"Old age should burn and rave at close of day"
( ^ 50 cool points to anyone who can tell me where that line comes from.)
When I was driving home from work last Wednesday (right before I left for CA), I was about 15 minutes from home when my battery light and emergency brake light came on and stayed on. Nothing else seemed wrong, so I kept driving, keeping a wary eye out for any other problems. Then I went to CA, and both Tony and I promptly forgot about the issue. We took my car to church on Sunday, and the A/C conked out on the way there. Then Tony had an errand to run, and the radio died (he ended up going home, and coming back in his car). By this point, we were both thinking it was the alternator, based on the "symptoms." But that didn't sound quite right to me, because we replaced my alternator not that long ago.
I started to panic ever so slightly, wondering if this signaled the "beginning of the end" for my beloved car. Plus, I predicted months ago that right before we would leave on our cruise, one of our cars would die completely on us. My theory seemed to be coming true.
Tony was prepared (with Wayne's help) to remove the old alternator and install the new one, to save us the cost of taking the car to a mechanic and having to pay labor costs. He also found out that if you bring in the old alternator when you go to buy a new one, you get a discount. But when he got under my car to remove the alternator, he discovered the true problem--my drive belt was completely gone. He explained to me what the drive belt controls, and it was all the things that had been going wrong in my car. We ended up taking my car to a mechanic to have the belts put in (and, incidentally, my car died mere feet from the shop--my strong, brave little Sentra). The good news is, all of that cost us much less than a new alternator would have. And my Sentra has lived to see another day.
The money we saved just got spent on 2 highly-overpriced little books
We finally applied for our passports yesterday. I know--we should have done it months ago. But fortunately, we've been told by 2 reliable sources (someone Tony talked to on the phone, and the lady at the post office that took our applications) that passports are being processed within the normal 3-4 week time-range, so we will have them just in time.
Getting on the ball with our passports gave us the idea to check on some of the other details of our cruise--mainly, our flights. Come to find out, our flight times have been changed. Our 8:30 AM flight to Miami on September 27 has been changed to 6:35 AM. (I don't even want to think about how early we're going to have to get up to make that one. But on the upside, we'll get to Miami that much earlier, which relieves my worrisome mind.) We also discovered that the price went down a little, but when Tony called to ask about getting some sort of refund, they basically told him that they'd have to charge a fee for it, and it would end up not even being worth it. But we discovered another lovely piece of information--because we booked our flight way back in March, before they started charging for all checked baggage, we don't have to pay for our bags. Since we're allowed 2 bags apiece, that was potentially a lot of money we'd have to fork out. So it all evens out.
But speaking of books (the real kind this time)...
I took 4 books on my trip to California (see, this is kind of about my California trip--just without pictures), and got through 2 and 1/2 of them. I started off reading Sex and the City and I absolutely hated it. Yet, I still had to finish it, because I am just not the type of person who can walk away from a book (I also can't walk away from bad movies, either). The TV show is much more entertaining--the book was just depressing. And I'm not even single in NYC. My second book was Babyville by Jane Green--I picked it up at Target at the last minute, simply so I'd have something fluffy and light to read. It was the perfect chick-lit book--easy reading, enjoyable, a book that I liked but will probably never read again. When I finished that book, I started my third one--I actually read the first chapter the night before I left CA, and had a hard time setting it aside in the name of a good night's sleep. It was called Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, and this was my first introduction to this particular author. I was drawn in by the way it surprised me (no spoilers here, don't worry)--the short synopsis on the back did little to reveal the true depth of the plotline, and once I realized what was going on, the book had me, hook, line and sinker. I really enjoyed it, even though it seemed like it was all tied up too quickly in the last chapter.
And since I got on such a reading binge on my trip, I made a trip to the library last night for some fresh fodder. (My fourth book, John Grisham's Runaway Jury, just isn't appealing to me yet.) I came home with...
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges
(And yes, if you're wondering, it's no coincidence that I chose these 2. I've seen both movies, which both happen to star my dear Johnny Depp, and liked them both well enough that I decided I needed to read the books, which I'm sure will be even better.)
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (I haven't seen the movie in years, and I only recently realized that I've never read the book. Here's to reliving fond childhood memories.)
The Pact by Jodi Picoult (I liked her well enough to want to check out another book of hers--one that, from the back-cover synopsis, promises to be just as emotionally heart-wrenching as Nineteen Minutes.)
Unfortunately, I got busy last night and didn't have a chance to start any of them. And I'm still debating which one I should read first...
Epilogue
I got a text from Tony earlier today, asking what our plans were for tonight. (We have this conversation nearly every day.) When I replied "I don't know--why?" (as usual), he replied that he was just wondering if I was going to want some alone time when I got home and he should take Ari to the mall/park by himself, or if I wanted to do something with all 3 of us together when I got home. Of course, since I was deprived of the 2 of them for most of last week, I suggested we all do something as a family. But just the fact that he thought of me, and volunteered to let me have some "me-time," means the world to me. I love him so much.
Also, please take notice to my new countdown-widget-thingamabob... Only a month and a half until our CRUISE!
Widgets & Flash Toys
2 comments:
Josh and I have recently gotten into reading again. He bought the Kirk Cameron autobiography and he really liked it. He likes to start a couple books at once, but I like to go one at a time. I have some that I haven't read yet, but they were the light romance books and I wanted something with more depth. Josh has a whole shelf of classics which I haven't read, so I began those. I've read Around the World in 80 Days, which I absolutely loved, I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-- it was ok, and it was short, so I was glad about that. I read Alice in Wonderland, and now I'm on The Jungle Book I.
It's from a poem by Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I LOVE THAT POEM!! It became very meaningful to me when I had my battle against cancer!!
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