Made for Each Other

It's clear that Mike and I are made for each other. We both love hikeswith Maxwell, eating ice cream sundaes in bed and we both can't fix anything mechanical to save our lives.

In fact, I think we make the most mechanically dis-inclined pair I know.

Case in point - my new ride got a flat tire on Saturday. There was a screw jabbed into the tread of the tire so perfectly that it seemed like it was on purpose.

Anyway, we went to remove the tire... and spent about an hour trying to pry the wheel off the car. First it was the jack - Mike swore that turning it counter-clockwise would raise the car... yeah ... right. And then after we got it jacked up and the lug nuts came off, we could NOT get the stupid wheel off the car. Seriously.

I was convinced that there was a sixth lug nut in the center of the wheel, behind the "cover" which turned out to actually be the aluminum wheel (see what happens when cheap people get nice things?) and we were trying to pry the aluminum wheel off the tire. Luckily, we didn't damage the beading and have the tire explode in our faces.

Thank goodness for my brother, who I woke up when I called, frantically seeking some sort of "trick" to removing wheels. Turns out, aluminum likes to stick to steel for some reason. "Did you kick the tire?" he asked. Mike kicked the top of the tire really hard and the wheel just fell off the car.

Wow, did we feel stupid. Thanks, bro.

Goodbye, old car ...

... or, further proof that I am, in fact, the Kev!n B@con of GJ

It's time to say so long to the shaggin' wagon. As you all know, I've moved into the 21st century and have had automatic windows for a week. This has been more of an adjustment than you might think. It's been rather snowy here and I needed to use the windshield wipers for the road muck on the windshield of the NEW car.

Well, the wipers worked fine. Until they needed washer fluid to scrape through all the lovely brown water spewed from the big rigs' tires onto my window. And then I tried every bell and whistle I could find to try to squirt just a little bit of something on the windshield... but nothing happened. I actually had to stop at two gas stations just to sprint out of the car and wash the windshield because I felt like I was trying to drive through chocolate milk and I couldn't see.

Thank goodness for my modern husband. "Push that little button on the end of the lever," he said. Oh, yeah, that lever. Riiight.

Soooo we advertised the car in the newspaper and got two calls - one from a creepy guy named Herb in Cl!fton and another from a lady who turned out to be the mother of a student of mine from last year. What are the chances? So now my former student will be riding in my old car. Crazy. It was good to see him, though, and I'm happy that the green machine is going to a good home in the country, with lots of roads to drive on.

Yay for 2008

I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. Of course, I'm probably jinxing myself by saying so, but I really have a feeling.

It started off so well - I've moved into the 21st century in terms of technology and transportation. Thanks to Mikey, I now am the proud owner of an mp3 player AND a car that actually has power windows. I have never owned a vehicle with power windows.

We finally decided that we had better unload the old station wagon before it got too many more miles on it ... and so I got a NEW green station wagon to replace it! Apparently I am destined to always drive green cars - first I had a 1967 Volkswagen bug that was green, then the green station wagon... and NOW a fantastic, posh new Sub@ru Outb@ck. With heated seats. Two moon roofs. And defrosting side mirrors?!

I'm not normally caught up in all these fancy things. But it definitely makes up for living in the 1990s all these years.