How NOT to use a car wash

You knew it was only a matter of time before I provided you with another life lesson. Today I will demonstrate the absolutely incorrect way to use a car wash.

First you run around like crazy picking up specialty magazines for your husband while he's in the hospital, drive around an unfamiliar area looking for a Wallyworld, fill your car with gas, and then go on the hunt for an automatic car wash. Oh, yea, could you do all of that in about an hour please?

Ok...so now that you have your assignment let me show you how not to do it. I had everything planned perfectly so that I used my time efficiently. No backtracking for this girl! My plans were going great until I got to the car wash part. I put my money in the cash thingy and pull in when the light turns green. I made sure the windows and the sunroof were completely closed and put the car in neutral when the red light came on. While the car wash is doing it's gyrations I decided it would be a good use of my time to reorganize the bags from Wallyworld so I didn't take anything unnecessary into the hospital. You have to multi-task in order to live my life lately! I pulled everything up into the passenger seat and moved my purse to the console. I soon noticed the car wash was louder than it was when I originally pulled in. I looked up just in time to notice that my purse had put the passenger window all the way down!! OMG!! Guess what? The harder you push the button does not correlate into the faster the window goes up. This is what I looked like a few seconds later:
Luckily I had towels in the trunk and I was able to get everything fairly dried off. CarGuy's magazines had an enjoyable ride back to the hospital on the heated seat and I cranked up the heater in the car to try and blowdry my hair. I ended up pulling the front part up with a clip which I'm sure was awfully attractive. Thank goodness I wasn't wearing a white shirt!! That's a look that most 40-something women just shouldn't take part in.

And that is how NOT to use a car wash!

A funny thing happened on the way to the hospital...

Well...today CarGuy went into the hospital to get ready for his transplant. The weather for the drive did not cooperate in the least but that's another post for another day. What I saw when we stopped to get a bottle of water (which in no way came close to sating CarGuy's mega-addiction to the Diet Coke he was not allowed to have this morning) really caused me to question the redneck status of my little town and thus has proven to be sufficient blog fodder. On our way otu of town we stopped at a local Conoco that I normally don't go to and I was thoroughly suprised by this specialty vending machine sitting just outside the front door. I asked CarGuy to snap a pic for me just knowing I would have to share this with you all. Unfortunately it's not the greatest pic but I think you'll get the idea of what this lovely piece of machinery dispenses.
Huh? Is it just too much work to go inside this 24 hour gas station and pluck your container of bait out of a nasty cooler? How redneck is your town if you have one of these? Have you ever used one of these?

BTW...CarGuy is doing fine. He has a bit of a headache from the lack of Diet Coke and his magnesium is a little low so he's getting an infusion now. The room is really nice but the only complaint I have is that until this certain test comes back negative I have to wear a gown and rubber gloves while I'm in his room. Typing with rubber gloves is interesting.

Quick Baby Fix!

Of babies, bone marrow, and slacking

I am such a slacker around here!! I have so many updates that I don’t even know where to start but let’s start with the most fun one. My new niece was born on March 3rd and we got a chance to take a quick trip to see her before CarGuy’s transplant. She is an absolute doll and it was so hard to leave her when we left for home. I’ve decided to call her Darling on my blog because it sort of relates to her name and she is so definitely a darling child!! She doesn’t like to be contained and her arms and legs are in near constant movement when she’s not sleeping. I can’t really figure out if she looks more like BeeGee or Pepper so I’m going to take the easy way out and say she’s a good mix of both. Poor BeeGee has had nothing but problems since Darling was born. She came down with a nasty infection in her abdomen from the c-section which required another stay in the hospital and then a few days before we got there for a visit she passed a gallstone so she was in the hospital again. Once this infection gets taken care of she will need to go in and have her gallbladder removed. I feel so bad for her – this is not how your first baby is supposed to go!!

Now…on to CarGuy – his transplant was delayed yet again but we have a date set in stone, aka - don’t change this date or you will face the wrath of the insane caregiver kind of date. He goes in the hospital on March 30th with his transplant occurring on April 3rd. The trip to see Darling was a great diversion but now that we are back home he is getting nervous. I don’t blame him but really don’t know how to help his situation much more. I could wisk him away again for another short trip but I need to get some things done at home before we leave and wisking tends to interfere with those chores. I think this is maybe one thing I need to let go of and just let him deal with it. I’m a meddler, uh, I mean fixer so that’s really hard for me.

I’m looking forward to having more time to blog about all the crazy and bizarre things I’ve noticed. My family used to warn me not to blog about something stupid they did but I’ve been such a blog-slacker lately that they haven’t even felt the need to give me those warnings they know I won’t listen to. I’ve had lots of fodder to choose from but just haven’t had the time or motivation to get them down in print. Gosh…I need to get my priorities straight!!

Tiny Theater Thursday

Ok...honey this is for you!!



Thanks for finding this Jim!!

Tiny Theater Thursday

I love stupid criminals!!

Bone Marrow Donors Needed!

I read an article today about this little 6 year old girl in New York (http://oneforjasmina.com/) who needs a bone marrow transplant.

Read the full article at: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/03/2009-03-03_little_girl_fighting_rare_and_deadly_leu.html.

AOL had a poll on their site about this story and they were asking if you were a registered bone marrow donor and of the nearly 70,000 people who had taken the poll only 15% of the folks answered yes. That breaks my heart more than you can even imagine! It is such a simple thing to do and the actual donation does not require any surgery or cost the donor anything. I know that I’m probably way too close to this situation since my husband will be getting his bone marrow transplant in just a couple weeks, to even be able to look at this girl’s situation in a neutral way but it’s my blog and I’ll be as biased as I want to be here!!

This story really brought home the fact that there are so many people out there who will never be able to find a marrow match. It is estimated that only 2 of every 10 people who search the registry will find a suitable donor. That means that out of every 100 people with these hideous illnesses that 80 of them will die before given another chance at life. That is so unacceptable to me! Go to http://www.marrow.org/ and learn how easy it is to get signed up…please. The matching is very dependent on your racial and ethnic background so this sweet little girl is going to have a hard time finding a donor. The African-American community is not very well represented on the registry. It looks like several prominent celebrities are helping out with this little girl and I hope it causes a huge swell of sign ups among among all backgrounds!

Before I leave this topic I just have to share this one last thing. I was reading some of the discussions going on below the article and I was appalled at the responses some of these people had to this story. This one in particular made my blood boil:

I would help her being an African American male, but the government screws you so much with the high taxes they make me pay and the bills. I just don't feel like helping anyone but myself right now. If I was rich like Paul Pierce. I would do something like help people like this little girl. I feel like this; let the government help her, that's where our hard earn money goes anyway.

What is happening to our country when people will put their anger with the government ahead of saving the life of a precious child?!? This is not about money and all the money in the world will not find a marrow match when the people are not on the registry! There is some controversy over who originally said, "If not you, then who, and if not now, then when." I don't really care who said it first but I am saying it now -- people are dying everyday because they need a bone marrow transplant and cannot find a donor. You could be the one that could save someone else's life so get out there today and get on the registry!

Can someone help me get off this soapbox now? I would hate to fall and crack my head open.

Tiny Theater Thursday

This one starts out a little slow but definitely makes up for it later!