Day 137 - 1993 Saab (Tow and Throw?)

This may be premature, but my little car broke down today and I think it might be finished.  I had a lousy day at school, then play practice just made me anxious because opening night is just over a week away and students are still using their scripts as crutches (!!!), and then, driving home around 5:30 pm, my car radio stopped working.  The one thing that still functioned on that car!  But that was just foreshadowing.  The "Check Gear Box" light came on and I just wasn't getting any acceleration.  I was just about to pull over and restart the car (which has "solved" the problem in the past) when the car decided to beat me to the punch.  Fortunately, we were able to coast onto a long gravel driveway and out of the way of traffic.

Melissa had to come get us.  The car would only make a strange clicking sound when I turned the key.  We tried jumping it - knowing it was a slim hope that there was only a problem with the battery - but it didn't make one volt of a difference.

I've spent most of the evening alternately stewing and living in denial.  You can ask Melissa - I was not much fun to be around.  I'm feeling paralyzed regarding what to do next.  For a year now I have been anticipating that car giving up the ghost - I figured it was just waiting until the most unopportune time.  (It hates me.)  I have been dealing with its rough running mainly by pretending it wasn't that bad. 

Now I think it really might be dead. 

From the Drama Queen (age 8) and Dats (age 9) in the backseat came a suggestion that was already in my mind:  "Hey, Daddy, is this going to be your Throw of the day?"  Maybe so.

But what if it's not quite dead?  What if a couple of hundred dollars will get it back on the road strong enough to last another year or so until we're ready to move to Haiti?  On the other hand, what if I take it to a mechanic and spend several hundred just to get an estimate in the thousands?  I only paid $2,000 for it and it's already had its fair share of expensive repairs.  Should I just send it to the junkyard and see if I can get a couple hundred out of it to put towards some other junker? 

I guess that's the direction I'm currently leaning, but like I said, I feel a bit paralyzed about making the wrong decision.  We can't really afford a thousand dollar mistake.  I need to go to bed, pray about it, and maybe it will be clearer in the morning.


There it sits.  I was tempted to push it another quarter mile to the river.  Dats reminded me to take a picture of it for the blog, and I just happened to have my camera along, so I did.  Don't let its looks fool you - it's a junker!



Day 136 - Styrofoam (Give)

Found this styrofoam with some of my art supplies in a closet.  We might be able to use it in our production of "12 Angry Jurors".  There's a scene where a character is supposed to stab a switchblade into a door jamb.  Real switchblades are illegal - and I'm sure it would be against some school rule anyway - so we will be using plastic/medal switchblade combs!  A comb is not likely to stick into the wood like we need it to, so hopefully styrofoam will work.  The plan is to make the jamb out of styrofoam and then paint it brown.  Hopefully the comb will stick.

Opening night is just over a week away and I am finally feeling the ANXIETY that I have been dreading - because it always comes...

Day 135 - Pine Scented Candle (Give ... back)

Melissa suggested we give this candle back to her cousin, Angie, who gave it to us as a Christmas gift.  Melissa has a sensitive nose and easily riled allergies and the one time we lit this candle - it was when we lost power during the ice storm this winter! - it had Melissa sneezing her head off.

Angie has already gladly accepted back a couple of her gifts over the past 135 days, so I'm sure she'll like this one.  I bet she loved the scent and that's why she bought it in the first place. 

So here you go, Angie!  Just don't burn it when Melissa is around.

Day 134 - Fat Free "Italian Dressing" (Throw)

Into the trash where it belongs!

I think this is the first time I'm counting a food item as a Throw for the day (maybe not ... I have a bad memory and I'm too lazy to go back and look!), but it's been in the cabinet for quite a while - the sell date was last September (or I'd be tempted to give it to a food pantry or my mother-in-law, who apparently tolerates the stuff). 

(But if I weren't in the process of getting rid of stuff, it would have remained in the cabinet for several more years - I'm serious.  I keep picking it up, looking at the label and putting it back.  And I'm the only one around here that really eats salad.)

Let's be clear about this:  there is no such thing as Fat-Free Italian Dressing!  Who are they trying to fool?  What you have here is clearly SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY because half of real Italian Dressing is OIL and there is no such thing as fat-free oil.  It's impossible. 

Your taste buds get all motivated for a nice salad and ... Bleccchhhh! 

It's the same difference as between fresh peaches and canned.  At the word "peach" your taste buds get all hyped up anticipating a fuzzy, sweetly aromatic slice of heaven, but what you get instead is a gelatinous slab of corn-syrup-flavored rubber!

What a disappointment!  - canned "peaches" AND fat-free "Italian Dressing".  It does not even deserve to go by the same name, that's all I'm saying.

Don't even get me started on fat-free Oreos...

Day 133 - Home Maintenance for Dummies Book (Give - as a House-Warming Gift)

My friend Todd just received the keys to his first house just yesterday and the best part is that he is now living in town instead of 30 miles away.  I stopped by his new place today to give him this book, but he was out so I left it inside the storm door.  Looks like a great little house!

Congratulations, Todd! 

On other fronts:

Today marks the 3,000th pageview for this blog!  Can you believe it?  You're not the only one who reads this junk!  In fact, there's a stats page here that I check frequently out of curiosity and it even identifies what countries are represented in those pageviews.  For instance, while our friend Beka was on her trip to Africa, I knew she was checking in with us here because all of a sudden Burundi, Mozambique and South Africa popped up in the stats over the course of the two weeks she was traveling.  But even before that, I'd had hits from Costa Rica, Slovenia, Denmark, Russia, Singapore, the UK, Canada, Germany, Spain and even China.  Isn't that weird?  I'm sure some of those are accidental - someone does a search for "giant inflatable basketball" and up pops this blog! - but most are not.  And I know a handful of folks in a few of those countries, so maybe they found this blog through Facebook ... or maybe they are complete strangers who are fascinated with how much STUFF this one American has - so much that he has given or thrown or sold at least one item each day for the last 133 days and has hardly made a dent!

Who knows?  The internet is an amazing thing.

One last thing ... our next Open House is tomorrow, March 27.  The weather folks are predicting 1 to 2 inches of snow tonight!  That is just WRONG for the end of March.  Bleccccchhh!

Day 132 - Water Damaged Cellphone (Give)

We cleaned out the "junk drawer" last weekend - one of the many odd jobs on the list before our Open House.

I guess Melissa imagined people looking at our kitchen - inspecting the countertops, upper cabinets, then going to open a drawer to check the quality and ... "WHAT IS THIS?  An overflowing junk drawer?  Let's go, honey.  I CANNOT live in this house!"

It could have happened.  If anyone had shown up.

Anyway, I found the old cell phone in the junk drawer.  I ruined it last summer when I put it in my swim suit pocket.  Melissa was away from the house and I was going to take the kids out to the pool by myself and, in case of emergencies, it would be nice to have a phone on the deck.

I just forgot to put it on the deck before I started cleaning the pool.

I was swimming around for ten minutes before I remembered the phone.  It was a goner.  No chance of recovery.  (This meant that MELISSA, not yours truly, got a new phone.  How does that work?)

Anyway, the science department at my school has some sort of fundraiser that involves collecting old cell phones.  Not sure what they do with them, but I don't care.  At least it's out of the junk drawer.

As I write this, we have another Open House planned for tomorrow.  We are praying for an increase - even a slight increase - in attendance!

Day 131 - The Last Garfield Poster (Give)

Not much to say here.  I had one last Garfield poster in my classroom that wasn't claimed a few weeks back.  As a result, as so often happens in my room, it ended up staying exactly where it had last fallen - on the floor in the corner.  A student grabbed it and asked if he could have it.  Sure enough!

I love the days when I don't even have to put any thought or action into this little experience!  Makes it easy.