That's life in the big city

[sinanju]

So last week Twoson was home sick from school most of the week. A combination of stress and a cold resulted in his having real trouble breathing. So two trips to the pediatrician, a prescription for a steroid asthma treatment, and a return to using an inhaler and a daily maintenance treatment got it under control again. snippy spend several days home from work with him, and I spent last Friday home with him.

Also, Oneson and a friend came up from his dad's place, ostensibly so that Oneson could see the pediatrician as well. Ultimately, they stayed from Thursday thru Sunday morning. It was odd having him around again after seeing him only briefly (and rarely) for more than a year. Though it was a fairly pleasant few days, I don't doubt that a lot of the lack-of-stress was due to his status as visitor. That is, we weren't trying to make him go to school every day or do his household chores. Were that the case, I suspect underlying tensions of yesteryear would reappear almost immediately.

We got new furniture this weekend. It's very comfortable, very nice looking. We're really enjoying it.

snippy, however, is suffering from a combination of a cold, her own asthma problems, stress and fatigue. She has not been a happy (or energetic) camper this week. We're both looking forward to this weekend when, aside from normal weekend chores like grocery shopping and laundry, we have nothing we have to do. Ahhh, blessed laziness.

So we took my car into the shop on Tuesday morning. It needed new tires and an alignment. Eventually I got a voicemail (I had my phone off) saying that it also needed new bearings for the real wheels. So we left it to pick up the next morning. Next morning we got into the other car to drive to work and discovered that a tire wa flat...and we had no jack.

We called AAA. The tow truck guy showed up, jacked up the car, put the emergency spare on, then left. We drove over to the shop (same one my car was at) and they fixed the flat for us. No charge. One of the reasons we like that shop. Got to work only an hour late.

After work, driving home, we discover that the tire is flat again. And still no jack (we were gonna get one this weekend, but come on.... So we called AAA again. Same drill. This morning we drove to the shop, picked up my car, and had them look at the tire again. Turns out there's a gash in the tire near/under the rim. So snippy bought a used tire to replace it.

So we have both cars functional again . My car drives far more smoothly now; the shimmy caused by the bad alignment is a thing of the past, though the shop told us that my front axle is "blown" (whatever that means) and will need to be fixed. But we can (and will) put that off for a month or so.

It's been quite an eventful two weeks. We're looking forward to a quiet and restful weekend, please, God.

Comments

RE: Front axle "blown"

[raine-wynd.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert on cars, but if your front axle is blown, that says to me that your alignment, suspension, and ability to steer has been compromised to a dangerous level, and you shouldn't wait too long to get it fixed. Your front axle is what holds your front tires onto the frame. If you had a seriously bad shimmy on a tire, it may have worn a groove into the axle, compromising the structural integrity.