Never give up

What a horrendous adventure I had this evening. I left work early at 4:25pm, because I wasn’t feeling well and waited 45 minutes for my bus (it appears that one never showed up), then when the next bus finally came by, it was full and I had to stand all the way home, in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Two hours after I leave work, I arrive at home.
I have to find a job that doesn’t require a daily commute. ;)

Two bad days in a row! sigh
This afternoon, my son called me at work to tell me that he had crashed my car coming home from his school house-building program job site. He was driving some chums home and came upon an unfamiliar corner (and must have been going too fast) and the front tires aquaplaned on the wet pavement and he didn’t make the corner and ended up jumping the curb.
Fortunately, my son was not injured, nor anyone else nor any pedestrians. And he didn’t strike a pole or another car.
Unfortunately, the whole front suspension, front rims and one fender are toast and the initial word from the collision shop is that they would recommend “writing the car off.”
I can’t afford to repair the car and I can’t afford to get another car to replace it. I guess we better get used to not having the Maxima around anymore. This is a very expensive lesson for my son to teach him to drive more safely and keep the car under control at all times. The problem is, the incident happens to affect me, as well. I keep on thinking that it could have been much worse, but that is very cold comfort at this time. :(

If I make an insurance claim to repair the car, my son’s insurance rates will go sky high for the next 5 or 6 years. We seem to be beat either way.

It’s sunny this afternoon and I was supposed to drive up to the trailer today and close it for the season, but we have more trouble with our station wagon. The power steering is tightening up and two garages have inspected it and told us that it needs a new rack and pinion mechanism. I looked it up and sooner or later, the rack does go on the steering systems and our car has over 225,000 km on it now. It seems that every other week, there is something else that acts up on that car. It’s been a great vehicle for us, for over 8 years, but, I don’t know how long we can continue to sink money into it.

I was pleased to learn, when I logged on just a few minutes ago, that I had 29 cheers to give out to my 43T friends! After giving out 11, I had 18 left, started cheering Todd S. and all of a sudden, the message line said I had only 4 cheers left? WTF? This site is really getting buggy and the Cheer system is very manipulative of the users. If you don’t log on within 12 hours, I believe it is set up to take away cheers automatically. sigh…

On Wednesday evening, my 17 year-old son was with a few friends, walking home one of their female friends, just after 9:30pm, when their group was jumped by three young toughs. Adam was singled out and punched and kicked in the face and head several times. They stole his backpack and cell phone, then took off in a car. When Adam called from a friend’s house, we went there right away and I called 911 and the police arrived in minutes, took the situation seriously and interviewed Adam. Then they called an ambulance which took Adam and my wife to the childrens’ hospital.

X-rays came up negative, but Adam has some nasty cuts and bruises on his face. We drove home from the hospital after 3:30am and all of us didn’t get to bed until after 4am. I hope that Adam has no long-term difficulty from the head trauma. These attacks have occurred several times in our quiet suburbian town recently. So much for a safe Canada! These toughs are quite brazen and only an hour earlier attacked another boy in another part of our town. He was at the hospital as well.

Yesterday, we were supposed to go on a day-trip, to get away and have fun for an afternoon, but we decided to stay home and keep an eye on Adam; plus we were very tired. I think that my son is recovering faster than we are, actually.

Today, I cancelled a golf date because I had sprained my right ankle a few weeks ago (yes, the same foot as my previous problem) and it is still bothering me off and on. As a friend said, ”...the golf course is not going anywhere and this is still the beginning of the season.” It would have been nice to get out for my first round, though.

Something else has happened today, that I am confused about and don’t really understand, but saddens me. This hasn’t been a good week so far, considering I’ve taken this week as “vacation” leave.

I’ve been having big dropping-out problems with my wireless router for many weeks and it finally gave up the ghost two nights ago. I bought a new one yesterday and last night, I did not have fun with the “quick set-up” instructions. I kept on running into technical issues. I was proud that I managed to stay calm and early this morning, I didn’t give up and I was finally able to successfully get my PC to recognize the new equipment and create a new network.

This evening, when I got home from work, I was able to create a new internet connection and get back online again! Now I’ve got to work on our taxes, which are due April 30th.

Given all that I’ve put into this 1993 vehicle, I am going to want to keep it for a couple of more years. I think we’ve been caught by the vicious cycle of keeping the car longer, because of all the repairs I’ve put into it.

Today, two front shock mounts, a left engine mount and a new right CVJ rubber boot (located near the tire). Plus, I had an engine block heater installed. Unfortunately, all of these things are indicative of a 16 year-old car. It’s still solid and drives well and I tell myself that it costs far less than the payments I would have to make on a newer model. With the bus strike going into it’s 50th? day, I’m glad we still have the Volvo.

I just gave up on a goal here, “Understand My Teenagers.” Just because I am removing this goal from 43Things, doesn’t mean I am ceasing to try to understand them. It only means that I realize that I will never fully understand my sons, haha.

Not only was it Monday and all that, but emotionally, I had a really difficult day at work. When feeling discouraged, it’s very difficult to work through the mire and basically make progress by getting things done.
I know that tomorrow is another day and hopefully, my head will be more into it than it was today. So right now, I’m going to try to think happy dessert thoughts, involving chocolate. Anyone want to join me?

This doesn’t really fit under “Never Give Up,” but I don’t quite understand what’s going on with my cheers. Someone must have left 43T, because yesterday, my cheers given went past 15,000, but right now, I’m sitting at 14,997. WTF? Can someone clarify this for me?