Thankful For The Light That Cried Wolf

Monday of this week, Fall took a hike and Winter snuck in and we had bitter cold, sleet, freezing rain, and snow. It didn't stick to the ground much, but it DID stick to cars, as in covering them with a sheet of ice. By Saturday, it was in the low 60s, and you didn't need a coat outside. Is it any wonder everyone has jacked up sinuses around here? 

This weather report is a lead-in to my thankfuls this week.

The brake light has been coming on in my minivan (shut up) for, oh, several months now. At first, it only came on when I made a hard right turn, then went back out as soon as the wheels straightened. It began staying on longer and longer and progressed to coming on not only when I was making a right turn, but also if I hit a bump while going straight and occasionally when I turned left. Now, a brake warning light might alarm some people, but not me. That's because my tire pressure light is on nearly all the time, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the tire pressure in the car (yes, I check them periodically, and yes, as a matter of fact, I DO carry a tire gauge in my car at all times, courtesy of my daddy). I chalked the brake light up to being another malfunction of a vehicle with 144,000 miles on it.

Monday, when I was leaving work to find my car was covered with ice, I tried to open the sliding door on the driver's side (shut UP) to get the ice scraper, but it was stuck tight. I was able to get the driver's door open, though, and wrangled the scraper out from behind the seat, chipped ice off the windshield, and went home to take Finn to the vet. As I pulled out of my parking space at the vet's office, the brake light not only came on, but it was accompanied by a dinging noise. Obviously, this was VERY not good. I drove home with dinging and the brake light going on and off, and as soon as I got home, I told my husband about it and that maybe it was time to get the car looked at. We decided to take it in the next morning.

My sweet Finn.

Tuesday morning, still bitter cold and icy outside, I put the car in reverse to back out of the driveway, and the brake light came on and the car began dinging again. And it dinged continually all the way to the tire shop. I pulled into the parking lot and put the car in park, and the dinging stopped. I put it back into gear, and ding ding ding ding. Back in park, and it stopped. 

That's when I remembered that I had tried to open the sliding door the day before when the car was coated with ice. I had used the remote to try to open it, but the door just made a trying sound. 

The dinging. Was not. The brakes. It was the "door ajar" alarm. The only reason it didn't occur to me that that was the cause of the dinging was because the "door ajar" symbol was not displayed on the dashboard. 

So Thankful #1 is that I figured out the dinging was NOT an audible brake warning before I announced to the men at the tire shop that, not only was the brake warning light on, but the brake warning alarm was going off as well. Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for saving me from THAT humiliation!

2. The brakes really were bad. Like, really bad. Like, we had to replace both the front AND the back brakes. I'm thankful that the door ajar alarm created an urgency to get the brakes checked, as it could have been oh, so not good if I had let them go too much longer.

3. They checked the tire pressure warning light and said the tire pressure was fine, but the batteries in the sensors (located in the wheel) were low, and that was the reason for the light being on. At $79 per wheel to replace them, I am thankful for that tire gauge that I will continue to use to monitor tire pressure!

4. I don't think this can be reiterated enough: I DID NOT announce to the men at the tire store that the (non-existent) tire warning alarm was dinging.

5. Before I spent $450 on new brakes, I ordered some shoes that cost more than I EVER pay for shoes. Ever, ever, EVER! They were $95, which may be nothing to some people, but I thought long and hard about spending that kind of money on a pair of shoes (they came highly recommended by a friend and by my sister-in-law as extraordinarily comfy shoes). Can I tell you that it was the one of the best purchases I think I have ever made? Certainly, it's THE best shoe purchase I've ever made. They are called Allbirds, they arrived Saturday, and they are like walking on clouds. I love them!

Like wearing a tender hug on your feet!

6. Did I mention my comfy new shoes?

7. New shoes. Allbirds. Fabulous for people who are on their feet all day at work.

8. I got new shoes! Did you hear?!

9. Allbirds. Get some.

10. New brakes? Good. New shoes? FAAAAANTASTIC!

Got new shoes? New brakes? Whatever you've got, be thankful for it and link up with us!

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Well, I'm Not Thankful For The Cold Weather

Today there was an arctic blast that brought us, well, arctic weather. Bitter cold temps, strong winds out of the north, sleet, freezing rain, snow, and dear GOD, if this is fall, what's winter going to be like?! I am not thankful for this. I AM thankful for these:

I discovered at some point during the day that I had my underpants on inside out. That, I could live with. I'm just thankful they weren't on backwards.

My ankle is healed enough that I was able to return to the gym. Big thankful for that! (If you missed it at an earlier date, I fell down two months ago, yes, FELL DOWN, and thoroughly jacked my ankle.)

I had to get a new debit card recently, because mine may have been compromised at an area restaurant, and it never occurred to me that the auto payment I have set up on it for the gym would need to be changed. The phone call from the gym's business office made me remember REALLY FAST, but when I explained how it happened, they waived the deadbeat fee!

It was a great hair day today, even after going to the gym before work.

Last week, our downstairs furnace quit working. When I say "quit," I'm saying it wouldn't even PRETEND to do its job. Not a click, not a harumph, nothing. My husband called our furnace guy (who we have not had to use in probably 10 years, which is a thankful right there), and he's no longer in business. I got a referral from a friend, called Thursday and left a detailed voice mail message, and he never called me back. Now here we are, in the throws of the arctic blast, and no downstairs furnace (we only have hardwood floors and ceramic tile, so with no carpeting, the floors are STINKIN' COLD when there's no heat). I came home from work today, prepared to find another furnace man (I was planning to call the guy whose truck pulled up next to me at an intersection earlier today, having written down the number before the light changed). The air temperature downstairs was in the upper 50s (BRRRRR!!!), and on a whim, I turned the furnace on AND IT WORRRRRRKED!!! I don't know why, I don't know how, but I have a working furnace right now. Fingers crossed that it was a fluke that it didn't work and all will be cozy and warm.

My classroom was toasty warm all day. This is a huge change over my old room at the preschool, which had windows all along the north wall and was very drafty.

Pizza bagels for lunch today!

My electric mattress pad is turned on and my bed is getting snuggy warm and ready for me to crawl in. 'Night.....

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I Survived The Blizzard And Other Thankfuls

I think of wonderfully witty things to include in blog posts, but they're generally always at a time when it's difficult to write them down, like while driving or when I'm awake in the night. They are usually so profoundly clever and hilarious that I am SURE I will remember them as soon as I'm able to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, buuuuuut, yeah, no. I created a cute little haiku last night around 3 am as written from the cat about the time change and it went like this:

something something time change
my belly something something
I scoff at something

Brilliant, don't you think...?

Thank goodness I can always remember to be thankful. Hey! There's #1!

2. It got nasty, unseasonably cold this week and rained buckets. It also - wait for it - SNOWED a little. But it was such a small amount that the worst thing that happened was I had to scrape the windshield a little without the long handled ice scraper that I removed from the car in the spring and failed to replace yet, because WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GET SNOW IN OCTOBER.

What was once a gerbera daisy.

Results of Blizzard of '19....

3. Because my car used to belong to my parents, there was an extra ice scraper in a pocket in the back seat. . .

4. . . .AND it was the kind with a built in wooly glove, so my hands didn't get cold without the gloves that I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD NEED IN OCTOBER.

5. The heated mattress pad is once again on my bed, and not only am I grateful for it, three cats are, too!

6. Last week, I wrote about my cat, Finn, who had been sick with a UTI. He spent five days at the vet's office and got to come home Tuesday. He had a rough go of it, including a catheter and a cone of shame AND being away from home for so long without his family, but he appears to be on the mend, has had a voracious appetite, and is tolerating his medicine fairly well. 

He's not the brightest, but we love our Finn.

7. Halloween is over. I'm really not a fan.

8. My dad, husband and I attended our first Missouri State Ice Bears hockey game of the season. The games are such fun, plus we had an Ice Bear win of 4-2 over Alabama. 

Go Bears!

9. I cooked with my little nuggets at school on Friday. We made applesauce muffins, and everyone got to stir. They were DEAD SERIOUS about their stirring, and no one spilled, sneezed or coughed into the batter. When we were done, I taught them how to stick a finger into the bowl that held extra applesauce and then lick it up (you're welcome, moms!). (TBH, a couple of them MAY have stuck their entire hand into the bowl.)

Serious muffin making going on here.

10. I ran into Kohl's and picked up a couple of shirts (the kind you wear under other shirts, although, in theory, they are intended to be stand-alone shirts) and when I finished checking out, the cashier handed me a Kohl's cash coupon and said the previous customer told her she wanted to pay it forward and to give it to the next customer, which ended up being ME! I've never had anyone do that for me before, and it made my heart so happy! Thank you, unknown customer! I truly appreciate the gesture!

Have you counted YOUR thankfuls for the week? 

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