Bad Blogger...Good Mommy

Oooh, my bad. I haven't blogged in like three and a half months! Wow, where has the time gone. Obviously, my resolution went kerplooee. Is that a word?

It seems every time I get on the computer during daylight hours, the kids have some sort of crisis, during the 45 minutes I am waiting for the dumb thing to boot up. No joke. Scott doesn't like to use the laptop because it will lose signal for a few seconds and then come back on. The PC just sits there for ten minutes at a time, seemingly doing what is supposed to and then it either boots you off of the internet or you get some sort of error message. It certainly doesn't make me want to spend hours in here waiting for the dumb thing while the kids are wreaking havoc on the family room, bringing out every toy known to man from the playroom, down the hall and heaving them willy-nilly across the family room floor.

Scott's car needed new brake pads. Rears. The car apparently brakes from the rear first. Unlike every other car in the world. 26k miles and he needs new pads. Whatever. The car was at the dealer for the scheduled maintenance.

Service guy: It needs new pads, and did we want to do it? For $90 parts and $200 labor.
Me: No thank you.
Service guy: It needs to be done soon, they are almost completely worn and if that happens it will need new rotors, for an additional $260. And in order to do it, you need this special tool to remove the calipers and it has to squeeze and twist them at the same time.
Me: Thank you. I will call my husband to find out if he wants to do it.

Call Hubby. He suggests the auto parts store. I then call Dad.
Me: Umm, Hi! What are you doing tomorrow? Do you want to put pads on Scott's car? They are almost worn out.
Dad: I guess. I will call my parts guy and call you back.

No luck. His guy can't get them. I call the dealer. $400 for the tool. 3-4 weeks from Germany. Great. Stop at Auto Zone. Nice guys there. Helpful, too.

Me: Do you have rear pads for this car? Oh, and I need to find out about this special tool I need to remove the calipers.
Auto Zone guy: Our other store has the pads. The tool we can loan you with a $35 deposit.
Me: COOL! I need it!

So, today we dropped Scott off at the park and ride. At 4:30am. Then we stopped at Uncle Andy's Donut Shop. They were still warm. Yum. Then home, shower, run back to the dealer when they open because the dumb check engine light is on after taking it in for the service. Service guy says it is a coincidence. I think not, but there is nobody there that can help me unless I leave it. No can do. Thanks very much.

So off we go to the mountains to have the brakes done. Oh yeah. $25 for lifetime guarantee pads. Cool. So we get to Dad's. He gets the tires off. Goes to remove the calipers with this little tool that has different sized disks on it. Umm. Problem. They all have two little bumps on one side, directly across from each other. We need one with three in a triangle formation. This will not work. There is no disk with three bumps on it. Dad swears. Again. A couple more times. The car has been elevated from a car to a piece of s--t. He tries a few different things. Then I watch as he goes to the shop and comes back with a piece of paper. He's marking something. He's gonna make the freakin' part! And so he does. And it works! We end up going over to his brothers' place at the camp and helping them serve lunch to the campers who are there. The priest of the orthodox church has two daughters, ages 4 and 7, and they are just as bored as Jess and Bekah. So, together they had more fun. LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN! So I call Dad at 12:15 and tell him lunch will be ready at 12:30. He just got done with the car. Made the part to attach to the tool and saved me not only the money for the brake job, but also from having to buy the tool. Amazing. Dad is my hero for the day.

The girls ended up having a great day. We got the brake pads on. Saved lots of money and all is well. Oh, and it was pretty cool up there. Much nicer than at home, so we were able to enjoy the nice weather. And my aunt and uncle sent me home with a bunch of food from the camp. Neat! So, all in all we had a great day! We are going up next week to play with the same little girls and the girls will all get to go swimming in the pool there. Fun.

And their mommy is surviving summer...