ugh

so I stayed late at work on monday to make up for being late due to evan's school delay. I decide to take the highway home because it's faster. well it wasn't on Monday. I'm driving along and I hear in sound of "muffler-on-pavement". Crap! so I pull over. sure enough my muffler was making sweet love to the pavement. So I go to call Jay, and I can't find my phone. I know I had my phone, I had just used it outside of Dunkins. so after 10 minutes of moving stuff frantically, I notice I'm pulled over just in front of one of those highway call boxes. so I go over and push the "service" button and return to my car. thankfully I found one that actually works. decide to continue the phone hunt. I eventually find it on the floor in the backseat under the passenger side chair. whew! so I called jay to inform him of the situation. ok.

20 minutes later I need to use tha bathroom, and still no tow truck or statie in sight. so I decide (after much debate) to call 911 to see about how long of a wait there was (ie.. did I need to head into the woods?) well the dispatcher guy transferred me to the barracks, and as it was ringing, the statie pulled up behind me. ok.. but I waited for the guy on the other end to answer and I told him nevermind that the trooper just pulled up.. I didn't want to hang up and have him think something was seriously wrong, ya know?

so of course I don't have AAA, we talked about it.. on several occasions, but never really had the extra funds at the time to get it. The trooper called the tow company, and a coat hanger and $65 later, I was on my merry way home, with instructions to get it properly fixed in the morning.
so in the morning I call the place I wanted to go to, closed. so I call meineke.. oh good they can fit me in.. while I was there I had them check out this "rattle" I've been ignoring for months b/c I had a feeling it was going to be expensive. so the tell me it's the tensioner (ya know keeps that timing belt nice and snug) well my car don't have an ordinary tensioner.. it's hydraulic.. which means it's a very costly part. Thank You Toyota... new belt and tensioner can be replaced at meineke for a whopping $533 bucks! I asked how much he charges for labor, he says $75/hr. yikes! it's cheaper to go to the dealer. so I tell him not right now, and call the husband, and tell him the scoop and that I'll ask around.

The meineke guy was nice enough to not charge me for the new bolt for my muffler support strap, and I was on my way... to the mechanic that I wanted to go to in the first place. he calls up his part place and when he talked to the guy his reaction to the price of the part was "holy shit, that's not cheap".. lol.. and from what I understand the tensioner is a pain in the ass to get to. He says he can do it for $401. woo. It's needs to get done so I schedule for next thursday. I guess my belt is all cracked too, and either way it's not really good, and I knwo I've been putting off too long anyway. so in the mean time lets hope my belt doesn't snap and my car needs a tow.. what are the chances that it's gonna snap this week? (knowing me prob very likely)

so yesterday I'm wearing a brand new shirt.. brand friggin new... I go to a clients house and return back to work with friggin bleach spots on my shirt. WTF?! so I say to my boss, "is it possible for road salt to do this?" thinking htat maybe I brushed up against my salt covered truck. he said no, which I was expecting, but I couldn't figure out where it came from.. "unless.." i say " it was from when i stopped at the Shell to use the bathroom".. he says " I could see that.. they clean it with the bleach and don't clean it up well.. " i did shake my hands after I washed them b/c they have one of those super turbo blow dryers that distorts your skin in funny ways.. I don't like it, so i shook off the excess... grr.. stupid people not cleaning up friggin belach.. I can't have anything nice.. and this time it wasn't even my own fault! (I do have a bad tendency to drop food on my clothes. lol)

there might be a snow day friday! we'll see I guess.. apparantly the storm is moving fast.. channel 5 in Boston says the snow is coming thursday afternoon.. I'll have to check our forecast though.