Brain Dungeon

TRUCK!!!

Saturday started off semi-normally (except for the fact that I can’t seem to sleep past 5:30 after getting up at 3:00 all week long.) I am overall pretty well exhausted and just trying to let myself relax after a very grueling work-week. I just played around on my laptop for most of the morning knowing that I should be doing something productive but just too tired to care.

Crystal’s dad shows up to begin helping us work on getting the trim back in place (because we tore it all up when we put down the new laminate flooring). Pretty close to this juncture, Crystal reminds me that I need to take the dogs to the groomer. I don’t particularly care to pay someone to groom my dogs, but neither of us is up to doing it, so the appointment was made. I’m gathering my wits and preparing to head out and Crystal is gathering the dogs to prepare them to go out, and Crystal’s dad is hauling trim out the the back yard to begin cleaning it off and pulling the nails out. My friend calls me to let me know he’s just about ready to come paint the nursery for us…

All seemed to be going ok…

I get in the truck. I turn it on…are you ready for this? Our new (used) Mazda Tribute decided it didn’t want to leave the house yesterday. It started just fine, but when I put it in reverse, it would not move. One wheel…ONE WHEEL…would not turn. My first thought was “did I leave my laptop bag under the wheel?”

No wait…that’s what I thought LAST time…

THIS time, my first thought was “Oh no…not again!”

And, just for the record…it’s the SAME WHEEL.

I called the dealership and, long story short, they said they’d tow it in, give us a vehicle to drive until they figure out what’s going on with what they already supposedly fixed.

So…right now we have a brand new 2008 Ford Explorer with Sirius Satellite Radio and Microsoft Sync sitting right in our driveway. It’s temporary…and if it weren’t for the fact that the only reason it’s there is because our truck is in the emergency room, I might be happier about it.

But…it is what it is…

And I think we’re going to get a new license plate…

I’ll let y’all know all about that if/when we get the new plates in!

My brain is a jungle of random thoughts right now. So, if you please, I’ll just jot them down and get on with my day.

First, I’m thinking about the adoption my wife and I are working toward. We will be happy to adopt whatever child the Good Lord brings our way, but for some reason, in my mind, I see us ending up with a little Hispanic girl. Why girl? Probably wishful thinking. I’ve always wanted to be able to say “That’s my boy!” but there’s just something about having a “daddy’s girl” that kinda makes my heart soft. Why Hispanic? Probably because of where we live. A significant portion of the population in our area is Hispanic. I guess that doesn’t mean we’ll end up with a Hispanic baby, but the odds are probably in that favor.

I had a dream last night that we adopted a little Hispanic girl. This was not a baby adoption, however. Our first adoption will be an infant. But I still can’t stop thinking about the dream from last night. It was kind of an emotional dream. The little girl was living in foster care until we came along. I remember calling her by her name, but I don’t remember now what that name was…it was something like Syliva or Sarina or something like that. She was maybe 4 years old or so and was just in absolute tears when she came into our home. She was tired of being moved from home to home. In my dream I hugged her and promised her that this was the last time. I explained to her that when she was moving from home to home it was because she was in foster care, but adoption was different. She was now going to be OUR child! She was going to stay in our home for good! She was so happy. Later on in the dream she was a very happy little girl and very excited that she didn’t have to worry about moving to another home because she was very happy that we were her new parents.

Skipping on to the next random thought – we bought a new (used) vehicle yesterday. After doing a little looking around, we found a vehicle that seemed like a good fit. After looking into the fuel ratings of the sedans we were interested in and the SUVs we were interested in, we decided the SUV would be it. The fuel economy between the two was almost identical. The SUV was newer and very well maintained. It’s not a big SUV, but it’s bigger than the car that Crystal despises. Should be good for bringing home a baby from the hospital! I’m sure she’ll be blogging about the vehicle later, so I’ll leave it at that.

And, lastly, I need to stop procrastinating on taking the defensive driving course. I have one month left to take the course and turn in the results with my driving record to the judge (I got a speeding ticket) and requested that the ticket be dismissed from my record in trade of six hours of my life being dedicated to learning how to drive more safely. The ironic thing is that (and I am certain Crystal would be willing to confirm) I am a very safe driver. I RARELY exceed the speed limit (in fact I usually set my cruise control right at the speed limit). I always make sure I come to a complete stop at a stop sign. It’s a pet peeve of mine when people fail to use their turn signal.

This particular day was a very long day for me at work. At 6pm when I was ready to head home, I got a call that resulted in my having to drive an hour out of town to fix a cash register for one of our restaurants. I went to the office and picked up some spare parts and headed out to make the fix. Between being tired from the day and angry that it wasn’t over yet, somehow I misread my speedometer. In this case I was allowing myself to travel 2 mph over the limit. Turns out I must have been looking at the wrong line and was going 2 mph over 5 mph over the limit. Cop said he clocked me at 77 in a 70. Cited me for exceeding 10% over the speed limit.

So there you have it. The mess that is my brain this morning. Hope it wasn’t too boring, but maybe getting it all out will help me focus on the task at hand…internet course for defensive driving. Yay.

So I was driving to work the other day, probably listening to a book-on-phone (what?). I learned that listening to books while I drive (especially long distances) can really shorten a drive. So my wife bought me some books on CD and I ripped ‘em to my computer, made MP3s out of them and put them on my memory card I bought for my phone which doubles as an MP3 player.

Anyway, so I’m driving along, minding my own business when this vehicle passes me in the next lane over. I had to do a double take…was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing? Perhaps I was drunk…no, I hadn’t had anything to drink in months, much less that morning. Perhaps I was high? No…don’t do drugs. Then why, in the name of everything good and pure, was I seeing what I was seeing? I got it! The end times…they were starting to happen right in front of my face! The world was getting ready to plummet into tribulation and dispair and it was all happening right before my eyes!

Ok…a bit over the top? Perhaps…but so was this:

No – really…it’s a pink Jeep. (I covered the license plate to protect the not-so-innocent)

A.Pink.Jeep.

Why? It’s….why???? Jeeps don’t belong it that color!!! Made for greens…acceptable in reds, blacks, blues, whites….but PINK??? It would be like seeing a rainbow in the sky with BLACK in it. It’s just not natural. You know, I would be willing to bet that as THEY were trying to put that color on the Jeep, it actually tried to dodge the paint. I’ll bet that it tried to shake off the offending tones like a dog shakes off water after a bath. I’ll bet there were mechanical sounds of an engine weeping oily tears as they touched up the last of the paint job. I’ll bet to this day there is a persistant oil leak in from the vehicle and they just don’t understand that THE JEEP IS STILL CRYING!

Get off my planet you barbarians! You don’t give a dog a mink coat and you don’t paint a Jeep PINK!

Ok…again…over the top…but so was the Jeep. Perhaps a inverted view of the colors would help.

There. I’ve made my peace with it.