How Was Your Weekend?

I don't usually go into monologues about my weekend, but this one was crazy.

I had it planned, Saturday was going to be golden. I was going to write like the wind, crank up my word count and generally bury myself at my keyboard. My older daughter had soccer clinic in the morning and my husband had a car rally. My daughter wanted to go so I said I would go ahead and meet the rally at their first stopping point and drop her off. Saturday night was also my nephews' birthday party and their mom asked if my other two kids could come over early. Even better.

Soccer clinic coach said clinic would be over an hour earlier than planned so I went ahead and went to pick up my daughter an hour early. Nope, they weren't done. I could have writing for that hour. I didn't bother bringing anything to read so it was frustrating. But hey, I was going to have the afternoon. Got my daughter home and ready and told my other kids to get ready as well because after I dropped of their sister it would be close to time to drop them off.

Off we go in the convertible. Beautiful weather for a quick jaunt into the mountains. Of course there is an accident on the freeway so we were stuck for awhile. But it was okay, once we got passed the accident we had plenty of time. We get off the freeway and head up the mountain road. And we keep going...and going...and going.... I had thought the restaurant the car club was meeting at was about 14 miles in. But we were still climbing. Son asks "how much gas do we have?"

Oh, crap.

Yeah, I was at about an 1/8th of a tank and still hadn't reached our destination. Oh, and there was no cell service. I'm about to turn around when we spy a ranger station. I ask the ranger where this restaurant is and he tells me I could walk to it from where we are. Anyway, we head to the restaurant and of course beat the car club by a half hour. Finally they show. My kids are hungry, it is well past lunch but they are too irritated to stay. I hand over my kid to my husband we take off. And I find out we have gone 28 miles. We have to go back another 28 miles to reach the gas station. So with many prayers, we head back down the mountain. Luckily, it is down hill. My son is scared of mountain roads while his sister loves them so it was an interesting drive. I'm trying not to use gas so I'm using physics to keep this car going. Anyway, we did make with probably a lot more gas to spare, but I don't like that feeling. We fill up and I head back to my in laws' house with the kids. And of course we hit traffic.

By the way, did you know you can get sunburned in a convertible?

I got the kids dropped off, got home and it was after 4:30. I had to be back at my SIL's at 6. My golden day was toast. Don't you hate when that happens? Yesterday was a little easier and I got some writing done. My daughter had a planned sleepover with a friend. Another friend called and she got invited over as well, so I have three 5th grade girls over right now. I'm taking them to an amusement park, so I guess writing is on hold today.

So how was your weekend?

Cruel Summer Part 2

I was hoping to be in full summer mode by now but we had a couple of things happen.

First, my mother in law ended up in the hospital. Her gall bladder ruptured. Because of her physical condition (she is very heavy plus her lungs are shot and she is on oxygen all the time) surgery was a dicey proposition. It was touch and go there for awhile. Fortunately, she made it through surgery and is doing far better than her doctors predicted. She is home now but the healing process is going to take awhile. I think it has made her take her health more seriously and I also think she realizes now how much she does have to live for.

Next up is the car accident. We bought a brand new F-150 a month ago (if you want a truck, now is the time to buy them, they aren't selling due to the gas prices and you can get a sweet deal). It's a very nice car with this really pretty paint color (desert sand, a rich, creamy metallic color). Last week we took the kids to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It was smooth sailing all morning. The traffic was light going in, the aquarium wasn't very crowded and the kids behaved. They didn't fight and seemed to have a good time. We had a nice lunch and the kids behave liked angels.

Of course this was going to end badly.

We head home. Traffic is a little heavy, it was July 3rd so people were getting out of work early to start their weekend. But it wasn't unbearable. Then it happens. We're in the carpool lane. Two cars in the lanes next to us tangle (I only saw it out of the corner of my eye) and swerved into our lane. Hubby tried his best to avoid the collision but we ended up clipping one of the cars. Honestly, I barely felt the impact, I'm not sure the kids knew what happened. So we all pull off the freeway and have to way for two hours to get it all sorted out. The car we hit didn't get any real damage from us. His car was pretty munched from the initial accident. My truck isn't damaged too badly, but it's enough that it's going to need to be fixed and and have some paint work done. We didn't even have the license plates yet.

What ticks me off about this was I was going to suggest we hang around downtown Long Beach. They have this cute little tourist trap village and I thought it would be fun to wander around and maybe grab a bite to eat. But decided that the last thing we needed to do was get stuck on the freeway in the afternoon. Of course, by the time the highway patrol got to the scene and took their reports, it was the late in the afternoon and we got stuck in traffic going home. Yeah, no one was hurt and that's a good thing, but I'm still ticked. BTW, this isn't the first new car my hubby has banged up. We hadn't had my convertible for a year and he got it nearly totalled. It wasn't his fault, but still. And when his Taurs SHO was new he crunch someone. That was a doozy. Finding parts for that car was a beast.

And finally, I can't find a mophead for my mop. I have a Libman miracle mop and the mophead died. I can't find the replacement. I found it online, but by the time I buy the mophead and have it shipped, I could bought a new mop.

Hope your summer is proving aggravation-free.