I had a very long and productive weekend. It may have turned out badly if I didn’t have the ability to just laugh at what life throws at me sometimes.
Friday night I went home, ate dinner and immediately started cleaning. Fun huh? I suppose I went to bed around 9:30 because I had to get up early on Saturday to take Beanie to the groomer. I must have slept very well because I went to sleep and didn’t wake up once until 7:00 a.m. when my alarm went off.
After the alarm went off, I jumped in the shower, threw on some clothes, grabbed Beanie & her leash and headed to the groomer. It’s just about a 10 minute drive, so I didn’t have to go far. When we got in the car, it hesitated slightly before starting, but I didn’t think anything of it. I dropped Beanie off at the groomer and headed home to do some work around the house. I soon realized taking a shower was in vain, because I sweated my butt off all day.
Around 8:00 a.m., I got home and decided to tackle the leaves. I have two 15 year-old Bradford Pears in my front yard and neither of them had a leaf left on them – they were all on the ground. I threw on my sweatshirt, jeans and tennis shoes and headed out. *I thank God everyday for my iPod, I think it would have been a very long day without it.* I raked all of the leaves in the front yard into six very large piles. After wasting time talking to several neighbors, I pulled out the leaf bags and started to pile the leaves into the bags. In the end, I filled three 30-gallon cans and 12 leaf bags – all by myself. Let me just say that the back of my thighs and my back still hurt, badly! But, it felt good to get things done. At 12:30, I had to get ready to pick Beanie up from the groomer.
I headed out at about 12:50 and stopped for gas on the way. Well, I got to the gas station, turned my car off and filled up my tank. I go to turn my car back on and guess what. It wouldn’t start! I was so embarrassed and furious. I knew it was either my battery or my alternator since every time I turned the key to try to start it, my windshield washer fluid and headlight washer fluid would come spraying out. Weird, I know. I had no idea what to do – I was at a loss. I’ve
NEVER had a car break down on me –
NEVER. Well, once I had a flat, but dad showed me how to fix those. So, I immediately grabbed my cell phone and tried to call my parents. Just my luck – they’re outside picking up leaves too and their cell phones were
INSIDE! I was panicking. Finally, this very nice guy next to me (from KC) asked if he could help at all. I just told him that my car wouldn’t start. So, he had me try it again to see what was happening. He said that I still had a little juice and that I just needed a jump. He had his wife’s minivan and didn’t have his jumper cables or anything. I thanked him for looking and helping me pinpoint the problem and then he was on his way. After trying my parents about 400 times, I just went inside and asked the gas station attendant if anyone had any jumper cables. He was very nice and ran out to his car and ended up jumping me (sounds sexy doesn’t it? I assure you it wasn't). I was so appreciative. Finally, at about 1:15, I was on my way to get Beanie.
When I got to Kennelwood, I had to leave my car running so that I wouldn’t have to worry about starting it again. Then, Beanie came out and she looked adorable. She’s spoiled rotten because I paid an extra $20 for a spa treatment and $8 to get her teeth brushed! She got her paws and face scrubbed and she was bathed in “special, smelly good” shampoo. And, I really recommend getting your dog’s teeth brushed because she came out with the whitest teeth I’ve seen in a while. She was sooo soft and smelled so good. I figured she deserved it. So, we hop back in the car and head home (after going to Burger King for a Jr. Whopper).
When I got back home I thought I’d mow the lawn to manicure it a little more. I got the lawn mower out and tried to start it. Guess what.
IT wouldn’t start either! It had gas, it had oil and it had a tune up. I couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t start. My awesome neighbor, Bill, even looked at it for me and tried to start it for me – he couldn’t get anything out of it either. I was pretty fed up with mechanical devices by that time. So I just shoved the lawn mower back in the shed and squirted off my walkway, porch and driveway. I was pretty frozen by the time I finished outside and went inside to warm up. That’s when my mom called.
She asked if I had called. Uh…
YEAH!! I told her what happened and she said it sounded like I needed a new battery (which by the way, it means nothing if the eye on your battery is still green). So, she and my dad headed out to my house. When they got there, my dad went outside and pulled the old battery out (in my car, the battery is under some casing that you have to have a ratchet to get to - ridiculous, but I do know how to do it). Then my mom, dad and I headed to Auto Zone for a new battery. Dad had them test it and sho’ nuf, it was dead. I was expecting to spend a good $100 since my car seems to be very expensive on everything. I kinda lucked out, it was only $45 for a 7 year battery with a 2 year warranty. Woo hoo! We went back home and dad put my battery in – the car worked fine! YEA!!! After a full day of picking up leaves, we were all pretty tired so my parents were going to head home.
But, before they left, I asked my dad if he could help me bring my Christmas Tree in since he was there (I didn’t think I could do it by myself). So, we got the Christmas Tree inside and decided to put it up. Let me just tell ya –
you have to get one of these trees I got.
It’s a pre-lit, pre-shaped tree and it took about half an hour to put up (with decorations and everything). You simply grab the three parts and stand them in the stand. Then, you connect the lights and you remove a belt and the branches all fall into place because they’re on hinges! Is that so cool or what? You have your tree up and lit in a matter of five minutes, then you just decorate. I
love the way it turned out. Being the huge Cards fan that I am, I decided on a red, white and silver Christmas Tree – so ALL of my ornaments are either red, red & white or silver. The tree looks really good – here's a pic of it - do you see my crooked star? And, before you think it looks bare, I am one of those types that only puts lights and ornaments on Christmas Trees. Anyway, I finally
allowed my parents to leave.
I guess I ended up going to bed around 10:30. I woke up Sunday morning around 8:30 and started in on my laundry. I watched three movies (Christmas with the Kranks, Little Man and for the life of me I can’t remember the third one). I went shopping a little and then came home and finished laundry. I went to bed around 10:30 and here I am.
I can’t believe its Monday already though – that
blows. At least this will be a short week and I
can’t wait until Turkey Day. We’re supposed to put up the rest of my decorations this weekend and I promised my parents I’d help them with their tree and decorations. So, here go the holidays – not a minute to spare.
AND I WANT A SIBERIAN HUSKY!!! I THINK I’M GOING TO GET ONE! They are so gorgeous and I have a thing for wolves and they kinda look like wolves. Beautiful animals!
Okay, that was my weekend. How was your weekend? What did you get done?
When you think of gangs, the Mob or the Mafia, what cities come to mind? New York? Chicago? Los Angeles? Las Vegas? I'm going to go out on a limb and assume St. Louis isn't on the list of cities that you'd associate with "gangsters". If that were so, unfortunately, you'd miss out on an infamous history of gangs. St. Louis played an important role in the history of gang or mob activity.
Is that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?
