Happy Holidays

Moving weeks/days before Christmas is something we have done for two years in a row. I'm very glad to be in a new house with more room but it makes the normal Christmas groove a little challenging.

Luckily our kids don't seem to notice. We have the Las Vegas, all white Christmas tree up, half decorated. But hey, we are going up north for Christmas week anyway. Ya know, when you are spinning burning plates at both ends in the air things get re-prioritized.

Hu?

One bit of holiday advice I have for you is:

DON'T IGNORE THE WRENCH!

Our 2006 Honda hybrid had the little orange wrench show up on the dash board. This means something needs attention. We knew that the oil needed to be changed so we assumed that was the problem and just kept driving around for a day or two... then we began lurching around the neighborhood floored, going 4 miles an hour. Even with my hazards on because my hamster powered car was OBVIOUSLY having "issues" people were honking at me and swerving around me like I was some kind of hundred year old Sunday driver from Pokipsy.

I'm quite sure being behind me was like following a street sweeper being driven by someone who was reading the paper while talking on the phone between bites of a big mac but Jeeze people! I honestly could not go any faster. Eventually we rolled backwards into a parking place, engine dead. 8:00pm on a school night, two kids in the back seat, one coming down with a cold, the other asking, "Is the car dead? What happened? Will we have to get a new one? Idon'twanttowalkhomeWhenarewegoingtoeatMomI'mhungryIsthecarok
IwantnoodlesWhenarewegoinghomeArewegoingouttoeatI'mcoldIhavetogopee

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

I figured since it was a hybrid and the assist battery gage was gone, just plain empty, that it was a battery thing. And not the kind you can jump and get on your way... But the expensive kind. The hybrid kind.

I kept saying, "In a normal car, it feels like the carburetor isn't getting any gas, likes it's a clogged fuel filter." My main point of reference being our "other" car, my 1971 Volkswagon bug that was a birthday present for my 16th birthday. Now THAT car I expect to break.

But you pop the hood on the hybrid half expecting to find Tinker Bell and her friends sprinkling fairy dust in there and it just mysteriously running... the engine doesn't even turn over when you start it, it just kind of - goes on - then hums, does not ever shift gears, the engine completely stops when you slow down but kicks in when you take your foot off the break. That's NORMAL operation so how the hell was I supposed to know what the wrench stood for? What on earth could go wrong with the magic-mobile? Was Tink caught in a fan belt? Did it even have a fan? Or a belt?

Well apparently it does have a fuel pump, JUST like one of them regular type cars! ... and a faulty fuel pump at that. Just like a regular car. So much for my romantic, exotic manifestation of some new fangled Jetsonesque repair. Sigh.

So the kids and I took a taxi home while R dealt with the car.

So when your little wrench goes on in the dashboard of life, don't ignore it or it will likely bite you in the butt at a most inconvenient time.

That reminds me, I need to make an appointment for a physical.

Have a very happy holiday.

Here is a link to a fantastic post by Mamanista.com. They offered Stylease as a contest prize. I love seeing which outfits people liked best. I will make a note of it when designing the next line. Thanks Mamanista!!!

http://www.mamanista.com/2007