Yet another day (or two) in paradise

So yesterday afternoon, after I made the Holy Crap I Think I’m Going To Walk A Half-Marathon In Less Than 4 Months decision, I had some errands to do. Being sans She-Beast meant that the errands had to be done on foot. Yay. Well, it’s a good way to get started, right?

Once again, plans didn’t work out completely as they should have. My 4 year old (who is now officially 5, as of today) normally gets off the bus from preschool at 3:30 on the dot. I figured that we would leave as soon as he got back, still giving us lots of daylight to walk in. At 3:45 I finally called his bus driver, who informed me that she “forgot” to drop him off – uh, really? How do you forget to drop a kid off? You have a list, don’t you? But she explained it away and it really wasn’t a big deal – I mean really, at least she didn’t leave him at the wrong house or something, right? So it was about 4:15 when he finally got home, poopy pants and all. *sigh* By the time I got him cleaned up and we headed out the door, it was well on its way to being 5:00. I loaded him and the 3 year old up in the double stroller and we took off for the library with some movies that were due yesterday.

The library is not terribly far away, but the icy sidewalks in some areas did make it more of a challenge. Initially we were just going to return the movies and leave, but two sets of big baby blue eyes staring up at me from the stroller made me change my mind, and we went in and they picked out some more movies.

Armed with movies in hand, we walked back to the grocery store and picked up a few things there and then dropped off a movie rental that was way overdue. By the time we left the grocery store it was dark outside and we hurried home, as it was getting colder by the minute.

We ate a quick supper and then I relaxed in front of the TV for my Tuesday night indulgences of The Biggest Loser and Parenthood – the only 2 shows on TV that I watch religiously. The boys went to bed and I did some cleaning and then read for a while and then crashed out myself.

This morning has already been a blur. I have my daycare inspection at 1:00pm (it’s now almost 11:00am already) and I’m not ready for it. I’ve been running around putting locks on cabinets and moving “toxic” chemicals out of the reach of little fingers. Paperwork is being tweaked and printed. Dishes are being done and put away. Floors are being swept. Two little walking tornadoes are destroying anything that has been done already.

And now that I’ve taken a break to type this out so far…..it’s time to get back to it again.

Wow. Ok, where was I? Oh yeah. (It’s now the next day….)

The daycare inspection went ok. Found out that I have to fence in at least a portion of my yard – NOT thrilled about that expense, not to mention that I think that it’s overkill since I would be outside with the kids anyway, but whatever. Rules are rules, even if they suck.

After some phone consultation with a mechanic about the She-Beast, we determined that it was more of an ignition problem than a fuel pump problem. He gave me some things to check and I spent most of the afternoon going back and forth between the house and the driveway ripping it apart and testing things. It finally got to be too cold and too dark and I gave up for the evening.

Then the migraine hit. Oh boy. Yeah. That was fun. Not. I sent the boys to bed at about 8:45pm, turned off all of the lights and everything that made any sound (other than the furnace) and I was in bed by 9:00pm. I didn’t get much sleep between the pain and the nausea, and when I finally did get to sleep I was awakened by the automated phone call informing me that school was closed due to the “dangerous roadways”. I tossed and turned most of the night and when the boys got back up at about 7:30am I was feeling somewhat better. My head is still pounding, but at least the nausea and the flashing lights in my peripheral vision have somewhat gone away.

We had brownies for breakfast (Yes, brownies. Get over it.) and I started chugging coffee before I headed back outside to work on the She-Beast some more. After a lot of foul language and some very minor bloodshed, I finally got the ignition module, the coil, the distributor cap, and the rotor out of it. A friend is going to come get me and the boys and take us to the auto parts store so that we don’t have to walk in the balmy 21-degree weather. Hopefully they can test the module and the coil, and look at the cap and rotor and tell me what needs to be replaced. But, I’m guessing that it won’t be that simple at this point, because after all, this is my life we’re dealing with.

I just want my wheels back. The She-Beast is ugly as sin, but she’s mine, and I need her. I didn’t get to see my older kids last night because of her, and I’m not going to keep giving up time with them just because I don’t have wheels. Hopefully I can get her running today and then we can get back to a normal schedule. This is all just so frustrating, to say the very least.

So, for now, I’m going to end this extremely long post and see what I can accomplish today. Please, let me get the She-Beast running. At this point, that’s all I ask.