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running hard and losing ground March 02, 2015
The car had another major issue this past week--I was just settling into my luxurious day of
solitude last Monday--the last day of vacation, and a chance for me to recharge my batteries a
little, when in waltzes Spouse at 8:45 in the morning. Seriously. What. The. F**k. Is it him
that cannot stand for me to have a little time to myself, or is it the cosmos? The tale he told
was that there was no heat at his work, so they called it off. And to top it off, he had taken
my car to work (another one of his little controlling behaviors), and decided that the coolant
leak was becoming an issue, so he dropped it off at the mechanic and caught a ride home
from the guy's kid. (You notice that he didn't decide this during the week I was out of town
and didn't NEED the car...)
Anyway--turns out to be a job that requires major work and the car to be in the shop for
several days. So what was I supposed to do, I asked? Well, get dressed and we will go over to
Enterprise and rent one. I tried to get him to give me a minute to go online and reserve one,
but since he was in full-blown control mode, he over-rode me and we went straight there.
And, because we did that, we ended up paying Cadillac prices for a little shitbox Nissan
Note.
Seriously--even an hour's difference between reserving and picking up could have saved us
about $13.00 a day, but Mr. Knowitall had to do things his way. And I, as usual, have to pay.
Specifically, $280 for a Monday to Thursday rental.
After that, we went over to the tax lady to sign our forms. Well, for the second year in a row,
she messed them up and had to re-do. Not the good kind of re-do, either--the kind where
you pay more. Good thing Spouse double checked about the consulting job he did last year!
I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be a blessing in disguise to have the tax lady retire so
we had to find a new one.
After we got the taxes sorted and signed, we grabbed lunch and went home. I finished up
my laundry, took a nap, read, and made spaghetti for dinner.
So Tuesday thru Thursday: I had to drive the rental to work, work was the usual hell of
catch-up after vacation.
And Thursday morning, we had a small blizzard for drive time. Seriously. By far the worst
driving conditions of the winter. The roads were so horrible you couldn't see the white lines,
and because it was TATTKMD, it was genuinely scary as f**k.
But, as is often the case with late-winter lake-effect snowstorms, the time I left work it was
sunny and there was not a sign of it on the road. In addition to that little treat, I had to deal
with a project audit. Ugh. It is hard to keep from saying something when the people charged
with finding faults in your work--people who were hired because they are supposedly experts
in this specific area--are complete imbeciles. Not only do they seem lost on the subject
matter, but they cannot even spell or form intelligible sentences. They don't let any of that
stop them from making a lot of demands and a lot of extra work for me, though.
Once I did get off work, I had to schlep to the gas station and fill the rental, drop it off, pay
the bill, and have them give me a ride to the mechanic, pay the mechanic, and drive the car
home. Whee. At least the weather was on board by that time.
$669.23 to repair the leak: he had to replace the gasket for the timing chain cover, which
meant tearing the car half apart, of course.
Friday, I went after work to get my tooth filled, and a verdict on my partial. Filling went fine,
but as for the denture: it's shot, need a new one. My dental benefits were cut in half last year,
and I simply cannot afford it, so they mended the old one as best they could and I will have
to start saving up, I guess.
Spouse came in the door at 5:30, feeling chuffed. He found a 20-dollar bill stuck in the ice in
front of the house. Must be nice.
Since the new filling meant soft foods, I had mac & cheese and a pudding snack for lunch,
and we dined on chicken-noodle soup and tuna salad sandwiches.
Saturday morning we got up and I started some wash before getting cleaned up and dressed.
We went to breakfast, filled the car up, drove over to the GSA camp & bought 8 boxes of
cookies, stopped at the travel agent to get some LV quotes for our 30th wedding anniversary
trip, and did the grocery shopping, then came home and I finished the laundry up for the
day.
And after realizing that I had celery, carrots, potatoes, onion, tomato juice, and a hunk of
leftover roast beef to use up, I made a huge pot of soup for freezing. Ended up with about 5
quarts of vegetable-beef soup with orzo--filled three large freezer containers and had just
enough left to take for lunch on Monday. And now, when we are tired and out of meal ideas
on a weeknight, I can throw together a pan of cornbread and heat up a tub of homemade
soup.
We didn't have that for dinner, though. Spouse made gourmet pub burgers in his cast iron
grill pan, with homemade baked beans and deli potato salad for sides. Mine had smoked
gouda cheese and bacon, 1,000 Island dressing, sweet pickles, lettuce and tomato, on a
toasted bakery bun. It was fabulous. So were his beans--he makes them better than I do, I
swear.
And for breakfast on Sunday, he kept up the quality. His diner french toast with my
blackberry topping, sausage and coffee. We hadn't planned to go anywhere, but he was
planning his dinner menu and decided to make a chicken dish that required lemons, so we
took a quick run to the store, and let the B go along just for a treat. That was the big move
of the day, because when we came home I stretched out on my bed and read/napped all
afternoon.
And got up to the tantalizing aromas of his herb & citrus-infused roast chicken on a bed of
fresh carrots and green beans, with rosemary potatoes on the side. WHAT a dinner. I'm
telling you, if I'd ordered that at Bouchon, it couldn't have tasted any better. It was
magnificent.
And this week? All the out-of-town bosses are in the office for quarterly meetings, so there's
that to deal with. More audit crap, and one of my projects is in the lawyers and financials
phase, which is always a treat. Oh--and snow/freezing rain forecast for tomorrow morning,
so I can expect another morning commute from hell.
___________________
Reading:
"Seven Little Australians" (1894) by Ethel Sybil Turner. One of those books of that era,
where parents leave the kids to raise themselves, then the adults find fault with them when
they get into difficulties.
(Some similarities to The Treasure Seekers/Wouldbegoods in spots, but Nesbit's characters
had it a little better--their dad loved them, even if he was depressed and broke. And they had
Albert's Uncle.) The dad in this story is more of a Captain von Trap--i.e., an irascible dick.
And even though he remarried and gave them a young stepmother, she's no Maria. Only 20,
has already already given the guy a seventh child, and is a hopelessly inadequate parent
herself, leaving it to the older kids to do the bulk of the work for her.
Listening:
More Green Day. I'm just in that kind of mood.
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