Yesterday D–‘s mom came into town and took us out to dinner, as she likes to do. My car was dead (as I may have mentioned), so D– ended up picking me up from work, and I just left the Saturn there. We got to the house where D–‘s mom was already playing with AB, and after some discussion settled on Poblano’s for dinner.
We all had margaritas with dinner (well, all but AB), and they were not small. I had the chicken tamales, which were fantastic. I highly recommend them. The sides there are lame, though. Just get them a la carte.
Anyway, after dinner we went back to the house and showed D–‘s mom an episode of Boston Legal, and then…well, everyone was pretty lethargic all evening, so after the one show D– and his mom left, and T– and I did a few chores around the house and then headed to bed ridiculously early.
I was still late getting up this morning. That was irritating. T– took me in to work, and the plan was to try to start the car around noon, and if it still didn’t work, try to figure out how to get a tow truck past security and onto the Aeronautical Center.
Before I got around to that, I had a call from my doctor’s office saying they’d received my MRI results, and it was not a ruptured disk (something he’d feared it was). So that’s good news. It also meant they didn’t have a specific suggestion. They asked how I was feeling with and without medication, and asked if I wanted to start Physical Therapy right away. I told them to give me a week, and I’m going to go back to my chiropractor. I saw him for a week and felt like it was making a big difference, so I want to give him a chance to finish the job.
Either way, I’m going back to my doctor in about a week for a physical, so we can revisit the issue at that time, if necessary.
Anyway, at lunch I tried the car and had no luck. Then I spent twenty minutes on the phone with AAA trying to get a tow truck out here, only to finally learn the 800-number dispatcher had put me in touch with the Kansas office, and they would have to transfer me to the Oklahoma office to start over. I waited on hold during that transfer for nearly ten minutes, then gave up.
My social anxiety was something of a bother here, but I managed to muster the courage to ask a couple of my coworkers (who were playing chess in the break room) if they had any experience push-starting a car, and if so, if they would be willing to help me out. Incredibly generous fellows that they are, they immediately did, and the car started on the first try (and thank the Lord for that).
So I took the car up to the shop, and it’s already been positively diagnosed as the starter, which is going to run me right at $500 to replace, but they can have it done this afternoon. At least there’s that.
Tonight we’ve got family coming in, and it should be an interesting weekend. I’ll tell you all about it on Monday.
Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.