A couple of weeks ago, I decided to trade in my big red truck for something a little newer with less mileage. Mostly because big red was starting to have issues tranny wise and otherwise.
Little did I know what a fiasco this was going to be.
To make a long ass story short, Rodney had done some researching on the web and found a used 2006 Dodge Ram (ain't no way I'm drivin' anything else). We went to the dealer and they brought the truck up from Portland so we could look at it. We decided to buy that after driving some other trucks, but not wanting to have to pay for anything new for the rest of my life.
Brought the truck home, and all seems well. Went out to go to the store on a Sunday morning after some rain the day before. What I entered into was something akin to Niagra Falls inside the cab of the truck! Water was pouring out of no less than three places, one of them being the computerized doohicky that has the compass and gas mileage. Shit.
Called the dealer the next day and told them they needed to come and get it to fix it. To say that I was peeved would be accurate. Little did I know then that the truck had yet another surprise for me the very next day.
I made the mistake of trying to go somewhere on Tuesday morning to find that the truck was happy sitting in the driveway. It wouldn't start. Shit. Called the man and he came up and fooled around with it and managed to get it started. I drove the thing to the office and called up the salesman...again.
By this time, I am irate and the top of my head is about ready to blow off.I had bought this truck to prevent dealing with just this kind of troubles and I got a lap full of them anyway. I explained to the salesman what had happened that morning and he says "don't be mad". Are you kidding me? Lucky for him he wasn't standing in front of me. He would have been bleeding from numerous places, and crying for his mommy. He was told that his company was going to come and pick up this piece of shit truck and not to bring it back until it was completely fixed.
They rented me this pile of a vehicle to drive while mine was in the shop. I was embarrassed to have it parked in my driveway.
I got the truck back yesterday (kissing and hugging the baby, so happy it's home). They ended up having to replace the fuel pump, with only 30,000 miles on it and replacing the windshield since they attempted to take it out and reseal it and it ended up in a million pieces on the floor, the tech dropped it on the floor! Hope he didn't have to pay for his clumsiness!
Hoping this is the end of issues, and not just opening up a can of problems.

This Christmas, I bought Rodney a watch from a jewelry store and he no longer has to rely on the Walmart special he's been wearing for years. We needed to go back to the store where I purchased it to have a link removed so he wouldn't have to wear it around his bicep. We decided to brave the big city on Friday, regardless of the hordes of people I expected to be on the roads and in the stores. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds. We wandered around the jewelry store, dazzled by all the bright and shiny baubles that were mostly calling my name. I never window shop at a jewelry store. I have a great fondness for braclets, earrings and all things that cost a fortune. He was willing to enter abyss to get his watch fixed, even though it was going to take all my will power to leave that store empty handed. I am convinced that somehow, the stores have managed to find a way to pump horomones into the air of the store, depending on the clientele they are hoping to attract. Home Depot, Lowes and all other male type stores, choke us with testosterone, and clothing stores, jewelry stores and all dollar stores, they reek estrogen.
Rodney wanted to make a "quick trip" into Home Depot while we were in the "neighborhood". Let me just say that there is no such thing as a "quick trip" into Home Depot. He bought me a central vac system for the house, and wanted to see if they had parts for it should we need some in the future. We had NO intention of buying said parts on that day, but because of the testosterone swirling around us, he was duty bound to stare at all things that the store had to offer, even the ones we already had....good grief.

The other day while watching some tv, I happened to catch a commercial about what to get your man for Christmas. I'm thinking to myself, okay, this could be useful. I did not expect what I heard. The woman on the commercial suggested getting the man in your life a prostate exam. What a great idea! Why hadn't I thought of it? What better way to tell the man in your life that he is getting a finger stuffed up his ass.... FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I just don't know how I could possibly dress this up in a way to make this present appealing. It would certainly be on his list of his most memorable gifts in his life. What worries me, is that in return, I could quite possibly end up with a colonoscopy next year as a gift, maybe a mammogram as a stocking stuffer.

I think that I will play it safe this year and stick to my traditional gifts...power tools, fishing stuff, etc.. and hope that he knows that I made the ultimate sacrifice and didn't give him of a visit to "doctor friendly".

Can't really remember the last time I posted a blog, 'spose I could go and look, but why bother? It's been a really good last couple of days. During Thanksgiving break, Ryan was able to come home for a visit. He hasn't been here since the end of August, and though we talk often, it is not the same thing. While he was here, he did manage to drive me just a little crazy with some of the things he did. He really wouldn't be Ryan if he didn't.
Now, don't get me wrong...I love having a cell phone. Ryan had his either plastered to the side of his head or texting furiously all the other parts of the day. WTF?!!??! His response: "I can't help it if I'm popular". I had to threaten him with bodily harm, and if you have seen him lately, he towers over me and could quite easily throw me over his shoulder and toss me wherever. I swear I could hear that thing going off in my friggin' sleep. On our way to Walmart, I even threatened to chuck the mother out the window. All I got for my statement was the stink eye.
I was mistaken in thinking that since he now has his own apartment, he may have a new-found respect for how much work it takes to keep a place liveable. Obviously, I was wrong once again!!!! He came home and did his usual Ryan thing and left everything wherever it landed and couldn't be bothered to turn off any lights.....aaaahhhh!
Still, it was really great to have the boys here for dinner on Thanksgiving, and relived some of the times when they were small (a right as a mother), amid many eyerolls and lots of laughs.
I look forward to doing it all over again next month.

My vacation is flying by faster than me hauling ass down the highway in my Viper. I've been at camp since last Friday. It seems like we've spent so little time down here, when in actuality, we've been here every weekend, rain or shine. Did I mention rain?
Yesterday was a wonderfully quiet day, no dogs barking and no screeching kids. However, I was rather bored and decided to give the windows inside the camper a good cleaning.
We had one window in the back of the camper that had a crack in it from who knows when, and my trying to wash it gently had that mother going all the way across the window now.....WTF.
A chat with the campground owners will hopefully get it fixed without too much trouble on my part.
Last night, all that was on tv was the democratic national convention......ugh! Not usually an issue with the millions of other channels to watch, but when you are roughing it and only have 6 to choose from, it's a problem. I would rather have sharp sticks poked in both eyes than waste my time watching all those lying polititicans tell me what they want me to hear, just to get my vote.
I am so disgusted with the entire political process that I could scream. A recent newspaper article was talking about the possible reasons for so few people going out and voting. Their thoughts were that it was just too difficult to make it to the polling places. What a load of crap!
My thoughts are that there are plenty of other intelligent people who refuse to fall for the speal that the presidential hopefuls are spewing and just refuse to endorse any of them. Lately it seems all about choosing the lesser of the evils when it comes to presidents and soon after being sworn into office, all promises are off and they will begin to run their own agendas.
Who needs that shit? I wish the people with the power would remember us, the little people and all the issues that we are having here in this country. How about fixing our own backyard instead of bailing out other countries? Aw hell, I could go on and on.....I'm going to write in Fred Flintsone as a presidential nominee. Yep, he's a loud mouth, but he always used to tell you like it is, and I can respect that.

Can you say yum? I can, after having a terrific dinner last night at a new chinese restaurant last night. We were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was inside, they even had cloth napkins. There was an extensive menu, with the option of ordering a box with lots of different options. The wonton soup was wonderful and all our dinner choices were just as great. I can hardly wait to go back.

I was lucky enough to catch some of the Olympics that was on late last night, and watch Micheal Phelps win another gold medal. What an exciting race! I don't think I have ever seen one closer. I am hoping he can do it again and bring home the gold again. What a wonderful accomplishment. I am proud to have such dedicated and talented athletes represent our country.

The news this morning told the story of a little girl who appeared to be singing a patriotic Chinese song, only to find out that the girl with the voice was not attractive enough to be seen by millions of people in the opening ceremonies, and hidden backstage, while a more attractive girl was lip-syncing.
How disgusting. Obviously the Olympic committee cared so little about how they were telling this girl, not in words, but actions, that she didn't measure up.
Women of all ages have been struggling for eons over self image, being bombarded by photos of women who are "perfect" and we should all aspire to be attractive over being ourselves and being valued for being individuals.
Now, the Chinese government wants to hush this up, and even have their people defending the decision, and supposedly they think the western world is making too much of this.
I don't think we are making a big enough stink about it.
Thank goodness for companies like Dove, who encourage girls to be self confident about themselves and see themselves for the beautiful people they are, not the airbrushed beauties that stare at us from magazines, billboards, movies and tv.
The Chinese people are sending a message loud and clear, maybe not the image that they want to send but one that says that physical image is everything.