So much happened

It has been an eventful last few days.

Thursday, we took public transit downtown to see Wicked and it was just as amazing as I remembered. Diva was not happy at first but then they sang “Popular” and she was right into it. I’m so glad we were able to see it. Later on, we went to see Incredibles 2. So worth the wait, we all enjoyed it.

I took Friday off to make it an extra long weekend. I had plans to relax and read. It didn’t quite end up like that. Diva rides her bike to work. And Friday morning, she had the unfortunate experience of being tapped by a car. She told me that she made eye contact with the driver and both of them assumed the other would stop. They were both wrong. The driver realized this late and tapped the front tire of her bike, knocking her off the bike.

She is fine, but was in shock as her first reaction was to go to work. Her palms are scratched up. She was sent home and I made her go to the doctor, just to be on the safe side. He gave her some gauze and the all clear. Princess was also sent home on Friday as their manager thought she should be home with her sister, plus it was slow.

Yesterday, Princess and I went to run some errands. On our way to get our eyebrows done, the radio in the van stopped working. This was a bit odd, but I was not concerned until I looked at my dashboard and every needle was in the down position. Like the car was not on, but I was still moving. I had the foresight to get off the road. I turned off my van and it refused to turn back on.

I call my roadside assistance company and went into a nearby restaurant for food and shelter. Yesterday was hotter than hot. The technician came quickly and after a false start, diagnosed my battery as dead. He recommended I buy a battery from Costco instead of the one he had in his vehicle. He told me how to change the battery and advised that I could call him if I needed help.

My BFF was available to take me to Costco and held the umbrella over me as I wrestled with the battery leads. I almost gave up. In fact, I was having so much trouble with one of the leads, that my BFF called the technician. He wanted $50 to put in the battery … she told him to come and I re-dedicated myself to getting the old battery out.

I was able to change the battery by myself and all was well. Princess and I finished our errands and returned home to get ready for my Uncle’s 70th birthday dinner. The event was good. We were late, so we missed the happy hour but got there just in time for dinner.

After the celebration, I put the key in the ignition and I now have warning lights on the dashboard. After googling when I returned home, it is either I didn’t tighten the leads enough (very likely) or I need a new alternator. Of course since it’s a holiday weekend, I will have to wait until Tuesday morning to see my mechanic.

I am debating tinkering with the battery and disconnecting it and reconnecting it to see if that gets rid of the warning lights.

My Aunt from MD is here and she wants to go exploring the country side. There are currently 4 plus me, so it makes sense to take my minivan. But I am not comfortable driving any distance in it as it is. Even if fiddling gets rid of the warning lights, I still want a mechanic to look at it. ** Correction, only 3 plus me, so guess who went for a long Sunday drive? It was a lot of fun but my Aunt without a plan is not good for my belly as we did not stop to eat until close to 5 pm. We left my place at 12:45 pm. I had only had a cup of coffee and a protein bar at that point.

 

Tomorrow, I am on the schedule at the PT job so I need to figure something out. It’s not like I can’t take the bus to work, but I’ve been spoiled. I’ll figure something out. My mom has volunteered to take me. 🙂

Other than that, I didn’t exercise as much as I would have liked to. I did manage to have a walking/dinner date with one of my cousins. It was great to catch up. She recently went on a hiking trip to Scotland so that was great to hear about. I was supposed to borrow her hiking boots for my trip but I forgot all about them. Now I have to see her again lol.

Next week, I am only on the schedule at the PT job on Monday and Tuesday. Not sure how I am getting all these weekends off but I will go with it. On the FT job front, I have my mid-year review on Thursday. It will be interesting to see how this goes as I think it’s a waste of time. From what I understand I have to walk on water in order to be above meets expectations and I am not there.

As long as my van is fixed, there will be another walking date with my cousin on Wednesday. This time I will remember the boots.

Well that didn’t go according to plan

Last week other than a few days of the ab challenge, I only worked out once. 😦

On Thursday, I came home from work at a decent hour and no one was home so I had no excuse not to do something. Not wanting to work out, I figured I’d do one of Jillian Michael’s 10 minute workouts.

OMG, I am still feeling my muscles. If I don’t get some exercise in today, the next time I will have time will be Tuesday.

Friday morning, I took my van to get an oil change and they noticed that the tire arm(?) on the front passenger tire needs to be replaced and then an alignment would need to be performed. Since I got the van from my Dad, he had mentioned that his mechanic had issues fixing the alignment. Hopefully my mechanic can get it corrected.

Yesterday, Diva & I went to an open house for one of the universities she got into. It is a very picturesque. Class size is nice and there seems to be a lot of possibilities there. It is in the city so she could live at home. Right now, she would like to have the residence experience and I think that is a great plan. My only concern about her staying in the city is that it would be too easy for her to get distracted from her studies. Staying in the city would allow her to keep her part time job. Pros and cons everywhere. A decision needs to be made soon. I think she will stay in the city since in her mind that university is better than the away from home one …

At work, all our outside sales reps are coming in for the week, so fingers crossed that will all go smoothly and not require any extra time from me. So far there has not been a team event planned. I hope it stays that way.

Next week, I will be taking the van early Monday morning to be fixed. I am working Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Some other day other than Tuesday and Thursday, I need to fit in some exercise.

I also need to figure out my summer travel plans. A lot of people I know are traveling this year and I have travel envy. There is no real reason, I shouldn’t travel except my renos. The same ones I keep putting off. I need to make a proper plan. As I need a little fun in my life.

Any and all ideas are welcome.

Good to go

Next weekend I am going back to MD for my cousin’s celebration of life ceremony. I’m a little excited to see my family again. Last Wednesday the Grandmother of my cousin, who is my birthday twin, died so it will be nice to see her and her mother again.

This morning I got up bright and early to take my car to the mechanic for an oil change and to look into why my check engine light was on. Turns out it was on because there was a day when it was cold and my car kind of choked when starting. It might mean that my thermostat needs to be replaced. So it’s been put on my long list of car repairs that I will get to at some point. I was assured that the car is good to go on this road trip.

While at the mechanic, they found a nail in my tire. They also changed my headlight. Other than that it was thankfully an uneventful visit. 🙂

I am ready for a nap, but I need to take my BFF to the airport at 1pm. So I might as well be productive. Laundry and my PVR are calling. 😁

Not up to much

Good golly I have not been here in a while.  I wish I had a great reason, but life has just been rather mundane.  I am still working out.  Still working.  Still trying to figure out life.

The exercising continues.  The weight loss not so much.  I am stronger.  The 3 lbs weights are not doing much so recently I moved up to 5 lbs which is challenging. I am starting to see some muscle definition in my arms and my clothes are getting looser. 🙂 So there is progress, just not fast enough for me.

I am going back into job search mode. The current job is boring and slow.  We have entered “busy” season and it seems like it applies to everyone but me.  I spend most days just staring at my computer. It is mind numbing and awful. I like the people I work with and the atmosphere but not challenging my brain all day is slowly killing me.

With March break being next week, I need to find some activities to occupy my girls.  Left to their own I think they would sleep all day and be up all night which would make the first week back to school a nightmare.  Diva went to their Dad’s last night.  I’m thinking she could stay there all week. Princess likes to be alone and she is a home body so she’ll be “ok”.  I’ll need to find something to keep her occupied.

Went for a massage this morning and it was lovely.  Why I don’t do this more often is beyond me.  Booked another one next month. 😉 Self care is high on my list of things to do this year.

Took my car in to get an oil change and they found that there are some minor repairs needed. A belt and a joint was an issue … I will need tires before next winter … Not impressed but such is the joy of car ownership. I now need to walk back to the mechanic to pick up my car.

 

The tides are turning

After posting my rather not so happy last post, life has turned just a bit.  I have had 3 interviews with a second interview with one of the companies on Monday.  Fingers crossed it pans out as I am feeling a bit uneasy about taking so much time away from work. I am feeling hopefully and much more determined to leave.

Yesterday my body betrayed me and my hip is protesting loudly.  I wish I could tell you that I worked out and that’s how I hurt it but I did not.  I can’t even pinpoint what I did to make it hurt.  I got up this morning and stretched but it doesn’t feel any better.

On Thursday (yes I am all over the place in this post but it’s entertaining so go with it), my car started producing this awful burning chemical smell.  I took it to the mechanic after work yesterday and of course the smell was gone.  But I knew something was not right and insisted they look it over.  Turns out it’s my brake lines.  Sounds rather important no?  It is now fixed and available to me to pick up.  It is a 20 minute walk away.

Given my hip issues am I nuts to consider walking?

My car, the results

The mechanic called …

The news is not good.  My back brakes need to be replaced, which I already knew. But the cost OMG!  They also figured out what was making the creaking noise.  While that part is not expensive it will mean my car will also need an alignment. 😦  Grand total $1000. 😦

The mechanic recommended I check their website for coupons.  I found one for $10 off $100, $20 off $200, $30 off $300.  It’s something.  I’m going to print a couple and see of they can split up my bill.

Imagine “fixing” my printer was on my list of things to do this weekend.  Looks like it really will get done today. 🙂  It’s a simple “fix”.  I accidentally deleted my wireless network and when I got it back up and running I had to change the name so my printer does not recognize it anymore.  Hopefully it will be easy.

The “good” news is that my car should be ready by noon.

I really shouldn’t complain.  This is still some much cheaper than car payments.

Good thing I walked home yesterday and saved all that money. LOL 😉

Cheap for the win

I inadvertently got some exercise today.  Yeah me!!

Since I need to get my brakes done and I don’t want to get up early tomorrow morning to go to the mechanic, I left my car there this afternoon and walked home.

I would have taken the bus except it seemed ridiculous to take the bus 6 bus stops.  Plus bus fare is $3!?!  Seems like a lot.  I think I am becoming cheap in my “old” age.

Anyhoo …

I got a nice 20 minute walk and will get another one tomorrow when I go pick up my car.  I am hoping that the bill isn’t going to make me want to stand on the street corner with a hat.

I hope that my car is ready before noon.  My BFF is thinking about going downtown for some festival or another and I would like to tag along.  If not, I think I’ll take my girls to see Maleficent.  Diva who never wants to go to the movies has asked to go.

Other than that I plan to take it easy and do some much-needed cleaning and relaxing.

 

It was so worth it

On Friday, I ended up leaving later than I wanted to.  GPS put us there after 7 but we stopped a few times so we were there after 8.  It was an easy drive except for this whistling noise which we decided was one of my brakes.  What is it with me and car trouble on these long drives?

Since we arrived at a respectable hour, I was able to go to bed on the “right” side of midnight. 🙂  Although I think my early bedtime contributed to the crazy dream I had.  I slept on the bottom bunk, Princess on the top and Diva on the trundle beside me and dreamt that the top bunk was falling on me.  I even woke up Diva asking for help while holding the top bunk up with one hand. CRAZY!

The next morning I got up and got to work.  I baked the pine tarts and cheese straws that I brought down with me.  Then my cousin told me she bought me 2 lbs of cheese and had lots of butter in anticipation of my baking.  So I made 2 more batches of cheese straws by hand.  My arm is hurting.

The party was fantastic.  People came from near and far to congratulate my cousin’s daughter.  I took almost 400 pictures.  I love my camera.  Now I need to get on the ball about sharing them.

Sunday I left just before noon armed with a hack of how to stop my car’s brakes from making noise.  We were making good time, even stopped for a short visit at Target. 🙂 Traffic coming into Toronto was terrible. It added over an hour to our time. 😦

I am so very glad I made the trip.  My cousin still looks like herself.  We had a great visit.  Talked about all kinds of things.  We made plans to meet in Ohio in August when she goes to drop her daughter off at university.

I took my car to the mechanic after work today and he confirmed what I already guessed.  The back brake on the driver’s side is having issues.  We decided not to really look until Saturday when it will be fixed.

Willing the weekend to come

Every night this week I have some thing to do.

Last night we went to the chiropractor.

Tonight we went to do our eyebrows.

Tomorrow I am going to see my cousin.

Thursday I am getting together for my monthly all you can eat sushi dinner.

Friday I am taking my car to the mechanic as it is making some creaky noises that I didn’t notice before.

If the mechanic finds an issue with my car then I will be returning bright and early Saturday morning to get my car fixed.

Sunday is a birthday party for an Aunt who is visiting from the States.

Most of the time my life is very quiet and mundane.  But every so often it seems like I’m the life of the party!! LOL

I need to get my tail up in the morning and do at least 10 minutes of exercise as I don’t feel like I can fit it in anywhere else this week.

And I need to get my self into bed at a reasonable hour so I get enough rest.

 

I think I need a corner

So I drag my tail to the mechanic this morning.  I packed a litre of water, a book (The Imposter Bride) I hadn’t started and a magazine with me.  I ate before I left the house so I figured I should be good for 3 hours of waiting.

2 hours in I see they have put the wheels back on my car and it’s coming down from the hoist.

Then I hear the owner asking about the exhaust.

Back up goes the hoist.

A little while later, the owner comes to tell me there is bad news for me and bad news for him.  It seems like he gave me a quote based on a gasket and the flex pipe is also broken … which is attached to the catalytic converter … On my this is sounding familiar.  I was hoping the oil change people were wrong.  If he doesn’t change the flex pipe it will not fix the noise.  Only “lucky” break for me is that the markup on parts at this mechanic is much less and since he didn’t catch it, he is only charging me for the part and not the 3 additional hours of labour.

At this point I figured might as well.  I was tired and hungry and was not in the mood to find somewhere else to fix my car.  So I went for a walk, second one in 2 days. 🙂

I managed to be gone for 2 hours.  In that time I did some banking, found some place to eat and wandered around Canadian Tire.  On my walk back I passed a Dodge Dart sitting all shiny and new right beside the sidewalk.  It had a manual transmission.  It whispered to me.  Unfortunately the purchase price on its side was more than 10 times the price of my repairs.  So I kept walking.

When I got back to the mechanic, they were still working on my car.  The estimate was another half an hour.

I am now half way through my book.

There might have been a few tears when it was time to pay the bill.  But when I got into my car and turned the key and it was silent all I could do was smile.  Billie Jean is back!  She drives like when I first got her. 🙂

Now I think I need a corner … to panhandle on.