Friday was the longest day I've had in a quite a while. It started with a 5:30 am trip to drop Jim off at the train station because his car was still in the shop. (Before I continue, I'm sure some of you are wondering, how can she advocate frugality and green living when her hubby commutes in a car while the option of public transport exists? The thing is, Jim has to take a train and a bus to get to his job and the trip takes two hours each way. So on the one hand, its a great option when he needs to use it but, for now, his time is a more precious commodity to us and worth the extra money spent on commuting via car.)
Once home, the usual morning activities began with children getting ready for school and me getting ready for work. Everyone made it to their respective school busses and I got ready to head to work. I had planned to leave a little early and hit the bank on the way but it was not to be. As I closed the front door behind me I noticed the front tire of my minivan looked flat, not a little low but totally and utterly flat and it was really cold out. I'm 36 years old, fairly intelligent and extremely independent but changing my first tire in the freezing cold on a big minivan seemed too daunting. (I was hoping my first flat tire would be on something smaller, like Geo Metro, somehow that seems less daunting.) I called my dad. Before he could head over, my neighbor came out to give me a hand. He was a pro and had it changed in a matter of minutes which was good because as I mentioned before, it was really cold!!
The rest of the day was spent at an equally frenetic pace. Jim needed to be picked up at the train station and dropped off at the mechanic to get his car. Then he took my van to get the tire repaired, the stem was faulty. While he was at the tire shop, the tech topped off the other tires and a second valve stem blew out. They fixed that one at no charge, which was very nice. It pays to develop a relationship with the tire shop, or any local merchant you use.
When I started to drive home in his car, it made a noise every time I braked that sounded remarkably like the opening notes to Heart of Glass by Blondie. Back to the mechanic we went to get that resolved. Again it helps to have a relationship with your mechanic, I always fear being treated like a "hysterical girl" in a situation like this. The new brakes just needed an adjustment and we were on our way much faster than I thought we'd be with no extra charges.
Kyle and I were even able to make it to our Friday night yoga classes, kids yoga for him, power yoga for me.
The whole day we were on the edge of disaster but in the end everything went smoothly. We were able to head up to the Adirondacks with one of the girls' friends as originally planned. Although, honestly, a weekend wasn't long enough to recover from Friday!
I tried some new and some not so new recipes with our weekend, non-veg house guest. I'll share my results and a recipe tomorrow.
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