Tag: Silver Sloth

Playing catch-up

I didn’t mean to leave anyone out of the loop. I have no excuses. Life got busy and I didn’t make time to tell you about some stuff from home.

Here goes…

I think it is well documented that Lovely, Little Bear, and I got moved. We are still trying to get settled in and used to the limited yet graciously accepted amount of space. Well, Bear was fussy all weekend. We somewhat thought that the fussy-gus was due partly to the move and partly to lack of good sleep. Turns out that she was cutting a tooth. Well, Saturday night we are trying to recuperate from the day’s move and we are all (the five of us) sitting around chatting about life as we know it. Lovely is nursing the baby and gets a bite that is different than usual. Bear has been gumming and gumming for a couple of months now (click here to see when we started down the road to a tooth) so she chews on most anything she can get her little grubby hands on. Lovely, after she calms from the pain, looks at little bear and feels her gums. A TOOTH!!! Sure ’nuff. A tooth you can feel it AND see it!!! Shoot, I remember what it felt like when some of my teeth were coming in and I was not to be tampered with…at all. On to Tuesday, by Tuesday evening, she had cut another tooth. So our little one now has two little shimmers of pearls on her bottom gums.

Continuing on…Today is July 5th. On this upcoming Monday, the Silver Sloth will have been out of comission for one solid month. Right now we are borrowing “The Gas Saver.” (When you see the pic you will know that this is a true bit of sarcasm!!! This is not the actual vehicle I’m driving, just the same year and model.) If you looked at the photo, maybe you noticed that it has TWO HONKIN’ GAS TANKS ON THE DARN THING!!!! So between putting gas in “The Gas Saver” and still paying the payment and insurance on the Sloth I’m payin’ out just over $750 a month…just over $400 in gas for the truck. I never thought that I would say this, but I really look forward to the Sloth getting fixed. I mean, it is nearly paid for anyway. It’ll be a descent ride and all I would have to pay on it would be insurance. NICE!!!

Anyway. Moving on…Maybe I should’ve posted a few times today instead of one long post???? Nah!!

We have started another guitar class at the University!!! Yup, I requested the cut-off for the number of students in the class to be twelve…More than that might be too many. Well, ends up that the class got over booked…FIFTEEN!!! That’s okay. They up-ed my pay a good bit. Then they (the program director) came back last week and said that we would be running two classes in the Fall. All I can say is that the extra money will be a nice little extra income for debt-reduction, savings, and a little trip for me and the honey-loo. Bring on the classes. I don’t mind pulling in a good amount (well, a good amount for me…most of you out there this wouldn’t be enough to even consider the extra time) for an extra four hours of work.

Well, that is a brief update for now. If something else pops up I’ll be sure to post it…you just read it.!!!

For the low, low price of…

Why are dealerships so expensive? It isn’t like they are the only ones that sell the original equipment parts.

Case in point…I was told that as a cause of one of the cylinders not firing is that my ignition coil pack is not working correctly and may need to be replaced. Now, I didn’t say, “Uh-huh” to the first thing that someone said. I did the responsible thing and read the manual. Everything pointed to the coil pack. Now to explain what a coil pack is would be to say that it is “today’s distributor cap.”

So I called the dealership. Price for a new Ignition for an Ignition Coil Pack $149.20 + tax
Then I called an auto parts chain. Price for the same part. no difference $107.99 + tax

I don’t get it? I mean. The dealership is going to charge you by the time you add tax $162.63 and THEN charge you for putting it on, but I bet they will drag their feet and end up charging you like the part is inside the engine when it is right by the hood latch. The only thing that holds it on is four bolts and (on the Silver Sloth) six spark plug wires. It took me 4 minutes to take the part off including disconnecting the battery.

Dealerships are good for one thing…..buying a car. You can find a brand dealer certified mechanic that doesn’t charge you $5 billion for the part and $10 billion for the labor.

Of course, here again is a great example of capitalism. Woo Hoo! That and oil/gas prices.

Up to my elbows in it…

My daughter is the most beautiful little girl ever. I know I know. I’m partial, right? Wrong. I’m flat out honest. I’ve seen some babies born within the last year that are down right homely. There is nothing cute about them. The only thing they have going for them is the are compact and they move easily.

But about my Little Bear…This weekend, the silver sloth broke down with Shady and little bear @ the helms…they were on their way to pick me up from work. Shady called me and said, “The car…it won’t go more than about 20 mph and it is starting to overheat! What do I do?” I told her to pull it over and I’d hitch a ride out there (it was only about 7 minutes from the restaurant). By the time I got there, Shady’s dad (Gruff) was there and unloading little bear and the typical baby stuff.

We opened the hood and looked around…Everything seemed normal until we cranked it. Not good!!!!

Anyway…long story short…we stay @ the Gruff and Nana’s house over the weekend to work on the car.

Saturday night Shady and I are sharing a double bed or whatever size is just smaller than a queen. Little bear is sleeping in her pack-n-play in the same room. Bear wakes up when I start to snore (of course, I was snoring…I didn’t hear her wake). So next thing I know, I feel this little hand on my face. I open my eyes and little bear giggles. Then she looks at me and mutters, “P—P—Pop Pop.” She said it so softly as not to wake the birds outside. I smiled with an I’ve-only-had-one-hour-of-sleep-but-darn-isn’t-that-the-best-thing-ever smile and touched her face. “*Little Bear*,” I said . She giggled. Then she looked at Shady and turned over and went to sleep.

That little girl has the ability to melt away a day’s anger and frustration of a blown up vehicle with just a simple, “P—p—Pop Pop.)

That was the first time she called to me. We’ve been trying to have her call me Popi, but Pop Pop is just fine with me. As long as she calls on me.