*Sigh* What a day

8:25 p.m…..Well, today’s been quite a day. Right after I posted the last update, Beth called. When I heard Steve say, “Oh, God, no…,” I knew this wasn’t good.  Beth was 2 miles down the road, and my car, which she drove to the doctor, started smoking. I was afraid she had been in another wreck.

We jumped in the truck to go down there. Rachael was here and babysat the house, so I didn’t have to blow out all the candles I had lit. I don’t have to worry about Rachael in the house with candles when Ethan isn’t here  Some of you won’t understand, but that’s ok. Steve said, “What is it with Beth and cars?”

A cop had just pulled up behind her and was instructing her to move the car out of the street. I stopped her and explained to him that the car shuts down automatically when it gets too hot, so the engine will not overheat. It’s a nice feature on Cadillacs. Probably a lot of cars have that now. It did continue to run, so we pulled it into the HEB parking lot. It was extremely low on coolant, eventhough I had added nearly a gallon not long ago.

To make a very long story short(er), there is a crack in the coolant resevoir, that was probably caused by the wreck a year ago (right after Thanksgiving), when a girl ran a red light and turned left in front of Beth and Rachael. The crack had gotten much bigger, and when Steve added antifreeze, it just poured out. So I drove it home, stopping once to add more coolant so the engine would not shut down. (EDIT: The smoking was actually not engine damage, but the coolant burning on the outside of the hot engine.)

After we ate dinner with Glenn and Linda, we went to the nearby Chevrolet dealership to pick up the part. They are conveniently open till midnight. Beth’s friend, Jesse, works there. He use to work with her at CVS (it’s now been a year since they all lost their jobs at CVS). He said if he had known we needed the part before it was put in will-call for us, he would have put his discount on it. He said Beth is his “cuz’ on his mom’s side.”  Jesse is a nut.

Then we went to Walmart. We spend a large part of our lives (and Steve’s paycheck) there. My new glasses were in, but Steve’s weren’t. And he really needs his, because he gave up on the contacts. We saw a lady that was one of Beth’s favorite customers from CVS. She’s also a school crossing guard. She said she doesn’t go to CVS anymore since Beth left.

So tomorrow will be spent working on the car.  I had another plan for tomorrow, but I’d rather have my car.

This is Jesse (picture shamelessly swiped from his MySpace.)

                                             

It’s been a nightmare trying to get the paperwork taken care of for Beth’s temporary leave from Walmart. She has to have it into the personnel office 15 days from the first missed day of work. That’s today. So we took it to the doctor’s office Tuesday, thinking they would just sign it and we could take it in to work. But no, that would be too easy. The lady at the desk said they have to put it in line after all the other leave papers (apparently this is very common), and a lady named Rachel would fill it out. She said call back about 4:30 that afternoon to check and see if it was done. I kept trying to get them to do it right then, but they would not. So in the time it took for her to argue with me, it could have been signed, and we could have been on our way.

I called that afternoon, and the woman told me Rachel was helping another patient that afternoon. Well, when I finally talked to Rachel yesterday, she told me she wasn’t even there. I don’t know which one of them was lying to me, but it’s obvious that one of them was.

They were supposed to have faxed the paperwork yesterday but somehow Walmart didn’t get it. The woman said she even talked to someone at Walmart to make sure they got it. Maybe another lie. Beth called Walmart and found out they didn’t get it. So today, she drove down to the doctor’s office and got another copy of the paperwork (that was another ordeal, because they could not find the paperwork). She called and said she was able to get it, and was hand carrying it to Walmart. *Sigh*

So….tonight we cancelled the Bible Study since 3 people could not make it. We are going out to eat with Glenn and Linda. Mexican food.

 

Stores spend tons of money advertising to children, especially around Christmas time. If you’re a parent, you know that. Don’t ever doubt how much little kids listen to commercials.

I was on my way to the doctor Wednesday and heard something on the radio that just cracked me up. Someone had called into our Christian radio station, KSBJ, to tell them something funny their child did. The mom was doing “educational” play with her 2 year old. I don’t remember exactly what they were playing with….it might have been Play-dough or something. But she made a square, asked the child what it was, and the child said “square”. She made a 7, and the child said “9”  But when she made a circle, the child said “Target!”  

Target got their money’s worth out of their advertising.