It's Almost Midnight....

....and my sorry butt is still awake.

Thank God for caffeine in the morning, and also for the fact that it's Friday, last day of work for the week.

That is if I make it into work.

I drive a beast of a vehicle. It is falling apart all over the place. I have dents and dings in it on every side of the vehicle. The back bumper fell off and is being held up by bailing wire.

That's right, I said bailing wire, they kind they use to, well I suppose bale hay.

I'm not even sure if I spelled bailing right. Forgive me, it's 11:47 and my brain is too tired to check grammar at this point.

I talk to my beast on a daily basis.  This is my morning conversation with the beast on any given day:

(in the summer as I'm pouring water into the radiator): "Please don't overheat today."
(in the summer, as I watch the gauge for the radiator hit that evil H...for Hell HATH OPENED IN YOUR ENGINE) "You HAVE to make it to Christmas I need to get to work so my kids can have some kind of  decent Christmas with me!"

(in the fall as the car begins to jerk sporadically into gear): "You've got to make it to Christmas. I can't lose this job! I need the money!" (again, it's more about survival at this point, and not Christmas gifts)

(2 days ago as I rev the engine because it won't pop into gear...mind you it's an automatic): "Damnit, go already!!!", (revs engine harder...POP!SHIFT...sound of something heavy that may have dropped off the vehicle) "THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU! NO...NO....COME ONNNNNNNNNN!" Sputter, thud, sputter, sound of van on it's deathbed as it attempts to shift gears in the 30 degree weather.

(This Morning):  I squeeze in on the passenger's side door as usual and scoot across leaning down under the steering wheel to pop the hood, because my driver's side door is toast and will not open.  The Panel fell off on the inside.

Lovely, I know.

Anyway, I pray the hood will open so I can, once again, pour more water into the radiator, so my van will not overheat. Unlike some mornings, I am alone without any of the kids to help me pop the hood, and I push down on it...bang on it even... to get it to open up. Some days I am lucky, some not so lucky. Today happened to be a lucky day. It popped on the second try.

I start it up and let it warm up a little. I normally don't do that. But I figured maybe that's why it's shifting hard. Because I noticed once I am half way to work, the shifting issue isn't really an issue anymore. 

After about 4 minutes, I back up the van and begin to turn the wheel to the left to complete my exit from my parking space, no sooner did I do this then my van decides it's not going to not shift on me it's just going to stop steering and flat out die on me....in the middle of the parking lot and it rolls forward a little bit.

At that very moment, in my head for that split second of terror, I see me not going into work, losing my job, my apartment, my kids....I shout a few swear words and try again to start the van....rrrrrrrrrr....

"Houston, we no longer have a problem!"

I get on the road and go to get gas, because, of course, the floater in my gas tank is broken and my gauge loves dinging and telling me that I have no gas when in fact I do.  Apparently I had so much in there, that when I paid the usual 10 bucks that I do to the nice guy behind the counter at my corner gas station here, I got to go back in and get 1.25 change.

Apparently the tank is full.

I sure hope it starts tomorrow. I think I could write a whole blog on my van.

It's my miracle vehicle I swear it is.

The guys at Good Year laughed at me and were amazed it still ran when they changed the oil on it a little over 3 months ago. I know this exactly because my little sticker on the window says next oil change is December 2nd. Unfortunately they are out of business....

Guess that explains why I never got that credit card that I wanted to get that I applied for to get a discount the day of the oil change. I filled out an application the Sunday before Labor Day and nobody ever contacted me or sent me a card. *shrugs*

Okay, this blog is getting long and I am getting tired. I will share more later.

Write now I need sleep. It's 12:14.

Did you know that 1-3-13(Thursday's date) makes 1313 if you put all the digits together with no dash marks?

I'm an odd duck....I know.  Random thought I had at work today when filling out a progress sheet for one of my kids.

I just realized I wrote "WRITE" now I need sleep up above, and that is not the way you spell "RIGHT" correctly.

Have a great day fellow passers-by. I will see you all later.(I just had a moment of deja vu...that was weird)