Please let me have a day....
So, my car has a bad valve cover gasket. Which means it dumps oil constantly.
So, I go to Valvoline and get oil changes there where top offs are free until my bike gets back from the shop so I can do without the car to get the gasket replaced. Seems like a good option right?
Well, the down side is that it's spraying oil all over itself, so the serpentine belt was covered in oil too. It's been getting hot a lot and I thought that was because the oil was getting low. So I scheduled to go to the shop tomorrow to get it fixed. I'm guessing the oily belt has been slipping and it wasn't pushing the water pump and that is why it was hot. This is relevant to the next part.
Seventeen years ago FSU1 got a cat, I thought she should name him "Center Stage" because he always liked to be in the middle of everyone's attention. She named him Kissyfur and sometimes called him "Boo Boo". She called me earlier today to say he has Intestinal Cancer. She thought he'd go this morning, but then the vet said he had 3 weeks.
So, then this evening while child-o-mine is in her first ever Aikdo class FSU calls me crying. I know before she talks what is coming next and I'm walking towards the door before she is done talking. Walking away from the conversation I was having with a confidant about feeling broken because I can't seem to keep my mind in the place I want it anymore.
As I race towards 169 I realize by the address that I'm about to go the wrong direction so I yank my wheel hard left and U turn to catch the exit south instead of north... all the sudden my steering is acting funny, the battery light comes on, and the thermostat is rising fast. I make it to the next exit and pull off with the thermostat in the red and the clicking sound of radiator fluid boiling over. As I pop the hood I see that the serpentine belt has come off.
So, Called Aja who came and got me in Paul's truck, brought her back up to the exit near the house where she walked home, then went clear across town to get Raven to take her to the emergency vet where the cat is. But, the cat was put down before we could get there, he was in too much pain, they couldn't wait.
This meant I got to watch my daughter sit in her martial arts uniform cuddling the corpse of a dead cat who had been there all her life for have an hour while I tried to comfort her.
Death is such a strange thing, you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I'm not. How do you respond when your child who you know knows it's fruitless to wish her cat would get up and go out with her?
My opinion is that her evening was better spent with the parent with the connection to animal that passed so I left her in her mother's arms both crying.
So, then I called a tow truck and got dropped at my car and waited an hour and a half for him to arrive. Brought a book with which was a series of interviews with the Dali Lama about happiness. After a while I just couldn't stomach having the Dali Lama tell me that negative emotions were destructive and I should just choose to stop having them, so I gave up on the book for a while. Look up and the building I'm in front of says "Cloud 9" on it... great... whatever.
He was a good cat. One of three cats I'd ever know of that I cared about at all.
Eventually the tow truck came... $97 to take the car 1.7 miles.
I've told the child she doesn't have to go to school tomorrow.
I've canceled my appointments.
We are buying a new valve cover gasket, and serpentine belt and a Chilton manual.
We are going to fix the car together while we wait for the call to get the bike back (since it's been in the shop for nearly a week) and together we will grieve this day.
So, I go to Valvoline and get oil changes there where top offs are free until my bike gets back from the shop so I can do without the car to get the gasket replaced. Seems like a good option right?
Well, the down side is that it's spraying oil all over itself, so the serpentine belt was covered in oil too. It's been getting hot a lot and I thought that was because the oil was getting low. So I scheduled to go to the shop tomorrow to get it fixed. I'm guessing the oily belt has been slipping and it wasn't pushing the water pump and that is why it was hot. This is relevant to the next part.
Seventeen years ago FSU1 got a cat, I thought she should name him "Center Stage" because he always liked to be in the middle of everyone's attention. She named him Kissyfur and sometimes called him "Boo Boo". She called me earlier today to say he has Intestinal Cancer. She thought he'd go this morning, but then the vet said he had 3 weeks.
So, then this evening while child-o-mine is in her first ever Aikdo class FSU calls me crying. I know before she talks what is coming next and I'm walking towards the door before she is done talking. Walking away from the conversation I was having with a confidant about feeling broken because I can't seem to keep my mind in the place I want it anymore.
As I race towards 169 I realize by the address that I'm about to go the wrong direction so I yank my wheel hard left and U turn to catch the exit south instead of north... all the sudden my steering is acting funny, the battery light comes on, and the thermostat is rising fast. I make it to the next exit and pull off with the thermostat in the red and the clicking sound of radiator fluid boiling over. As I pop the hood I see that the serpentine belt has come off.
So, Called Aja who came and got me in Paul's truck, brought her back up to the exit near the house where she walked home, then went clear across town to get Raven to take her to the emergency vet where the cat is. But, the cat was put down before we could get there, he was in too much pain, they couldn't wait.
This meant I got to watch my daughter sit in her martial arts uniform cuddling the corpse of a dead cat who had been there all her life for have an hour while I tried to comfort her.
Death is such a strange thing, you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I'm not. How do you respond when your child who you know knows it's fruitless to wish her cat would get up and go out with her?
My opinion is that her evening was better spent with the parent with the connection to animal that passed so I left her in her mother's arms both crying.
So, then I called a tow truck and got dropped at my car and waited an hour and a half for him to arrive. Brought a book with which was a series of interviews with the Dali Lama about happiness. After a while I just couldn't stomach having the Dali Lama tell me that negative emotions were destructive and I should just choose to stop having them, so I gave up on the book for a while. Look up and the building I'm in front of says "Cloud 9" on it... great... whatever.
He was a good cat. One of three cats I'd ever know of that I cared about at all.
Eventually the tow truck came... $97 to take the car 1.7 miles.
I've told the child she doesn't have to go to school tomorrow.
I've canceled my appointments.
We are buying a new valve cover gasket, and serpentine belt and a Chilton manual.
We are going to fix the car together while we wait for the call to get the bike back (since it's been in the shop for nearly a week) and together we will grieve this day.