One of Those Nights

The sun’s up and I’m up with it. Trying to finish all the things I agreed to in order to score my vacation days. It was a restless night after a screwy evening, so here’s hoping for success.

I got to Auto Zone and changed the flasher bulb in the rear light. One thing accomplished. I came home to find this mess, a spectacularly disgruntled mother over it (and the fact that my neighbor cut the grass along the driveway when I’d asked him not to, throwing grass into the driveway where she’s trying to paint).

Apparently, they sent a goofy little man in a goofy little truck to do the job. Said goofy little truck broke down at some point so that’s as far as he got. They’re supposedly coming back today to finish. And, thanks to the camper shell blocking the back half of my driveway, I couldn’t get in and out of there if I’d planned on it. Good thing I already moved my entire operation (including all of my remaining bricks) to the front of the house!

Suffice it to say I was glad to leave to go get my gravel.

What’s normally a quiet and somewhat relaxing drive was a nightmare. Night construction starts tonight along my path to Hardware Heaven and last night the workers were out putting up cones and signs and delivering the big equipment. I narrowly missed getting stuck in the logjam.
I discovered that the flasherbulb did NOT stay in place when I went to change lanes. (I’d had trouble with it on Auto Zone’s lot, not an hour before.) Right after that, the CHECK ENGINE light came on on the car, followed by the battery light, the seatbelt light and just about every other dash light. Before I could leave Hardware Heaven I checked everything imaginable on the car. Oil. Check. Transmission fluid. Check. Belts. Check. Radiator fluid. Check. Looked underneath. Nothing. Meanwhile, the car was running fine and after having pulled over to do all these checks AND to fix the flasher bulb yet again, everything went back to normal.

Got down the road and the flasher was obviously screwed up again. (Doing that fast, clicking flash when you use the signal.) When I went to fix it this time, the bulb fell down into the taillight housing. No quick, easy way to remove that so I went for the spare light. THAT one promptly fell into the casing, too. With just a tiny hole to try to grab the bulbs through – and no tools in the car, I pulled into Walmart for more bulbs. OK. Back on the road again. But not for long.

Before I could leave with my gravel – thanks I’m sure to the young kids who were kind enough to load it treating each 50-pound bag like a basketball – the bulb got knocked out of its housing yet again. So I now have THREE bulbs in the casing. Oddly that created enough of a pile that I could reach one of the bulbs to fish it out! Back on the road again.

About halfway home, I catch the car’s reflection in the back of a truck. The passenger headlight is out. Not only can I not win, clearly I don’t stand a chance. Mother Nature has backed off my case, only to be replaced by the Electrical Gods. I’m obviously in some sort of disfavor there.

That’s a new problem for a new day.

A long-term goal may finally be reached, justifying a celebration. That’s part of today’s email horoscope. Here’s hoping that applies to my walkway… But first, I have to finish working so I can be on vacation to work on the walkway. Hmmm ... something not right in that logic, but oh well.