Amanda vs. the motor vehicles. Part 1.

Ok, so this is fun. I'm going to start by rewinding a few days when I came home from grocery shopping and said

Amanda - "Hey, Troy, I think the van needs new front brakes or something, there seems to be quite a bit of grinding noise coming from the front tires when I brake.

Troy - "is it just when your braking or can you hear it while you're not braking too?"

Amanda - (considers for a moment) "come to think of it I think I can hear it too when I accelerate from a stop, why?"

Troy - "I think it might be the rotor, remember how last time we changed the rotor on the other side and you said that we didn't have the money to do both sides at the same time? It's probably that rotor now"

Amanda - (groans and sighs, swears a little) "it was only like $45 right?" (sighs and swears a little more) "K, well this weekend is going to have to be 'fix the van' weekend"

Troy - "While we're at it we should do the brakes in the car too, it needs fronts soon"

Amanda - (swears some more) "Didn't you just do the brakes in the car?"

Troy - "those were the backs, I didn't do the fronts" (watches the twitch worsen in Amanda's left eye) "ok, I'll make room in the garage"

Now fast forward to this morning remembering that as of yesterday morning our van has been sitting on our slope-y lawn like a beached whale. Ironically you figure, Hell, if we going to have tire off anyway to replace it we may as well gut the whole beast and do the rotor at the same time which is conveniently on the same side. I could almost say things are starting to look up...bbbuuuutttt I wont.

Now, Rewind to 5am this morning when I silently cursed Troys boss for expecting Troy at work for 6am. Who does that anyway?! I have to drive Troy to work so I can have the car so I can do the running around that needs to be done to fix the van. I'm exhausted just typing about it. This involves waking up my 3 children at 5am. which if you want my opinion, should be against some law somewhere. We all fold ourselves into the car that almost has enough room for everyone (which is why we bought the van) and barrel up the dark highway, half asleep. I'm not a terrible morning person but on this particular morning I wasn't someone you would want to sit beside on a bus. As we come to one stop sign after another I cringe when I listen to the horrible, probably spark causing grinding that used to be the front brakes. I bitch to Troy about how he had said 'the brakes in the car need to be replaced soon' Soon? are you flipping kidding me? I'm surprised the front wheels didn't catch fire on my way back home.

Sooooo, here I sit with one vehicle out of gas, on a slope with a flat. The other with only half of the braking system functioning and while my baby is napping I'm trying to figure out my action plan for this afternoon, well actually, I'm blogging but I will, soon, figure out that action plan.

TO BE CONTINUED...