeing it for the first time. Much like Clark Griswold's metallic pea family truckster, there sat this stunning example of American car manufacturing. When I got in to give it a test drive, I was assaulted with the smell of a hundred wet dogs. And cigars. And an entire football team's sweat socks. And a few dozen poopy diapers.

Naturally my husband and I bought the ugly, smelly van.

After fourteen gallons of Febreeze, it was only mildly stinky and it's held up fairly well for the past four years. Until recently. My hubby replaced the alternator. Who knew? You can't actually start your vehicle without one of these.

We just had the transmission done. Again, this is an important part of a working vehicle. I knew mine was broken when I could no longer go in reverse or drive forward at speeds higher than 15 mph and since I always drive more than fifty, er um, fifteen miles per hour, this really needed to be fixed.

A couple weeks ago I stopped at a red light (because my 3 year old shouted from the backseat, "Stop, Mom! The light is blue!") and I saw out of the corner of my eye, a hubcap go rolling by. MY hubcap go rolling by.

It wasn't bad enough that the air conditioning didn't work, but now the family truckster is overheating. I need to pour a gallon or two of antifreeze in every day. Apparently, antifreeze is necessary for optimum vehicle operation. Again, who knew?

Because my car has been overheating, I borrowed my parents' car to take my son to the doctor a couple weeks ago. I nearly gave myself whiplash driving their car! Every time I just touched the brakes, the car stopped. Quickly. I didn't realize, until I'd driven my parents' car, just how bad my brakes had gotten. Looking back, I should've had a clue as to the deterioration of my brakes when I started having to drag my feet on the street Fred Flintstone style in order to stop, but it just didn't hit me until I borrowed their car.

My husband, car person that he is, can fix the antifreeze leak thankfully. He said something about blah blah blah leaking. Blah blah blah replacement part blah blah blah gasket. Take apart the blah blah blah engine blah blah blah two days.

Oh no! Know what I just realized? Looking at all that "blah blah" text written out like that, I've come to the realization that I listen like my husband does! Oh no! My husband's selective hearing has been making me angry for the past fifteen years and now I'm seeing that I do it too! Oh, this is bad! I can't be mad at him for not listening to me if he finds out that I tuned out his car repair speech! Shhhhhh! Don't tell him! He can't know! Really!

Anyway, I think it's time for a new vehicle. :::sigh:::

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Thank you for the suggestion of eliminating dairy to alleviate chronic ear infections. I've actually heard this from other people before, however, most of my kids don't get ear infections. They just have really large tonsils and adenoids which make swallowing and breathing difficult, and throat infections frequent. The big tonsils and adenoids also cause sleep apnea and prevent their eustachian tubes from draining well. Although their ears don't get infected, they're perpetually filled with fluid which has created temporary hearing loss in several of my kids. This is the eighth surgery like this between my children. Thank you so much for your well wishes. I'm sure all will go well. :)
Actually, your prayers and/or well wishes would be appreciated for Conway Beckemeier who just underwent surgery to repair the congenital defect in his heart, Julian Avery who has been battling a cancerous brain tumor, and Adam Sadda who has severe combined immunodeficiency and needs a bone marrow transplant. I have links on the right side of my blog with their stories. I believe you need to sign in to access Julian's carepages. There was another person who wrote me about their son who had a double lung transplant and I can't for the life of me, find that email anywhere. I'm so sorry I lost your email. I'm horribly unorganized and simply have too much mail to sort through. If you read this post, please send me another email, so I can add a link for your son.

Enjoy your weekend!