The Gilbert Cars!

This week has been pretty normal - well with the "new normal" of taking Tim back and forth to work, keeping up with the weekly clinic appointments and working myself on CBF contract work and job searching. All seems to be going pretty good! I'm even managing to get the clothes washed, groceries bought and even some meals cooked!

The last few weeks my new challenge has been the cars! so here's the story-

A couple of weeks ago, I had to get what I thought was a new registration sticker for Mary Beth's car. So I went to the courthouse, waited in line, gave my form to the person and she looked it up and said that the registration had already been paid and was not due. After telling her that I had just been in two weeks ago for my car, she said to me, "honey, I bet you have the wrong sticker on your car"! She went out with me to look and sure enough, I had the sticker that should have been on Mary Beth's car on my car and her's was expiring in a few days in Richmond, VA. Easy fix to that one - just pay the money to buy two replacement stickers - one for my car with my license # and one for Mary Beth's car with her license #. Seemed easy enough to do and now we both have the correct sticker for our cars.

Two weeks ago, I was going to get Tim's little red car inspected so it could be a back up car for a friend. The inspection ran out in Jan and I had just waited to get it inspected. I took Tim to work and returned home to take his car for inspection, sat in the car and turned the key and nothing! It was dead! I thought I had kept it started so that wouldn't happen. I do know how to jump a car but just choose not to do it except for times like this. So I got the jumper cables from the garage, pulled my car up as close as I could to Tim's for the jump (which meant I had to get into his car from the passenger side and crawl over to the driver's side to start it), put the jumper cables on and then get in Tim's car to turn the key. It started and all was good.

I crawled back across the front seat so I could undo the jumper cables and put them back and move my car. Got it all done. Put that little red car in reverse (standard car, don't you know) and off I went for the inspection.

I got to the station and told them what I wanted and that the car had been sitting for 6 months. They asked if I had had to jump it and I said yes and they said it couldn't be inspected that day. It would have to be driven 60-80 miles and let the computer reset before being inspected. Do What! I didn't have time for this - I needed the car inspected that day so all the other pieces would fit into place. So, me and that little red car headed south on I-35! I drove it 61 miles and came back to the station for the inspection. It passed and all is good. The car was ready for use if needed.

I learned that I could jump a car without mixing the positives and negatives and having sparks fly everywhere! I also learned that my new hip was good because I could climb back and forth across the front seat of Tim's car with the gear shift in the middle and do what needed to be done! Mission accomplished!

Well, last week was my car! I took it in for inspection and it passed without any hitches. I got the inspection, an oil change and new transmission fluid (since it was brown and is suppose to be changed around 50,000 miles and it has 90,000). Whew - this car thing has certainly been an experience. They are all ready now for somthing else to happen!