Thursday, April 12, 2012

Thinking Outside the Box

It is a darn good thing that I am a patent person ( most of the time) or I would have had busted a gasket by now.

My van 2001 Carivan has hit the biscuit sort to speak of. First the electrical system went. Gauges and dials doing all kinds of funky things when you drove. But I kind of got use to the quirkiness of the thing and drove it only locally as it started and ran fine. The muffler has a hole in it now and I know about what that will cost. But last week Dearest drove it to get firewood from road side and the front window steamed up. In my mind this is the heating coil. We don't need heat in the summer so if we plug that piping I can at least still drive it locally. Dearest says not! So my 11 year old baby sits in the field, waiting to be used as the next farm vehicle.

Dearest farm truck ( FORD- Found On Road Dead) is stuck in the creek bed. It has been there all winter. The girls and I went back with him on Sunday because the bed is drying up due to lack of rain, to push the thing out. But it lands out being the transmission is gone. The motor will not keep running. Off to the scrap metal it stall go.

We are now down to one car. A four door ION. Small ,great commuter car. Lousy with two car seats in it and a teenager squished in- between. Good thing she is a small teenager.

Issues have come up a few times this week. Dearest keeps forgetting I do not have something to drive when he has driven to work and asks me to get things for him, I cannot possibly do on a bike. Remember I live in the boonies! Then there is times where we have to be at totally different places, 100 km away at the same time. I have rescheduled so much of my doings to accommodate having one vehicle. However he still doesn't understand he no longer can just do as he pleases, without informing us anymore, just in case we need the car. Tomorrow I find myself in the downtown of the city all afternoon, on foot with two toddlers, awaiting going to a Bridal shower at 6pm, because he made plans to see his folks, 100km away south east of the city. He is being accommodating by bringing us to the city and then heading back the direction he came from and then south to see his folks. He should have re-planned his trip to his folks as he knew about the shower for five weeks, and knew I was helping to cater to this shower. So car seats have to be dropped off at the shower house, and then me and stroller dropped off downtown. I shall be a street person all afternoon, and hit the library and such until I walk the 3km to where the shower is, outside the city limits. I have a friend driving us home. I would like to think of this as an adventure. But the whole planning of who is where, doing what, things to pack, animals to have tended too. I just want to not show up for the shower, but I said I would help. I like my "Yes" to mean Yes and my "No" to mean No! Needless to say I am not looking forward to tomorrow.

Then there is the socks I am knitting! I am making them for my son-in-law and from two different types of wool my mom gave me. One of blue fleck and the other a grey. I was doing the leg of the sock in blue right to the heel and the foot of the sock grey with the toes being blue. The first sock is done. The second I got working to the heel and noticed that the wool was in short pieces. The whole heel is in these short pieces. I am now on the foot of the second sock, but there is not enough ( pieces) of the blue to do the toe the same as the first sock. So I shall have to tear out the toe for the first sock, and re-knit in grey to the very tip, when I can then attach some blue which I tore off the first sock to add to the second one. Frustration as I just want them done.

Then there is shopping. For eight weeks I have been trying to get to the Dollar store to get pantyhose and steel wool. Not the end of the world, but I have been wearing thights and this menopausal girl has been dying of heat. Also the shower present. I never get anywhere as the girls always fall asleep on me after I have been at my folks when I go to the city. Yesterday I tagged my mom along to sit in the car with the little ones while I ran through the hail into the stores to get what was needed.

Sometimes I think living in the city would be a heck lot easier. I know I would be misserable living in the city.

6 comments:

Karen said...

Your post brings back memories of being the mother of four who did not drive. Didn't get a drivers license until the baby of the family was walking.

Jane and Chris said...

We only have one car...we have to juggle appointments/shopping..but we are used to it now.
Living in the country...what were we thinking (hehehehe).
Jane x

GrannyAnnie said...

A comforting hug to you!
I say plug the heater core and driiiive. It does sound like that is what it is. When I had a mini van, it went through about 3 heater cores. On the third one, I said forget it and plugged it. Drove it that way for about 2 years. It was a little difficult in the winter, but had no problems at all in the summer. Although things like this do give you a better appreciation of things when you do get them again, I sure hope you get a vehicle back soon. Prayers and blessings to you and yours!

Paula said...

I'm very lucky that mom is able/willing to drive us when we need to go somewhere. Now that Colin has the new ford (best truck ever!) I have the old beater dodge for emergencies.

Hope your weekend improves!

Paula

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