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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Shouldn't Have Planned a Thing

What a weekend. Friday our friends cancelled their visit suddenly. And Saturday we were to drive to Miami after our Grandchildrens’ birthday party in St. Pete. They had the street blocked off and invited the friends of all five kids for one big party. They even had a bull ride! From there we were supposed to head over to Miami to see our son, Tristan, run in the Miami ING Marathon – his first – on Sunday at 6:15 am. BUT the jeep wouldn’t start. Lift the hood, and a dozen guys run over to figure out what was wrong. Someone found a corroded wire, someone messed with it, and it started! Thanks and hugs and we’re off. A hundred feet on the road, we stall again. Someone tows us back home and we can’t find out what’s wrong. We get towed to Jeep and because it’s late Saturday, we have to leave her till Monday. They found something else to fix, and we throw more $$$ at them and drive home. We’ve missed everything. Bummer. Tristan had a good run, the kids had a blast and we sulked all weekend.

Sunday night, to make us happier, Donna suggested we go over to Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks. Disney had designed a ‘slide show’ and special effects for the castle. It was awesome. The fireworks were beautiful – some I have never seen before. We had a funnel cake and free drinks, and had a blast.

Monday we did some laundry and started a crock pot meal, and then we were asked if we wanted to go get a dollar meal at McD’s and ride to Publix with Donna and Ron. Absolutely. After we got home, we got talking to our other neighbors who were planning to move in a couple of weeks and leaving to look at a couple places around here. Well, we said, if you find a cheaper place, we’ll ALL move with you. Vacancy is a huge issue in Florida in the winter. By the time dinner was over, they had returned and came over for dessert. We talked for a few hours about everything (which amazes me - I can remember my parents entertaining and they would sit for hours talking. It fascinated me that they had that much to talk about. Now I know how easy it is. You have a past that you can share, and you do. And you continually learn from others’ experiences. That’s the part I love.)

Today we decided on the spur of the moment to drive to Sarasota to look for places over there to park for the remainder of our time in Florida, since we can’t do anything where we are. Publix isn’t hiring, and neither is anyone. If were nearer the house, we wouldn’t have to drive 1 ½ hours for one day’s work. And we could have some fun in between. We got about 15 miles away from our exit and the engine light came on. REALLY??!! We limped off, and made it to Firkins Jeep in Bradenton, and the diagnosis was: throttle position sensor was bad. Great. They noticed a couple of things that would cause trouble down the road, so we had them fix that too. We’re bleeding green. Gary said if one more thing went wrong, he might just have to shoot and bury her. [that won’t happen – but seriously…]

So my mantra ‘it was meant to happen’ is really confusing me now. I really would like to know why. Maybe we will, maybe we won’t. But at least it was 80 degrees and sunny and we are healthy. What else matters???

Anyhow, it’s 8 pm and I’m hungry. Gotta run.

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