Another Car Experience

The Queen and I had the privilege of learning something new about my car yesterday. For those of you who don't recall, a couple of years ago we got to experience changing a flat (see Book Your Next Adventure at the House of Dodds). Yesterday it was the opportunity to learn how to jump a dead battery....

Normally, the Queen and I carpool together, but that didn't happen yesterday and it was probably a good thing. I wrapped my day up with a text to her saying "I'll pick you up in the morning at 7, I'm outta here" (or something of that nature). I knew that she was still at the office as she had things to take care of.

I head out to my car and using the remote, I unlock the doors. I get in, lock the doors, put the key in the ignition, turn and get.....silence. No clicking, no nothing. I think "hmm, this is odd. Lights are off. Car is in park. I wonder what is going on." So, I turn the key again and still nothing. I immediately grab my phone and text The Queen. Here is the exchange:

ABBA "What time are you leaving because my car is dead..."
Queen "Oh no! in just a minute."
ABBA "Can you come to the garage?"
Queen "Want a ride or what do you need?"
ABBA "I don't know. I think maybe a jump..."
Queen "You have cables?"
ABBA "I'll need to get it to the garage because it is really dead... I can't even get the locks to work"

I have to manually unlock the door and climb over the back seat to dig my jumper cables out of the back. I also pop the hood and look pitiful while waiting for The Queen to drive around. (I even try and call a couple of the guys that I work with but only get their voice mails.) Soon, the Queen arrives and she calls the King so that we have instructions on how to apply the cables. We both know that if you do it wrong then you could blow up the battery or something, and we really didn't want that to occur. We get the cables on, and she starts her car. About this time a guy starts walking in our direction. (Mind you, there have been any number of folks leaving the office walking right past us in the parking garage, completely ignoring us. In fact there was one guy parked next to me before the Queen showed up who got in his car and drove off as I'm standing there with my hood up, cables in hand....really, dude? You can't even offer to see if I need some assistance? What happened to Southern chivalry?)

The guy that did come offer to help was very nice. He confirmed that we did have the cables on correctly, made a comment about the corrosion that was on my battery, and said that it should be okay to try and start my car. After a couple little sputters, she did come back to life. He was nice enough to get a volt reader out of his truck to confirm that it was just the battery and that I didn't need to get a new alternator or anything like that.

The Queen followed me to the Goodyear place to make certain that I got there okay. They replaced my battery and thus far it seems to be good to go. However, there are a couple of things that are a little strange:

• I stopped to fill up with gas after replacing the battery. I had just under 1/4 of a tank. It is a 14 gallon tank. The gas light typically comes on at about the 12 gallon mark, and it hadn't come on yet. However, when I was filling it up the auto-shutoff thing on the pump never did kick in and I finally stopped it at about 13.5 gallons.
• My radio requires some code be put in before it will work again, so I'm in search of this "code" and the instructions for deactivating the anti-theft device.
• My driver's window used to go all the way down or up with a push of the button (meaning I didn't have to actually hold the button) that isn't working anymore.
• Maybe it is time to start thinking about a new car....

Some other interesting little tid bits:
I don't think I've ever had that battery replaced, which means that it lasted for a good 9 years.
I recently purchased a new form of jumper cable that you just plug into what used to be the cigarette lighter and is now the car outlet of both cars and jump the battery that way instead of with cables....however, that is still sitting in a box on my dresser.

I wonder what will be next to go on my baby.....

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rules

As many of you are probably aware, I'm a rule follower....at least most of the time. Case in point:

Yesterday afternoon I did my duty and I donated blood. Yes, it was the first time that I have done this and it turns out that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I did survive. While I was in the resting spot eating some cookies before I went back to the office, I decided to actually read the Post Donation Instructions:

1. Keep your arm at rest, drink fluids, and eat snacks while you are resting. Make sure you feel fine before leaving the donation site.
2. Leave the bandage on for 4 hours. If the needle site bleeds, apply firm pressure over the bandage and raise your arm for 5 -10 minutes.
3. Drink plenty of fluids during the next 24 hours to replace lost fluids, and make your next meal a hearty one.
4. Do not smoke for 30 minutes.
5. Avoid alcoholic beverages for 24 hours.
6. If you feel dizzy, sit down and lower your head, or lie down keeping your head lower than the rest of your body. Do not drive until your dizziness subsides.
7. If dizziness or bleeding persists or if you have problems, call 1-877-xxx-xxxx.
8. Avoid strenuous lifting and/or pulling with your donor arm for 24 hours.
9. Occasionally a bruise may develop. {Lots of words that I don't want to retype but talks about applying ice packs.}
10. We recommend that you wait 12 hours before operating heavy machinery, driving buses or cabs, climbing scaffolds or ladders, scuba diving, sky diving or lifting weights, and 72 hours before working as a member of a flight crew.

My thoughts while reading:

1. I can do this. Would it be bad if I grabbed another package of cookies?
2. Not a problem. I can leave this puppy on all night...shoot it is starting to itch....
3. I really wish I had grabbed a bottle of water before I sat down. These cookies are really dry....
4. Not a problem. If I were to smoke, it would take me at least that long to find somebody to bum one off of and then to walk off campus...heck, not even worth me considering this one.
5. Hmmm, I'm supposed to meet The Queen at Chuy's after work, I think I can be strong and not drink (BWAHAHAHA....that did not work.)
6. Not really dizzy so much as nauseous....ah well, I can kill a couple of minutes with my head on my desk....ahhhh, much better.
7. Nope, no problems, don't need to call.
8. Oh shoot, I'm supposed to work out with my trainer in the morning...better text him and tell him I can't life weights so that he can rework the workout (which he did and killed me with a total lower body workout).
9. Woo Hoo!! No bruise....can barely even tell I was poked.
10. Dang it, there go my big plans for the evening to go sky diving and then scuba diving. Does driving a carpool equate to driving a cab....

Bathroom Habits

I was thinking about this as I was getting ready this morning and of course knew that I needed to share it with the whole world....

When do you close the door to the bathroom?

I admit that in my own space (and I consider my space to be my home, obviously, and hotel rooms where I'm staying by myself) I almost always leave the bathroom door open. The only time I close it is when I'm showering (don't really know why I do that) or when I have company over.

However, when I am visiting somebody else's space, I ALWAYS close the door...even when I know that I'm the only person in the house. For example, when I recently house sat at the Castle, I would always close the door (of course that may have been more to keep the dogs out than anything else) but even when I was living at the Castle, I would always close the door, even when I was alone. Not only would I close the bathroom door, but I would also always go up to the bathroom in my room and close the door to my room as well.

Okay, thought I'd share....

One Week of Bad Decisions....

I went out of town last week for business and was suckered into eating out and having a drink or two (or three or four). I "tried" to make some good decisions like opting for a salad one day at lunch rather than a hamburger, but for the most part it was down hill. And, yes, I paid for it.

1. I put 3 pounds back on.
2. I felt gross, including rampant heartburn, lethargy, bloating, and all those other lovely bodily functions that come with poor eating
3. My trainer kicked my ass after not seeing him for a week and a half.

I'm too old to be partying like a rock star...even if I didn't go quite that far. We ate at some very nice restaurants and I have to admit the food was VERY good....but the overall effect was plain and simple "blech" for me.

It really is amazing how one week of bad decisions can wipe out a months' worth of really hard work. Needless to say, I'm back at it. I was back in the gym yesterday working with the trainer, who thought it would be fun just to throw in some extra exercises since "we had some extra time". And then I was back up there at 4:30 this morning getting my cardio in. I gotta get back to pushing myself hard if I'm going to make my goals and since I started watching Losing It with Jillian Michaels, I figure I'm in much better condition than some of those folks...if they can do it, I sure as hell can....I only wonder who I can get to scream at me....