Spring Break

WARNING: This entry is VERY long. (The writer is long winded!)

For someone who was planning on doing NOTHING for Spring Break, I did a lot.

Last weekend, the weather was yucky. It had turned cold, and it was raining. So, naturally, I didn't want to do anything. I can't remember doing anything. I think we stayed home, under the covers.

Monday - Weather turned great. I had a doctor's appointment at 10 am at Memorial City. I went there, but just as I got there, the electrical gauge on my dashboard got to a dangerous level. It had been steadily climbing the last few days, and now, as I'm trucking down the Katy freeway, the gauge read on the highest setting, and then the car started dinging. I pulled into a parking spot, and left the car alone while I went to my appointment (hoping it wouldn't blow up or catch on fire). When I returned and started the car, I tried to get away from the crowded area, and the gauge climbed again. I called my friend that helps me with my car repairs, and we decided that I should go to a mechanic that's a member of the church and see what he can do. I drove cautiously to the place and manage to make it without blowing up the battery.

Of course, when you take it to a mechanic, it never does what you say it's doing. They tested it, and all tests came back normal. Then someone had the idea to check the wires going to the battery, and sure enough, one of the wires was bad. They replaced the wire, and I drove it home without any problems. Before I left, I was told that the brakes will need to be worked on very soon.

When I got home, Corinne took the car and decided to go to the mall. On the way, she said she saw smoke coming from under the hood. She thought it was an electrial smell. She pulled over and called me. I immediately called the mechanic and he said that he couldn't really diagnose the problem over the phone. I told Corinne to come home. She got home, and said that she had to push the brakes down to the floor before they'll stop. I called the mechanic and told him that I was going to bring the car back tomorrow.

Tuesday - I had to be at the eye doctor's at 8:00 am. It wasn't that far from my house, so I decided to drive to the appointment, then take the car to the mechanic. Corinne was right about the brakes. It was very different, so I had drive very cautiously. When I was finished with the eye doctor, not only did I have to drive cautiously because of the brakes, but now I have the added handicap of not seeing well because they dilated my eyes. I could see things, but they were a blur. It was still foggy, but I still had to wear sunglasses because of the dilation.

The brakes were worse than we thought. Both front and back brakes needed to be done, with the front worse than the back. It was decided that the front brakes would be done, then we would wait on the back brakes. The front rotors were very bad, and took a long time to turn. The pads were replaced. It took most of the day for the job to be done. I finally left about 6:30 that evening. Oh, the smell that Corinne smelled? We think it was spilled brake fluid on the brakes.

As I was driving home, I was thinking, "I hope that this is the end of all of the car problems." Aside from the back brakes, I know of no other problem that this car might have. Well, there is one, but I'm not going to mention it because right now it's a small problem, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

Wednesday - I stayed home and did nothing but play on my computer. Happy, very happy. Corinne took the car that evening and went to a special dinner from the church with her friend Eddie. It was called "Suits and Sweats". They were supposed to dress up for the dinner and meet at a restaurant, then go over to a certain person's house, change into "sweats" and hang out. She didn't have any problems with the car. Good.

Corinne & Eddie before leaving for "Suits & Sweats"

Thursday - Corinne and I have to teach a First Aid/CPR class next Saturday, so we took the time today to gather the things we needed for the class. We made a trip to the Red Cross and got cards, books, etc. Then we went over to Girl Scouts and turned in some way over due paperwork that I haven't turned in. (I teach a class for Girl Scouts, and I just realized that I didn't turn it in from a November class!). We needed a copy of the First Aid/CPR DVD that I needed in order to teach the class, but the lady was gone for lunch, so we had to wait. We went over to the Program Place, another building that was recently acquired by Girl Scouts and renovated. It now houses the shop and museum. We went to the shop and looked for awards for upcoming ceremonies. To be honest, if I could, I would buy a lot of things in that shop, but I have to stop myself (and Corinne) from buying too much. Then we found it. It was two huge boxes of discontinued patches that were 25 cents each. These patches are normally $1 or more. Corinne sat on the floor and started picking through the boxes. We found all of Corinne's rededication patches and all of her attendance patches (we couldn't find them anymore). Now we won't have to worry about trying to find the patches. She found some more patches and I went ahead and bought those.

After we left the shop, we went to through the museum. Corinne wanted to get a picture of a Senior vest that was on display in the museum. This vest has inspired Corinne to get all of the patches and IP's that she can earn so that it will be on her vest. This particular vest has a lot of awards, and even though this Girl Scout didn't earn all that she could earn, she earned a lot. The only problem was that the vest wasn't on display anymore, so Corinne couldn't get a picture. I, however, am always fascinated with the museum because of the displays and enjoyed walking through it. Then we got the call that the lady was back at her office, so we walked back to the offices and took care of checking out the DVD that we needed. After that, we headed home.

Thursday evening I realized that I promised myself to do a lot of things, and I haven't done some of them. So, I started making a list of the places I needed to go to. At first, it was three items, but by bedtime, it grew to 6. I decided that all I can do is do as much as I can, and do the rest later.

Friday - I got up and called the church that we are having the First Aid/CPR class at and asked if I can come by and pick up the key. (This was one of my stops on my list). At first she said I can, then she called me back and said that I will have to wait until next week. I put that on my list for next week. I got dressed anyway and decided to knock out some of these places without Corinne. She's going to sleep until noon anyway, so I might as well take advantage of the opportunity. I went to the bank that my troop has their account, and tried to straighten out the mess with the name on the account. We merged with the current council, and we still had the old council name and troop number. I think we finally got that straightened out. I also had to remove some people from our account, and add people. And I had to figure out what was going on with the bank statements. I wasn't getting them. They had put a hold on the account. So, they removed the hold, and fortunately, they had my statements in the folder at that branch, so I was able to get the statements. And, they will be mailing the statements in the future to me. Just doing this was a big thing, and I'm glad that I took time to do this.

Next stop, the post office. I had to mail Girl Scout cookies to my friend, Sylvia, in Waco. She always buys a lot of cookies from us, and last year neither one of us got together after the cookie sale, so I hung on to those cookies until this past November when they came to visit. This time, I was going to mail them to her so that she can enjoy them sooner. As I was writing down my friend's address, I had to get that information from a check she sent me, so I had my wallet out and my purse open. Then I noticed this old man looking at me and my purse contents. That's when I got nervous. I am such a dummy. Don't ever spill out your purse contents out in public, especially in Houston. But then a surprise. "Excuse me, Ma'am. Do you have a pen or pencil I can borrow?" Now, I'm really a dummy. But living in a large city makes you paranoid and way too cautious. And that's good.

Getting hungry, my next stop was to pick up something to eat (not on my list). I got something not only for me, but for Corinne, who was still asleep at home. I arrived home about 12:30 pm and sure enough, Corinne was just getting up. Eddie came over a little later, and we decided to leave to our next stop around 3 pm. In the meantime, I sent some emails related to the bank problem, and looked up some things on the internet.

We had to go over to my ex-husband's friend's house to pick up manequins and AED devices. I was borrowing them from Susan, but the manequins and AED's were over at her friend Pat's house. We promised to be there around 4 pm to pick them up.

After picking up the manequins and AED's, we headed home. I think I had all I can stand for the day. I looked on my list and I still had to go to my bank, and to the arts & crafts store to get stuff for Monday's troop meeting. Not bad.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to a Men's car clinic at the church. They may get to fix the back brakes, but I'm going to mainly help with any paperwork that needs to be done. Sunday, since I'm the organizer for our Service Unit Bridging Ceremony, I'm going to one of the committee's meetings to see what is going on.

And I told everyone that I was going to have a quiet, do-nothing, Spring Break. HA!