June 2, 2012

Too Much and Yet…

Well… it seems like there has been a lot going on of late, and yet nothing at all – all at the same time. It is hard to imagine that my last post was so long ago, especially since there have been so many times when I have started a post, not quite finished it and then it just seems to get lost in the shuffle. I really do need to make a better effort to write more because it's good for me and I know that there are at least a few people that miss my posts ;-)

So anyway… what's been going on you ask?

Well… like I said, a lot and yet nothing at all! I guess I am just at a point in my life where the days just blur together. It doesn't matter how long it's been since my last post, because it seems like nothing has really changed or even really happened. But I am speaking in such none specifics… let me think a little here…

ScottE and his partner have picked up a couple more contracts and the calls seem to be coming in more now. It has been a little tough because there just aren't as many people traveling or in need of roadside services for some reason lately. The calls have been steadily increasing, but it still isn't quite enough to support 2 drivers yet. ScottE has been working on salary and taking calls. We are making ends meet, but only just. We constantly pray that things will pick up and get better, but it's hard to pray for people to get into car accidents or to have car problems! We just ask that there will be people that stand in need of service through the various contracts that the company holds and hope for the best situations on all counts. So far that seems to be sufficient.

My part-time chauffer gig will be coming to an end in September when Brother Davis comes home from Texas. Unfortunately this also means that I have to give up the car that I have been driving for the past 6 months. It will be a sad day when I have will no longer be able to drive the Trailblazer, but we have something lined up that will hopefully be fixed by then.

About a month or so ago, ScottE did a tow for this couple. The car is a '98 Chevy Prizm (which is basically a Toyota Corolla). They came to the conclusion that the car had blown either a valve or something like that. The car was going to need a new engine either way. Being the Good Samaritan that ScottE is, he offered them a deal. We would drive up our Tahoe and sell that to them plus $400. When we went to take possession of the car, we realized that there was some work that needed to be done on the company car trailer and we couldn't take the rollback and leave Papa Liggett stranded with no way to tow a vehicle should a call come in while we were gone. So we decided that it might be possible to limp the car back. We drove our Tahoe out (it was about an hour and a half drive) expecting to be able to drive the Prizm home.

Well, that idea blew up in our faces pretty quickly. We tried to start the car, and got it to turn over once, but then it just puttered out and wouldn't start again. ScottE thought this might happen, but we were really hoping to be able to drive our little 4-cylinder home. Not the case. So we called around and tried to find someone that would be willing to come out and pick us up. Let me remind you that all 3 of us went out there on this little adventure. We stayed there at the house of the people we were getting the car from for a bit, but that soon became uncomfortable for me and ScottE, so we had them drop us off at the Wal-Mart in town. We got all of our stuff out of the Tahoe and put it in a shopping cart (and yet I am still wondering if I should be considered a red neck! ;-) ) Anyway…

We began to realize that we should probably eat something before our ride arrived. We hoofed it over to the Wendy's that was across the parking lot. Carrying all of the stuff from the Tahoe and Ender's car seat was an adventure. Everyone at the Wendy's loved Ender and the workers there had a blast watching him run around between his Daddy and Mommy.

Once our ride did arrive, we got home and the next day, ScottE went out with a car trailer (rented from U-Haul), and now the car is just sitting. We are hoping to get it evaluated and diagnosed to determine what all needs to be done. We got the car for free but it's gonna cost more than a little something to get it on the road again.