SoapZone Community Message Board

It started when I was ready to leave for work and discovered my left front tire was TOTALLY flat. Actually, Dad noticed it; he asked if I had a flat tire and I, having been too preoccupied with making sure I had everything I needed for work (and was properly looking the part), said no. Then he asked if my low tire light was on; again, I said no because it wasn't. Right up until I got to the end of the driveway. Not only did my low tire light come on, my car helpfully pointed out that the pressure in my right rear tire was 37 PSI, the pressure in my left rear tire was 38 PSI, the pressure in my right front tire was 35 PSI...the pressure in my left front tire was 3 PSI. That's not a typo :-( I was fortunate that Dad a) noticed and b) was still at home (he sometimes goes to the outdoor shooting range early in the morning), so I was able to take his car to work. When I got home, I had to call around to find someone who had an opening for a tire repair. Again, I was lucky...the place closest to me could get me right in. The young man who took care of my tire did a fantastic job getting the tire off, finding the hole (last night, on the way back from dinner with my brother, I apparently ran over a small nail or screw), patching it and getting the tire back on, all in under 15 minutes. And it only cost me $12. I asked Dad how long a patch on a tire lasts and he told me it should be good until the tread wears down. I'm going to be needing to replace my tires before winter anyways, so the timing is actually pretty good.

And then tonight the a/c quit working. Saturday morning, Dad officially kicked off the summer with the annual, traditional speech on how back in his day, nobody had a/c, and we don't really NEED it and people who use it are just a bunch of wussies, blah, blah, blah. It's true that in the 1950s, homes in NE Ohio were mostly without a/c, and it's also true that many people still don't have it (such as my aunt and, I believe, SZ's very own Kitchop) and get by just fine. And TBH, I prefer fresh air to a/c when the weather is warm...but when it's HOT and HUMID, I can barely move, let alone sleep without the a/c. Saturday afternoon kicked off a heat wave; on Sunday, when it was 82° in the house and 86° in my bedroom, I pretty much demanded we turn the a/c on. Dad did, with minimal grumbling...and later, he was napping under a blanket (!). I honestly don't know if he really WAS that cold--he's older, with a heart condition that makes him prone to being cold--or if it was some sort of stupid display of machismo. And I didn't care...I got my a/c. Though as always, it's set at 78° which is just enough to knock down the humidity and make sleeping (mostly) possible. The a/c ran Sunday-today, with short breaks in the early hours of the morning, and then around 9:00 PM, Dad noticed the blower was blowing but no cool air was coming out of the vents. I don't know what we're going to do about it tomorrow but again, we're fortunate: right now, it's about 75° and the big fan in front of the front door is sucking in enough cool night air to keep the house reasonably comfortable (I get a really nice breeze when in my bedroom in front of one of the open windows).

And on top of that, tomorrow I work 9 hours instead of a usual 5-6 hour shift. This weekend is my overnight trip to WV to see my favorite band; usually I'm off either Friday or Monday (I'm pretty much permanently the Saturday evening closer now), so I was thinking I might get a three day weekend for the first time since starting this job. But no, not only am I working both this Friday and the following Monday, I work Monday-Friday this week (my other four shifts are 5 hour shifts), and Monday-Thursday + Saturday next week with another long Thursday (almost 10 hours straight). On the one hand, I'm grateful for more hours, especially since it'll help with paying for this short trip. But OTOH, ugh, work <g>.