Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Checkin my spark plugs

So Sunday was a nice day. I went to church and saw Sgt.'s family there, his little cousin (who in reality is much more like a little sister) asked me to come out to their house to see her new prom dress. I didn't have much going on and his family is really great to be around so I agreed. Since I was heading out their anyway Little Sister and her boyfriend - drummer boy - asked if they could ride with me. Not a problem, although Sgt. would probably be a little annoyed that I let drummer boy in the car. I'm not entirely convinced he isn't hatching a plan to have him disappear on a country back road. Any time the poor boy is even mentioned the words "break his legs" usually follow shortly after. Big brothers for ya I suppose. :)

We got out to the house and Little sister looked absolutely GORGEOUS. Not that she's not adorable anyway, but she had great taste when she picked out her dress. I'm taking her to get her nails done before the big day as a special treat and also for some "girl time." - she's an only child and her and Sgt. are very close. I know this deployment has been difficult for her as well.

After showing me the dress, I left her and drummer boy to their video games and chatted with Little Sisters mom, T. T, conversely is very much like Sgt.'s big sister and she and I get along great, she's a pistol and will always tell you what's on her mind but I like that about her :).

I sit down at the kitchen table with my car's manual that I brought in and T says "what are you doing?"

I might interject here that while I am by no means a princess or high maintenance, I am girly. I remember one night we were all playing cards and somehow we got on the topic of my old cheerleading days.

Me: "hey, cheering was fun, I enjoyed it... I even have trophy's!"
T: "Yeah, I have trophy's too..... for motocross"

Of course, they pick on me because they like me... at least that's what I tell myself :) (kidding!) but T is an all knowing type of woman. One thing she is quite knowledgeable on is cars. My knowledge about cars is pretty much limited to knowing I need to get my oil changed, knowing how to open my hood so someone else can look under it and knowing if there's something wrong when it starts to make funny noises or dies. My current problem is my blinkers don't work so after church I resolved that I was going to figure out the problem myself. I was quite motivated and actually really looking forward to learning something new and feeling that sense of accomplishment. So fast forward back to the kitchen table -

"what are you doing"
"I'm trying to find out where my spark plugs are"
"*laughter* why?"
"cause my blinkers don't work so I wanted to check them and see if they're blown or whatever. I think I know where they are... like under my steering wheel but I'm not sure so it should say somewhere in here... *flips through manual looking for spark plugs*"

*laughter* *laughter* *tries to speak but cant so laughs some more*
"What are you laughing at me for"
"Are you sure you're looking for your spark plugs"
"I think so... ya know those things that you plug in and there's a lot of them and if they blow then stuff doesn't work"
*more laughing* "I think you mean your fuse box"
"yeah maybe that's it! Is that under your steering wheel?"
"give me that *points to manual* and lets go outside"

We proceed to go outside where I'm kneeling down beside my car, in a dress and heels might I add, while she finds the map of my fuse box and what they stand for. She gives me pliers and I begin to pull them out one by one, checking them but of course there are none that are blown. This anomaly of me doing something to my car draws a crowd as Sgt's Uncle and T's husband gather near. After retelling the spark plug story Sgt's Uncle determines that it is not a fuse, and most definitely not a spark plug, but it is in fact my relay.... whatever that is... and I have to take it in.

I'm still proud of myself that I figured out what my fuse box does and where it's at.

After we all went inside the house, T and I decided to watch a movie. For some reason we picked "Premonition" with Sandra Bullock. It's the one where she keeps waking up and her husband is dead then alive then dead... I give it 3 stars. While watching this movie, I mentioned that I've had nightmares about getting that phone call about Sgt. Which then led to us having a conversation about how we think we'd react and how, she wouldn't call me, she would just show up. We break for the bathroom when the phone rings.... Guess who it is.

Sgt.

Creepy much?

It was great to talk to him, he laughed a lot at the spark plug story and then asked me if I had checked the blinker fluid... that maybe THAT was the problem. Haha, so funny honey, I know THAT one. He didn't mention anything to me about his leave so when T took the phone I asked her to ask since I'd forgotten to. He didn't know anything and said he would push a little harder tomorrow at getting some info. Short and sweet convo since he had everyone else to talk to but any contact is welcome.

At this point... since it's supposed to be so close (if it had been moved up)... I'm thinking it's not gana happen. Huge bummer, but survivable. Just come home alive. Whenever you come home is fine, just come home alive.

4 comments:

Lindsay Gray

I had such a similiar experience with a tail-light (someone broke it in a parking lot) while BF was deployed. I ordered a new tail-light ($59) and then they informed me that it would cost $100 to install it! Heck no! I can figure this out!

I took pictures to document my changing of the tail light (not just the bulb the whole fixture) and even had to get on a car message board to make sure I was doing it right. Low and behold the thing is still working! BF was so proud, he hung the pictures I took up on his bunk!

He said "see honey! Now we can say that we both work on cars as a hobby!" yeah...uhh...thats it...

Jrzy Army Wife

Glad you figured out that your spark plugs don't have anything to do with your lights,lol.

I think we all have our car issues... the day hubby left for the sandbox I had to go to work after dropping him off. On my way home from work I blew a tire on a dark night, in the rain, at midnight with the baby in the car. I called my stpedad in Jersey(it was 5am there) and he walked me through how to change a tire. It's amazing what we can learn about cars when we need too.

Anonymous

Okay, the spark plug story is classic! Too funny!

I hope something concrete is decided about his leave soon. *hugs*

Jrzy Army Wife

Hey I tagged you for the MeME survey but then I saw you were tagged by lindsay at USO. I'm slow,lol.