Doings
Since Saturday:
--The right rear tire on Sis's car went flat for some unknown reason (at the time). I discovered it Sunday evening. Monday morning, nosy neighbor Linda left us a note on our front door alerting us to the tire. In order to have seen it, she would have had to cross our property and get up in our driveway, because the tire is on the opposite side of the house from her view. Fucking busybody.
--We started to stress because we're running low on money (as per usual) and would have to scrape in order to buy a new tire. We tried to get the nice neighbor that just moved in across the street - Sis calls him Ned Flanders - to put the donut on so we could get to the tire place. He wasn't home yesterday. We thought we were screwed until we remembered that we pay for Blackberry roadside assistance. The guy who came to help was AWESOME. It was just what we needed: a nice guy who was willing to bend over backwards to help us, just because. He was really sweet and plugged the hole in the tread caused by a roofing nail that got picked up from God knows where. There was also a headless screw buried in the tread, but thankfully it didn't puncture the tire itself. He swears that the plug will hold and we won't have to replace the tire right away. We'll see. Sis is going to drive to her class tonight and test it out. If it holds tonight and tomorrow, then I'll probably feel okay enough to drive on it to the clinic on Friday. He also offered to fix the three chips in our windshields (both cars had chips) for only $40, which was a discount from the $20 per chip he normally charges. The windshield looks like new. Amazing. The one in the middle of Mom's windshield he decided he needed to come back and fix the next time Mom was home because he wasn't happy with the result. That's how great a guy he is. We're totally keeping his phone number and calling him any time we need something with the car.
--With all of this tire business, I ended up having to drive Sis to her therapy appointment in Mom's car yesterday. I spent an hour-and-a-half sitting at a nearby Starbucks reading. For a while I sat inside, sipping my Trenta Black Eye on ice (the largest cup they make - 32 fl oz - with iced drip coffee and two shots of espresso), and sitting next to a family with a little boy whose Mom said he was 2. He was just being a happy toddler, but she was being fairly strict with him. I tried to make it clear that he wasn't bothering me at all, but she just kept shushing him, though he was bored because he had nothing to do but sit. He started to cry at one point and she got up in his face and started saying "Fix your face." Dude, let him be upset, but put boundaries on it. I finally got tired of this and moved outside. OUTSIDE. This is generally something that doesn't happen with me, since I HATE sitting out in the heat. However, it was so pleasant yesterday I was fine. BTW, pleasant temperature for me right now means 90 degrees. It feels almost cool in comparison to the 105s we had for the month of August.
--My friends Bryan and Cristina are in a neighborhood that sits about 10 minutes in between two fires in suburbs of Austin. So scary. The photos of the fires near their house are distressing. Yesterday, we could smell the smoke from the fires north of us in Montgomery county, and see the haze of the fire in Bastrop to our west. Tropical Storm Nate may form near the Yucutan penninsula later this evening, but it's forecast to move west directly into Mexico. This drought is INSANE and so upsetting. The cooler temperatures due to the dry air here aren't a decent trade-off for not having rain. I'd much rather be back in 100 degree temps with rain than low 90s and dry like the desert. (The relative humidity yesterday was at 19%. We are close enough to the coast that it's rare that our humitidy drops below about 50%. This weather is crazy.)
--I did something to my hip and it's aching like crazy. I'm also still a total phlegm factory. I've spent the last two weeks snorking and hacking up gross bits of goop. So disgusting.
--Some good news: I've been cranking out scarves for our church's 400 scarves for the homeless by Christmas project. I have a feeling that I'll have made a giant dent in that number by December at the rate I'm going.
--The right rear tire on Sis's car went flat for some unknown reason (at the time). I discovered it Sunday evening. Monday morning, nosy neighbor Linda left us a note on our front door alerting us to the tire. In order to have seen it, she would have had to cross our property and get up in our driveway, because the tire is on the opposite side of the house from her view. Fucking busybody.
--We started to stress because we're running low on money (as per usual) and would have to scrape in order to buy a new tire. We tried to get the nice neighbor that just moved in across the street - Sis calls him Ned Flanders - to put the donut on so we could get to the tire place. He wasn't home yesterday. We thought we were screwed until we remembered that we pay for Blackberry roadside assistance. The guy who came to help was AWESOME. It was just what we needed: a nice guy who was willing to bend over backwards to help us, just because. He was really sweet and plugged the hole in the tread caused by a roofing nail that got picked up from God knows where. There was also a headless screw buried in the tread, but thankfully it didn't puncture the tire itself. He swears that the plug will hold and we won't have to replace the tire right away. We'll see. Sis is going to drive to her class tonight and test it out. If it holds tonight and tomorrow, then I'll probably feel okay enough to drive on it to the clinic on Friday. He also offered to fix the three chips in our windshields (both cars had chips) for only $40, which was a discount from the $20 per chip he normally charges. The windshield looks like new. Amazing. The one in the middle of Mom's windshield he decided he needed to come back and fix the next time Mom was home because he wasn't happy with the result. That's how great a guy he is. We're totally keeping his phone number and calling him any time we need something with the car.
--With all of this tire business, I ended up having to drive Sis to her therapy appointment in Mom's car yesterday. I spent an hour-and-a-half sitting at a nearby Starbucks reading. For a while I sat inside, sipping my Trenta Black Eye on ice (the largest cup they make - 32 fl oz - with iced drip coffee and two shots of espresso), and sitting next to a family with a little boy whose Mom said he was 2. He was just being a happy toddler, but she was being fairly strict with him. I tried to make it clear that he wasn't bothering me at all, but she just kept shushing him, though he was bored because he had nothing to do but sit. He started to cry at one point and she got up in his face and started saying "Fix your face." Dude, let him be upset, but put boundaries on it. I finally got tired of this and moved outside. OUTSIDE. This is generally something that doesn't happen with me, since I HATE sitting out in the heat. However, it was so pleasant yesterday I was fine. BTW, pleasant temperature for me right now means 90 degrees. It feels almost cool in comparison to the 105s we had for the month of August.
--My friends Bryan and Cristina are in a neighborhood that sits about 10 minutes in between two fires in suburbs of Austin. So scary. The photos of the fires near their house are distressing. Yesterday, we could smell the smoke from the fires north of us in Montgomery county, and see the haze of the fire in Bastrop to our west. Tropical Storm Nate may form near the Yucutan penninsula later this evening, but it's forecast to move west directly into Mexico. This drought is INSANE and so upsetting. The cooler temperatures due to the dry air here aren't a decent trade-off for not having rain. I'd much rather be back in 100 degree temps with rain than low 90s and dry like the desert. (The relative humidity yesterday was at 19%. We are close enough to the coast that it's rare that our humitidy drops below about 50%. This weather is crazy.)
--I did something to my hip and it's aching like crazy. I'm also still a total phlegm factory. I've spent the last two weeks snorking and hacking up gross bits of goop. So disgusting.
--Some good news: I've been cranking out scarves for our church's 400 scarves for the homeless by Christmas project. I have a feeling that I'll have made a giant dent in that number by December at the rate I'm going.