Car Troubles...

Well, I've got another 'car catastrophe' that I can add to my list of experiences...

Gotta love cars, right?

Yesterday afternoon, while driving to my apartment, my car overheated and did that lovely spewing smoke thing...

Luckily, I was able to pull off the main road and camp out in a parking lot until my dad was able to come and help me out...but yeah. Nothing like car troubles to brighten up your day! [Obscene amounts of sarcasm!]

Now, I'm pretty sure that my dad will never read this post [he doesn't internet nearly as much as I do], but he definitely deserves a 'my dad is an awesome dad' shout-out!

At this point, I'm still not exactly sure what's going on with the troublesome vehicle, but I'm hoping that the issue isn't going to be exorbitantly expensive to fix. My family has had quite the string of bad luck with cars...lots of repairs and lots of money for said repairs...but I'm hoping that things turn around soon...even bad luck runs out eventually, right?

Can I Quit Today? Please?

Today has been such a crap day.

Started off this morning with another lovely round of car troubles...I'd already made arrangements to pick up my sister after she'd dropped her car off at the mechanic. Well...her car didn't quite make it there...

Her battery had died [one of the several reasons she'd made an appointment to have her car fixed had to do with her batter not holding a charge] I think three times in all before we finally managed to get her car to the mechanic. Luckily, my dad had an appointment that put him in the same area at the same time as my sister's car troubles...I don't know how we managed to get it done without any injury, but we did! [This included one particularly daring mid-major road battery jumping!] Thank goodness for our awesome Dad and some too-good-to-be-coincidental timing!

Continuing with the mood of the morning...work seemed to have no trouble following suite. The work today wasn't particularly difficult...there was just tons of it. Sheer amount made the workload feel overwhelming. [And there's more of that to look forward to tomorrow...yay...]

After the kiddo and I finally got home this evening, I was looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening...maybe a pleasant evening at home would help temper the less than enjoyable day. Aaaand, I wasn't that lucky.

Some days, this parenting gig is too much to bear.

Some days, the messes are just too big.

Some days...I just wish I wasn't doing this alone. [I very much appreciate any and all help I get from family members, so y'all don't take that statement as an offense, please]

I'm trying to figure out how to handle my kiddo forgetting how to properly count to 12. And he's looking right at a clock, too. It's literally a foot in front of his face. /siiiiiigggggh Guys...please pray for me to have the patience of a saint, 'cause I certainly don't have it right now...

Mondays...Blegh...

Well, it's been quite the draining day.

What's that? Your car could use a jump?
How sad....

I started off my morning with more dead car battery excitement...luckily, I have an awesome neighbor whose daughter is in kindergarten at the same school as my son...she saw my car dilemma and offered to take my kiddo to school so that he wouldn't be tardy. [Seriously, she's awesome!] And as I've mentioned before, I've got some terrible neighbors...and the rest of my neighbors were exactly the same as before. They're just.../sigh...can't say anything nice, so I won't say anything at all.

Work-wise, it was a pretty typical Monday. Catching up on things that were leftover from last week and dealing with the influx of new orders and revisions...

The whopper was my kiddo's 'report card.' His marks didn't improve since his progress report ['marks' is technically correct, right?] In some categories, he's done worse than he did before...

Right, right...Darth Vader is awesome...

Now I know this isn't a tragedy...but I do also realize that this indicates that something needs to change otherwise he's going to think that it's perfectly fine to be the kid that doesn't pay attention in school.

So, yeah...

I'm sure it'll all be fine...it's just the getting to 'fine' that's not fun. At all.

Oh...still haven't tried the marmite or vegemite...they smell so terrible!

I've Got Terrible Neighbors...

So, I've had a rather eventful day!

This morning, the kiddo and I were on our way to his school, as usual...and I was greeted with a humorously dead car battery. The battery was so dead, the radio didn't even so much as flicker when I tried to start the car. [Remember, it isn't even my car!]

In a quasi-panic, I called up my sister and asked her if she could take my son to school [my sister is not really a morning person...not at all!] and then I called my parents to see what they suggested I do to remedy the situation.

My dad suggested that I try to jiggle around the cables on the battery, thinking that maybe one of the cables had lost contact with the battery...he even recommended using a hammer to 'improve contact' if necessary...all this was being said as my dad was putting on his shoes to come to my rescue. [My dad really is the awesomest!]

So there I was, in the parking lot in front of my apartment building...hood up on the car, wailing on the battery cable connection with a hammer, and trying to assure my kiddo that everything was fine and 'no, you don't have to stay home from school just because the 'car is sick.'...

Here's what bothered me:

The whole time this scene was playing out, there were people all around me! Right before the hammering of the battery cable connection started, a young couple parked their stupid beige Camry right next to my distressed car...the girl went inside to fetch her friends, and the guy stayed...right by his car, which was less than 5 feet from where I was futilely attempting to resuscitate the poor car's battery.

Not once did said d-bag guy offer to help. He never even asked if I might need some help! Instead, he kept his eyes trained on his stupid phone probably losing at candy crush.

When the soccermomcamrydriving girl came back with her friends in tow, not a single one of them offered help or gave me even so much as a glance of concern over my vehicular distress.

They weren't the only ones, either. There were at least 5 others who merrily [or grumpily] got into their cars this morning and didn't even bat an eyelash at me and my car troubles this morning.

What a shame! What's the matter with people? Since when is it alright to not help someone when they're visibly in need?

Ugh.

Anyway...my sister stepped up and helped in a huge way by taking my son to school and my dad brought jumper cables and brought the car back to life...all in all, the drama was relatively short lived. So, that's a bit of good news...

But seriously. I've got some a-hole neighbors, don't I?