Justifiable Homicide?
Aug. 15th, 2008 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gonzaiOh, I'm having a bad day.
No sooner do I get up this morning, than my mother immediately starts complaining about CJ. Mom has decided that CJ must sleep in the back room alone, so as not to disturb Roxie. CJ doesn't like being alone, and mostly shreds towels to deal with the anxiety. Mom took the towels away. CJ spent the night crying. Mom wants me to get rid of CJ. Not gonna happen. She'll have to kick me out too.
Then my mother goes off to her doctor's appointment - sort of. She's back a minute later. Her car won't start. I check it. She never turned off the lights when she got home Wednesday. Needless to say, the battery's shot. I have a portable battery jumper, so I go to get it - and discover Mom unplugged it several months ago. It was ugly, she says. Yeah, and it was in a back room in the basement. Who cares what it looks like? Anyway, the charge had worn off the jumper and it didn't have enough juice left to start her car, only to start her panic alarm. Spiffy. Also, the mechanism that holds her hood up has broken, so my bum shoulders have to hold up the heavy hood while the arthritic hand tries to make jumper cables work. (I'm a hurtin' pup today.) Meanwhile, her now-dead car has blocked in my van, so using that isn't an option.
There are two different mechanics living across the street; I ask Mom to call them, but she says she doesn't know their numbers or their last names. We walk over to check, but one's not home and the other's on vacation. I tell Mom to call AAA for a jump (this doesn't occur to her unless I tell her). She can't find her AAA card, which we've only had two weeks. I give her my card. She calls AAA, but they won't take her call because she's using my account number. So I have to make the report. They say someone will be there by 8:30. I tell my mother to call her doctor and tell them she'll be late for her 8am appointment. She says she doesn't know who the doctor is or what his number is. I find the doctor's name, look him up in the Yellow Pages and make her call. The machine says his office doesn't open until 8:30am. How do you have an 8am appointment? I ask. She doesn't know. I tell her to take my new Zoom Zoom, the one that cost me a year's salary, and for cryin' out loud be careful with it. I take the world's fastest shower so I'll be available when AAA gets here.
AAA doesn't show up until 9:15 (I'm supposed to be at work at 9.) The mechanic tells me the battery is completely shot and she might not be able to make it start. By some miracle, it does start, but it needs either an entirely new battery and alternator or a 6 hour charge. I decide to take it to the Midas across the street and then walk home from there; with Mom's car at Midas, I can get the van out. When I get home at 9:30, it dawns on me - the van's key was on the same ring that's now in Mom's car's ignition. I'll have to go back in the house to get the spare. Oh yeah - the house key is on that ring too. Fortunately, for once in her life, Mom didn't lock the back door. I go in and get the van key. I go back out to find that the inner roof lining of the van (the cloth) has come loose from the roof and draped itself over the seats. I can't find the duct tape, so I'll have to deal with it. I head off in the van with the windows open (no AC in the van) and not only does the roof cloth blow farther off, but I get a couple eyefuls of dried up van roof bits. Windows closed. I go to Burger King, as I still haven't eaten yet today, and order a couple sandwiches and a coffee. They confirm. I go to the window and they hand me hash browns, no coffee. I have to insist they give me the coffee. More crud blows in my eyes going to work, and my cell phone starts ringing. It's Scott at the office; my mother is at the office, wanting to talk to me. I go into work, tell my mother her car is now at Midas and she can keep driving my Mazda for now. She leaves. Midas calls a minute after she leaves to say her car needs $1200 worth of work, there was a lot more than the battery wrong.
Throw in some stupid people calling the office, and finding out a 20 year-old acquaintance has died of leukemia, and I'm having just a banner day here.
Then my mother goes off to her doctor's appointment - sort of. She's back a minute later. Her car won't start. I check it. She never turned off the lights when she got home Wednesday. Needless to say, the battery's shot. I have a portable battery jumper, so I go to get it - and discover Mom unplugged it several months ago. It was ugly, she says. Yeah, and it was in a back room in the basement. Who cares what it looks like? Anyway, the charge had worn off the jumper and it didn't have enough juice left to start her car, only to start her panic alarm. Spiffy. Also, the mechanism that holds her hood up has broken, so my bum shoulders have to hold up the heavy hood while the arthritic hand tries to make jumper cables work. (I'm a hurtin' pup today.) Meanwhile, her now-dead car has blocked in my van, so using that isn't an option.
There are two different mechanics living across the street; I ask Mom to call them, but she says she doesn't know their numbers or their last names. We walk over to check, but one's not home and the other's on vacation. I tell Mom to call AAA for a jump (this doesn't occur to her unless I tell her). She can't find her AAA card, which we've only had two weeks. I give her my card. She calls AAA, but they won't take her call because she's using my account number. So I have to make the report. They say someone will be there by 8:30. I tell my mother to call her doctor and tell them she'll be late for her 8am appointment. She says she doesn't know who the doctor is or what his number is. I find the doctor's name, look him up in the Yellow Pages and make her call. The machine says his office doesn't open until 8:30am. How do you have an 8am appointment? I ask. She doesn't know. I tell her to take my new Zoom Zoom, the one that cost me a year's salary, and for cryin' out loud be careful with it. I take the world's fastest shower so I'll be available when AAA gets here.
AAA doesn't show up until 9:15 (I'm supposed to be at work at 9.) The mechanic tells me the battery is completely shot and she might not be able to make it start. By some miracle, it does start, but it needs either an entirely new battery and alternator or a 6 hour charge. I decide to take it to the Midas across the street and then walk home from there; with Mom's car at Midas, I can get the van out. When I get home at 9:30, it dawns on me - the van's key was on the same ring that's now in Mom's car's ignition. I'll have to go back in the house to get the spare. Oh yeah - the house key is on that ring too. Fortunately, for once in her life, Mom didn't lock the back door. I go in and get the van key. I go back out to find that the inner roof lining of the van (the cloth) has come loose from the roof and draped itself over the seats. I can't find the duct tape, so I'll have to deal with it. I head off in the van with the windows open (no AC in the van) and not only does the roof cloth blow farther off, but I get a couple eyefuls of dried up van roof bits. Windows closed. I go to Burger King, as I still haven't eaten yet today, and order a couple sandwiches and a coffee. They confirm. I go to the window and they hand me hash browns, no coffee. I have to insist they give me the coffee. More crud blows in my eyes going to work, and my cell phone starts ringing. It's Scott at the office; my mother is at the office, wanting to talk to me. I go into work, tell my mother her car is now at Midas and she can keep driving my Mazda for now. She leaves. Midas calls a minute after she leaves to say her car needs $1200 worth of work, there was a lot more than the battery wrong.
Throw in some stupid people calling the office, and finding out a 20 year-old acquaintance has died of leukemia, and I'm having just a banner day here.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-15 09:58 pm (UTC)At least you have a car -- mine is still at Maaco, all fixed, but I haven't got the money to finish paying them and now they are charging me storage. Argh.
Take care.