Possumblog

Friday.

A day off? Oh, you! Silly person!

I had the day off, and the kids were out of school, but Reba had to go in. Meaning, I had to wake her up and make sure she got out of bed. But I was tired, you know?

Clock went off at 6:00, I rolled over and smashed it with my pins-and-needles inflamed arm that I had been crushing underneath my body, then flopped back over and told Reba it was time to get up, sweetie.

I think she got up--there was certainly a lot of bounding and slapping of the mattress, and pulling of blankets and noises and other things designed to make the remaining few minutes of near-sleepfulness as unrestful as possible for me. Being that a certain wife of mine seems to think it unthinkable that I would want to go back to sleep.

I did anyway. Until it was time for her to leave, when she loudly woke up the children to tell them goodbye, and then came back in the room to tell me goodbye, which I'm not angry that she did, because it DID mean I got some sugar, but still, it would have been nice for all the kids not to be up and rummaging through things as I drifted back off to sleep. Never know what sort of trouble they could gesnnxxxxxx.

I vaguely remember the garage door going up, and floating back somewhere warm. Until I heard the wakeup call again--"Terry? TERRY!"

"Uhuw? Blan?"

"You're left front tire on the Volvo looks low."

::sigh::

"Thanks--it was running low last night when I went to my meeting, and I guess it's got something in it. I'll fix it when I get up."

I sure would like to have been able to go back to sleep, but she was just trying to be helpful, so it's not nice to have wished for more sleep.

I finally got up when Catherine or Jonathan came in and said they were hungry. Up, dress, shave, brush, downstairs, and--hmm. We need to go grocery shopping. I fixed them what we had left in the way of breakfasty type things, and sat down to make a list whilst watching Regis Lee and Kelli Lee. Ick.

While the kids finished up breakfast, I ran and grabbed my rubber fixing stuff and the car keys.

Yep, it was flat alright.

Thankfully, only on the bottom.

[Cue laff track!]

I cranked it up and rolled it forward--nothing--then backwards--BINGO! Big ol' screw right down into the tread. Actually, a good thing. Nothing worse than trying to track down a hole when the hole-making thing is no longer in place.

Got the rasp, pliers, hook and strip. Put some glue on the rasp and laid it on top of the tire, pulled the screw out, ran the rasp in and out, then jammed the sticky strip in, twisted, and pulled it back out. Aired it up, and done. I may put up a sign at the street advertising my tire-mending skills.

Then, while the kids were still scrounging for Cheerios in the floor of the cupboard, I thought I would go ahead and fix the dashboard lights while I had a moment. I had thought I could snake my hand up behind there and pull the two bulbs that "illuminate" the dashboard. Even under the best of circumstances, these things put out about as much light as a squished lightning bug. I had gotten two higher wattage bulbs on the way home the night before (upon the recommendation of a frequent Volvo bulletin board poster named Volvodad--I mean, how could he be wrong!?) but it looked as though the only way to really get the thing done would be to once more pull the cluster out of the dash.

Practice makes perfect, I suppose. I had it out, the bulbs changed, and it back in and wired up again in about ten minutes. I may put up a sign at the street advertising my Volvo instrument cluster removal skills. Of course, I couldn't SEE if it was working, since it was blazing bright sunshine. So, I went inside and got my jacket and pretended the whole thing was one of those old cameras where the guy hides under the black sheet. HEY! THEY WORK! I think. Still a bit hard to tell, but I think it did work. Later on Friday evening, I went out and checked, and sure enough, the dashboard lit up like brand new! Only, now the clock won't light up. It was working fine, until I fixed the dashboard lights.

::sigh::

Oh well, I guess it's better to know how fast you're going at night than how late you are.

NOW, that's all done, so it's time to go a'shopping!

Next: Going A'shopping!

Posted by Terry Oglesby at November 14, 2005 12:33 PM