Thursday, September 13, 2007

Therapy Thursday - Anything a man can do...

I can do better (or at least do) except pee standing up. I mean, I can do that too, but it ends very badly. I grew up with that mantra taught to me by a strong woman who is the center of my family, my Mom. She's the perfect combination of super capable but never insulted by door holding men. I yearn to be that balanced and perhaps I am.

So yesterday when my Dad was checking out the brake line leak and pinching it off enough to safely get it to the mechanic, he says "This one is easy to get to. Anyone could fix it." He was suggesting that I ask my cousin to do it rather than pay a non family member to do the work. Which is an excellent idea. I would rather give money to family than anyone else. Then I started thinking which can be dangerous.

If anyone can do it, why can't I?

I do most of the maintenance on my van already. It's my baby. Why shouldn't I take care of it? I have a brain. I'm good with problem solving. Don't get me wrong, my Dad does anything that I'm unsure of and looks over anything that could kill me. :) But Dad's never afraid to show me how to do something or suggest that I be self sufficient. Then again, my Dad is perfect anyhow... He wants me to do anything I want to and is willing to do anything I need. Yep, perfect.

Now the question is, will I have the courage to try to fix my own brake line today. I don't yet know the answer. I have the parts and the willingness to try. I think I will. At worst I'm sure I can find some way to use the experience for writing research. I'll let you know how that goes.

Shannon

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Websurfing Wednesday and the van of doom...

Perhaps I should save this for Therapy Thursday, but I just had to share my adventures. What started off as a short, 5 mile, trip to the bank ended in me creating new swear words and promising my sweet little Windstar a painful and merciless end. To make a long story, err... a little less long, My van is mostly reliable. It has over 200,000 miles on it so I do cut it some slack, BUT I expect two things; 1 I expect it to go and 2 I expect it to stop. Everything in the middle I'm pretty flexible about. The go part has been good for most out our trips, with a few exceptions which ultimately added to my mechanical knowledge. Such as what and where the starter is and how to hit it with a dolly handle just right. :) As a side note that bit of knowledge has helped at least two men I offered parking lot aid to. Yep, little girlie me to the rescue.

The stopping is where the van and my expectations appear to diverge. I think that now and then stopping would be good. The van disagrees. It must disagree since my brakes have gone out not once, not twice but 6 (SIX) times in the past 2 years.

ohhhhkay... back to cutting a little slack. It has a lot of miles and isn't a new car. Those brake lines are old, all five of them. Whooops. Yep, twice now, new lines have gone. I must just be lucky. Or maybe I should be a stunt driver with all this experience I'm building up.

So yesterday, on the way to the bank, some jackass pulls out right in front of me, and I punch the brakes, and they bottom out with a familiar feel. OH Shit. The I calmly miss the jerkoff and use the last of my brakes to pull into the bank lot and start changing my evening plans. No trip to the monthly dog club meeting. No visit to hubby for some inspiration. New call in to the mechanic about the brakes. Since he's left for the day, no luck there. Then I think about calling for a tow, but dang...its only a few miles and I still have a little brake at the bottom. The cheapskate side wins out and I drive my bad boy home, using the brakes only twice in 5 miles, including my driveway.

Now I need a distraction, something nice and funny to cheer me up. When hubby came down to visit last night (at least I still got my inspiration) his suggestion was... http://www.simpsonizeme.com/ Very funny. :) So I simpsonized the hot guy from Monday's post. You can find the result here. I tried to do my own photo but my timing seems to be off. The site keeps saying it's busy and to try back later. Maybe that can be for another time.

Shannon

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Testing Tuesday

You Are 60% Intuitive

Your intuition is often right, and you use it more than you may realize.
Your gut feelings are usually a good guide, but you need more to go on when making a decision.
You'll often check to see if the facts back up your feelings.
And when your intuition is wrong, you work to improve it for the future.
Hmm... I always thought I was more intuitive than 60%. :) But maybe I'm not after all...LOL
Shannon

Monday, September 10, 2007

Manhunt Monday

I can't remember who shared this steamy guy with me, but dang... They certainly knew what I'd go for. :) Mmmmm...yummy. I love the hair.


New thoughts...Manhunt Monday

In an effort to be less MIA and a more regular visitor to my own blog... I'm setting a light schedule for myself that I hope visitors will enjoy as well.

Manhunt Monday
Testing Tuesday
Websurfing Wednesday
Therapy (ranting) Thursday
Free for all Friday

Today is Manhunt Monday and in search of perfect men I will head out into the unknown wilds of the internet and will happily stalk my prey... Be back soon with my man.

Shannon