Life in between snowstorms

So yesterday, got the chance to take Mr. Boy down to the Hump and Dump...

As you can see, already snowing.

Snow on the nose and the lovely matching line of frozen slobber...

 

Right about here, I get a call from work.  No work next week either; and call Thursday to make sure you'll be back the week after.  Everytime we have a snowstorm coming, I'm laid off...

This little guy was just sitting there.  I threw it and said, Scrappy get it!"  Knowing full well he don't do toys outside.  But he actually ran off after it!  And when it rolled to a stop, he kept right on running...
 

Soon after that, we met a guy and his black Lab.  They walked by the fence, and we chatted about deer in the area and so forth.  Then he asked if I minded if he brought his dog in to say hi.  I told him of course (Scrappy and her were practically begging).  I mentioned Scrappy's big social faux pas-  "He's okay with big dogs, but feels he must hump the bigger ones."

"No problem,"  he said.  "She can take care of herself."

So they jumped and played, and I was far too busy talking to the man to get the camera back out.  We chatted dogs, weather, and such; and then I asked what her name was.

"Posada."
"Like Jorge Posada?"
"Exactly."
"Yankee fan, huh?"
"Big Yankee fan.  My other dogs I've had have been named Jeter, Maris, Yogi, Yankee..."
  From then on we talked baseball while the dogs played.  Eventually, 'Sada decided to lay down, which to Scrappy meant "time to do my thing."  Still hadn't learned after Molly kicked his butt a couple months back.  So he tried it.

She rolled over and kicked him away.  Rinse, ring, repeat.

Idiots out there talk about "the smile on a dog"  (that'd be you, Edie Brickell).  But I have rarely seen any living being with the look of happiness, the love of life, that 'Sada has.  She was a sweetheart.

We went out early this morning to get another walk in before the weather deteriorated into miserability. (Which, by the red squiggle I see, isn't a word.  Ain't English wonderful?)  It was snowing when we got out there somewhat before 8:30...

Wonder how much snow we've had this year?  About that much.  Weather Underground says that's the pile you get from 12 inches for the month.

 

About an hour later, I was driving my son to his latest fools errand and it was RAINING.  In the time it took me to go 4 miles down the road to get him, it went from "I don't know if I'll even get to his apartment before he needs to be somewhere" to "this is more like it", because the rain melted most of the snow off the road.

The fool's errand, you ask?  Well, it all started with the busted brake line I told you about a while back.  Examination showed he also needed calipers, and he was going to buy the parts at Autozone and have Midas install them.  Midas quoted him installation and brake line at NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS.  Fortunately, he wasn't quite that dumb, and was led to a local place that said not only could the substantially beat that, but they'd tow him for free.  All he had to do was put the parts in the front seat.

Which of course he called me last Saturday to go get.  Sorry, bubba, Laurie took the car to work.  Eventually he got another ride.  Apparently, they quoted him a done day of Friday, and so yesterday he had me take him to see if it was ready.  The mechanic drove it a little bit, but something wasn't right.  Further examination showed that the catalytic converter had "collapsed" due to not being driven in over a month during two bouts of below-zero weather.  So, he tells me he'll have to order THAT part and get it to them.  But he wasn't going to do that right then.  (No, it was too nice a day to be smart.)

So we stop at the store, and whilst we shopped, he called the place he bought the heap from (a seedy buy-here-pay here deal).  You see, every Saturday after he sends them his electronic payment, they send a code to a remote device in his car.  He then has to enter the code or it locks the engine and they come to haul it away.  Well, last week, he somehow punched in the wrong number; they sent him another number and it didn't work.  So I guess they have an "emergency code" you can use, and he used it.  So when he calls the place, they tell him he has to bring in the remote because of this and get a new one, by Saturday at 11.  Because if he doesn't- no matter that he's current on payments, no matter that he's never missed a payment, no matter that it's in the repair shop, if he doesn't get the new remote, they'll haul it away.

Buttholes much?  (BTW, if you are from Ft Wayne, the place you want to avoid is PREMIER AUTO.)

Moving on, he decides he's driven me around enough and he'll get someone to take him on Saturday.  (Uh-huh, said I.)  Well Saturday comes, no body will answer their phones, his roommate got driven home by a buddy and thus doesn't have his car.  And we call Dad, just as the rain has started to make driving treacherous, and asks for a ride to Premier.

But wait, there's more.  He also has to stop at the repair shop because "they said this morning I have to bring in the old remote".  Repair guy has most of the work done, he just needs KC to get one more part.  But KC, probably because I'm in such a fine mood for driving in this crap, declines to tell me that, but instead says they must have got the part and he can pick it up Monday.  He then tells me what the guy told him:  "I'm trying to help you the best I can, but your car is such a piece of (you know what) that every time we think we got it, two more things go wrong."

(Yeah, thinks I, they'll get everything running right in about $900.  Mind you, these guys are doing him right, I'm only referring to the KC Martin self made luck.)

Next it's off to the dealer.  "Where is it?"
"On Lima Road."  This is a second location from the main one.
"Where on Lima Road?"
"I'm not sure."
"Call them."
He calls.
"Where?"
"3904 Lima."
"They didn't say what it's next to?"
"I can map it on my phone."

Moments later:

"I think we passed it."
 "I thought you knew where it was?"
"I didn't see it." 
"Fine, let's just go downtown. Where's it at downtown?"
"Well, it's not right downtown.  It's kind of to the left of downtown.  You know what I mean?"
"NO.  WHAT STREET IS IT ON?"
"Oh, Washington and Anthony."

A few minutes later, after a few further detours because my back window is steamed up and he doesn't think a car going 40 can beat a Comcast truck doing 25 several feet back to get out of a turn lane, we arrive and all is taken care of.  After having to run at least three downtown red lights because they only stayed green long enough for two cars to get through (no exaggeration). I drop him off, go home eat lunch.

The phone rings.

"Are you home?"
"Where would I go In this crap?"
"Well, I had to have mom come get me,"  he begins.  (I live just over two miles away; Mom lives 22 miles away.) "They needed a part."
"I thought you said they had the part."
"They had the main part, they needed another little part.  So Mom brought Shenan, and she wants to say hi."
"Okay".
30 seconds later- KNOCK KNOCK.  Apparently they were here but didn't know if we were because I parked in the lot instead of the street.

Tell me again why we have kids?