Things Could Have Been Worse…

The weekend began with the closing program of our oldest grandson, Caden.  Friday marked the end of his year in pre-K.  (Where did the time go???)  The closing program was cute, and had a ‘nautical’ theme, which is near and dear to my heart 🙂  Caden knew all of the songs and poems, and recited his memory verse without a hitch.  We are very proud of him, and all that he’s learned, especially the fact that he’s now reading!

We had no plans for Saturday, which felt nice for a change.  Of course, having no plans didn’t mean that Ed didn’t stay busy!  He hauled dirt (with the scoop of his tractor) to build up and fill in bare spots in our yard.  Our lawn is still a work in progress, following last summer’s tree cutting, but we’re slowly getting there!  After finishing with the dirt, Ed mowed grass for a while.

Meanwhile, I weeded in the garden for a while and delivered small buckets of dirt around the yard, using my garden wagon.  After that, I spent the rest of the day sitting in the lawn swing, under the magnolia tree, watching the hummingbirds dine!

I had ordered myself a new hammock, and it arrived on Friday afternoon.  Ed put it together on Saturday, after mowing grass, so I was able to spend a short amount of time in the hammock, too.  I think the hammock will be an excellent place to enjoy a good book during the milder parts of the summer days!

me and Bobs, the cat, trying out the new hammock

On Sunday morning, Ed asked me if I’d like to go back to St. Simon’s Island.  Would I?!  I told him that he knew me too well!  I’d been thinking how much I’d love to go back, but wasn’t about to ask him to take me since we were just there on Wednesday.  Ed’s invitation was too good to pass up, so I quickly got ready while Ed put the chairs and cooler in the back of the car!  We were on the road within 45 minutes, and we ate breakfast on the way.

The weather was ‘picture perfect’ and we spent four glorious hours in our favorite spot on St. Simon’s Island.  Many others were there enjoying the island with us, too.  A birthday party was going on in the picnic area, and fishing on the pier was brisk. We sat and watched a parade of sailboats gliding across the water…

Sunday was a perfectly glorious day…until the ride home.

On the way home, we stopped by Lowes to pick up a few bedding plants.  As we were leaving Lowes, Ed came (literally) within an inch of rear-ending the car ahead of us.  He’d seen the car start to pull off, assumed it was gone, then started to accelerate while he was still looking at the on-coming traffic.  I started making funny noises, and he hit the brakes–just in the nick of time!  We both soothed our frazzled nerves and proceeded home.  Alas, our travel troubles were not over though!

About eleven miles from home, a vehicle pulled out in front of us, then immediately slowed down to turn off.  Things like this make Ed mad, so he punched the gas to go around the vehicle.  Within a minute or so after passing the car, I heard our car alarm ding.  I asked Ed, “What’s that?”, and he replied, “I don’t know.”  About that same time, I noticed our car beginning to slow down, and Ed looking for a place to pull over.  Apparently, the car engine had suddenly shut off!  Ed pulled over to the side of the road, but the car refused to restart, even after repeated attempts.  There we were, eleven miles from home, and stranded by the side of the road!  There was nothing left to do except call one of our children for help.

It took two calls before we were able to find some help.  Ed asked our oldest son, who was home getting ready for evening services at church, to “Please come and get us.  Drive my truck and bring a chain!”  (In the meantime, Ed discovered there was no place on the car to attach a chain.)  As we sat beside the road for 45 minutes, only one car even stopped to offer assistance–a lady traveling alone!  We thanked her for her offer of help, and marveled at her courage and kindness, as she drove away.

Our son arrived, we transferred everything from the car into the truck (including the plants!), and left my poor car sitting beside the road.  (I was more distraught about leaving my car unattended than I was about breaking down.)  We dropped our son off at church, to join his family, and made our way  home shortly after six.  I continued to worry about my car, sitting there beside the road.

Fortunately, we called our insurance company, once we arrived home, and they were able to arrange tow service for my car. (We had no idea our insurance company would do this, until our son mentioned it.) It was shortly before dark when the tow truck arrived, an hour and a half later. (Ed had to go all the way back to the car, to meet the driver with the car key.)  We had the car towed 23 miles, and dropped off at a car repair place we normally use.  Ed followed the driver to the repair place (which was closed, of course), so he could get the car keys back until morning.

So, our exciting and eventful beach day finally ended at 9:30 Sunday night.  Ed and I went to bed, slightly sun burned, very tired, and wondering what in the heck happened to the car!  However, we, also, went to bed grateful that we made it safely home, and were able to get my car off of the side of the road. (because people are so mean, these days)  Things could always have been worse!  I hope we’ll still be able to say this when we get the repair bill for the car!

Have a great Monday!

Finally Friday!

It’s definitely been ‘one of those’ weeks here in our neck of the woods!  There’s been just too much going on, and most of it’s been crazy, out-of-the-ordinary kinds of things.  Broken washers, leaky ceilings, sharing cars, family illness, you name it, we’ve had it!  If ever I needed to “keep calm and frag on”, it’s today!

Here’s what I woke up to find, this morning–

That’s supposed to be the new bird bath that Ed bought me for Mother’s Day, but, today, it appears to have fallen victim to something, but I have no idea what!  Hopefully, nothing’s broken.

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So, I took a couple of days off from my search for a new washing machine, just to see how my old one would do, after Ed and Brad finished ‘tinkering’ with it.  It worked fine for exactly one day, then started up its usual nonsense, plus a new problem presented itself, too!  Last evening, I settled on a machine to buy on-line, put it in the (virtual)cart at Lowes, went through the checkout process, only to discover the transaction wouldn’t complete!  After 30 minutes of nonsense, I finally gave up!  Today, I shall try again, but I’ll try with Sears on-line.  Can I just take a moment to say how ridiculous I think it is to charge seventy-nine dollars to deliver a washing machine???  It’s a pitfall of living in the country, and not owning a truck!

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Ed’s mom has been having health issues for several days.  Ed was at the ER with her, from midnight until two a.m., one night last week.  Early yesterday morning, his mom was back at the ER, and was admitted, this time.  She has several things wrong with her, but most stem from congestive heart failure.  Her ninety-one-year-old heart is simply not able to keep up anymore.  The doctor gives her a diuretic to remove the excess fluid buildup around her heart, she, in turn, becomes dehydrated.  As soon as the diuretic dosage is reduced, the fluid builds up again.  It’s a never-ending cycle.

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Recently, our daughter has been experiencing several leaks coming from the ceiling of her house.  Ed crawled up into her attic, last night, and discovered the water is coming from the drain pan of the air conditioning unit.  The drain had become clogged, and the safety switch hadn’t cut the unit off.  In her case, water was pouring, and it wasn’t even raining!  Ed blew out the drain, so we’ll hope that cures her problems.

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At 10:00 yesterday morning, our oldest son, Brett, called.  You could definitely say he was having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.  To begin with, he and his wife had been without one of their cars for several days because one car was being repaired from an accident.  Someone kept sending the body shop the wrong part, which, in turn, kept holding up the completion of repairs.  Yesterday, Brett borrowed Ed’s mom’s car.

I always tell Brett to beware because Mema’s car is old and is subject to have problems.  (Last time he used it, a knot came up on the  tire.)  Brett was already late for work because he had to stop by and get some blood work done on the way.  When he arrived at work, he rolled the car window down to swipe his ID card, and discovered the car window wouldn’t roll back up!  Panic set in.  Next, Brett couldn’t find a ‘legal’ place to park, so he had to park ‘illegally’, and thought he saw a woman trying to get his tag number.  He went into work, and explained to his boss that he needed to go back home, to return his grandmother’s car, because the window won’t roll up.  His boss wasn’t  overly sympathetic, and couldn’t understand what the big deal was!  So Brett went and bought some Saran Wrap.  He tried to put the plastic over the open window, but thanks to the uncontrollable stickiness of Saran Wrap and intermittent puffs of wind, he wasn’t successful.  He even tried using duct tape, too!  By then, Brett is beyond frustrated, and tells his boss that he’s going home.  Back at the car, Brett sticks his arm through the open window to unlock the car.  This action sets the car alarm off!  Brett doesn’t have the key fob with him, and has no idea how to shut off the alarm without it.  A bystander offers to help.  Finally, after rummaging through the overly crowded glove box, Brett retrieves the car manual, and discovers how to shut off the alarm (use the key).  He calls it a day at work, and heads home…and I thought my day was going bad!  By the way, Brett got their car out of the shop, yesterday, but Mema’s is in the shop now!

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I think it’s safe to say, everyone in our neck of the woods is glad it’s Friday!  And to think, it was only a four-day week!

I’m linking up with Friday Fragments over at halfpastkissintime, and I thank Mrs.4444 for hosting 🙂  Have a great weekend!