Life in West Virginia: FIRST IT'S ONE THING

Thursday, June 29, 2006

FIRST IT'S ONE THING

then it's another. When I went over to my house to check on the flower beds, water the plants and put lattice in front of the porch there was a strange dog there. Not the renters' dog, Jake, but a HUGE dog, Siberian Husky with pretty blue eyes. My luck being the way it is, Bonnie was with me and she got scared and then mean, scared, mean and then scared and mean. She was lucky the dog was friendly. When she was scared, she would jump up on the 4-wheeler and when she was mean, she would snap and come up with fur in her mouth. This dog followed me around the yard and would lick my leg and Bonnie just made everything difficult. The dog acted like it belonged there, it was right as home, like it had been there for years. Acting like he was at home included walking in my newly mulched and planted flower bed. Well, I quickly got done with what I could with the dog "situation" and came home, steering the 4-wheeler with one arm and holding onto Bonnie with the other and I had to haul ass, as this dog was following me. I didn't want him over at Mom's because, as you know from the groundhog story, they gang up on critters bigger than they are individually.

Fast forward to 9:30PM . . . . I go down to Rockport General to get ice. I always talk to the girl who works evenings. So I proceed to tell her about this dog and my flower bed and that it looked like a Siberian Husky. She then told me that a lady had stopped and left her number because her Siberian Husky had gone missing. Rockport's not all that big, so I was pretty sure that this dog belonged to this lady. Turned out to be Mrs. Flannery, who lives on the hill going straight out Lee Creek in the kiss-your-ass turn going up the hill. Well, I told her I would come by and she could follow me to get her dog. This lady is in her late 70's, early 80's possibly . . . .but she had some back or leg problems. We got over to my house and it took her, Leah and me to get this HUGE dog to get into her car. When we finally did, Mrs. F commented that she hoped that the dog wouldn't cause her to run into the ditch and that she hoped that she could get him tied up when she returned home.

Well, me being who I am, I followed her home to help her. On our way back to her house as I passed Casto's, I heard this PSHT-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T sound. At first, I thought is was a pulsating sprinkler in Casto's garden. . . . but it continued as I passed their garden. As the car started pulling to the left, I realized that it was my tire going flat. We were almost to her place, so I continued to follow her, hoping that I was wrong. Her home is located in the middle of the downhill turn (U-shaped) and has a pull off spot across from her driveway and I pulled onto the shoulder when we arrived. I got out of the car and sure enough, it was going flat, not on the rim yet, but pretty close. There was no moving it anywhere. I got out and helped her get Blue, her dog, on his chain which turned out to be a two-person job and then told her about my flat tire. She offered to drive me home and I accepted so that Mom wouldn't have to drag Charleigh-Anne out of bed to come get me. I left the car there and went home to ponder my options.

Early this morning I rounded up Shane Scritchfield, who is a neighbor"hood" kid. He lives 2 1/2 miles away but that's still in the 'hood. LOL He is friends with Joey and he and his Dad come and collect our junk when we don't want to haul it ourselves or pay extra for the trash people to take it. They have also hauled water for us in the winter, during a snowstorm so that neither of us would have to attempt doing it. We get to the car and Shane proceeded to remove the bad tire so we could see what was wrong. Poor Shane, all I have is a screw jack and the car was on the hill AND in gravel.

VERDICT ON THE FIRST COUNT

The tire was badly worn on the inside and we couldn't really find any places where I may have picked up a nail or ran over glass or anything like that. There weren't belts showing but it was worn bad enough that I decided that I needed a new tire. I checked the other side and the outside of that tire was worn so I now needed two new tires. We traveled into Glofferty Tire and got a price quote on the tire(s) that I needed. Then went to Wal-Mart and got a slightly better price (10bucks) and they had the tire and came outside to make out a slip and I asked how long it would be and dude said TWO FREAKING HOURS!!! Yeah buddy, right. So we go back to Glofferty and I asked the guy how long would it take to put the tire on and he said, "You have it with you?" and I told him yes and he said "Thirty SECONDS". LOL Well, it took 5 minutes and Shane made sure that the balanced it and we were on our way back to Rockport . . . . Shane got the tire back on after much straining to get the car jacked up higher with that damn screw jack, tightened the lug-nuts, got the jack unscrewed with just about as much difficulty as lifting the car up, tightened the lug-nuts again, replaced the wheel cover and followed me back up the hill to get the Cadi home and then I too him back home. I still have to go and get the other tire but Charleigh-Anne was too tired, I was tired and I will do that next week. I could tell the difference after driving it with the new tire.

VERDICT ON THE SECOND COUNT

Since the tires were worn like they were, the left one on the inside and the right on the outside, I am assuming something is messed up with my balljoint, axle or something else. I suppose the wear could have occurred during the whole tie-rod ordeal before the tie-rod broke. When it was bad, maybe that was the cause of the wear. I had an alignment after that repair but Karl didn't mention anything about the tires being worn. I do a lot of driving on winding roads but with my luck, something else is going to need repaired and it will probably be expensive, while I have been trying to save money for propane this winter . . .

I just don't understand when it's going to be my turn for the good things to happen. I am a good person and do things like help Mrs. F., I carried out some cushions from Wal-Mart the other day for this other lady, because she had a cane and couldn't carry it and I offered to help. I open doors for people. I tell people to have a good day . . . even the people at Wal-Mart that can't crack a smile for nothing. I don't beat my kids (although, in Joey's case I should). It is so frustrating. God, when is it going to be my turn???? WHEN, WHEN WHEN????

So, to top it off, this evening I decide to go on a 4-wheeler ride and all of a sudden, it won't downshift. We just got it back and it was supposed to be fixed with a new battery. I can't go anywhere, I am in 5th and up by the house, the Dodge is in the way. I get the keys to move the Dodge . . . . the battery is dead. (bang, bang, bang . . . that's me hitting my head on the side of the truck) I go back out and see if there is anyway to start it going backwards and do a three-point turn on the downward slope out of the yard and well, it starts shifting again. Went on my 4-wheeler ride. No problems and returned home in one piece. I got some okay pictures and if you want to see them they are here.