Some days are just like that....A tribute to Judith Viorst and Alexander

One of the books I used to read to my kids all the time was Alexander and the horrible terrible, no good very bad day by Judith Viorst. We loved Alexander especially Denise. The reason? Alexander was a middle child  in constant tormented by his older and younger siblings.

I can recite it from memory: I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now ther  is  gum in my hair.....

I loved it because that house sounded like mine and I felt a little bit normal. 

I read it every time a child came home with his heart broken over having a bad day.

Judith Viorst was proflic writer and you knew she was writing about her boys. I had Alexander, Anthony and Nicholas at most stages of the early years. I could pull out a book on almost anything and read  about a smilar situation between her boys and my three.

Denise had a day where everything went wrong. 

 Denise left a pen in her new yellow shirt, I threw it in the washer thinking she had cleared her pockets, and well you know what happened.  Yep a pretty blue  circle on her yellow pocket of her good work shirt. 

She just kind of looked at me and dumped it in the garbage. OOPs. 

Someone tried to snatch her purse as she was crossing the street. She went to three car dealers none of whom wanted to play fair and because she was in a desperate situation, they took advantage.

She did finally get a car but she is thinking about taking it back.

other things in this 24 hour period:

She had two new people hired and only one showed up.

She had a cook call out.

She had to ask one of her cooks to bring her home because of her car, he charged her a hamburger.

She broke down twice in her old car.

There is a mysterious  squeaking in the engine of her new used car.

Being a manager at Denny's is not always fun.

Poor Denise. Poor Alexander,

I am ordering the book from Amazon, I guess we still need it.

Alexander says: This has been a terrible, horrible no good very bad day, I think I'll move to Australia.

and his mom says: Some days are just like that:even in  Australia,

And so they are Denise. 

Saturday troubles,,

It is Saturday in Charleston, and as usual the day is busy. Charlestons population does not sit still on weekends, there is always something to do in Charleston.

Denise and I went on our weekly trek to Walmart in our car that has a mind of its own. We were  merrily driving along, when Tasha piped up and said the cars not running. Denise and I laughed then a second later stopped as we coasted to the side of the of the road, looking at each other in credulously. How did she know that?

We sat there for about 5 minutes then the car happily started up again and we coasted into a parking space. 

After shopping, putting the groceries into the car we sat and prayed for a minute hoping very much the car would start, we went on our merry way again.

We have replaced the water pump, the regulator the thermostat, added oil additives, water additives and additives tot he additives and still the car over heats. 

We are looking for a new vehicle, but Deni is a server, they earn their living by their tips, sow we are waiting for her first manager pay check stub to appease the banks who are hard pressed to believe a server makes money. It makes me wonder what they tip. 

Most people in this time tip more then their 20 percent, knowing the what they tip is the servers primary source of income. 

So we are driving home, catching every light of course, something we never do and get to the busiest of intersections and the light is green, we are going to make it.....uh..no we are not

We find ourselves stalled out with every car in Charleston behind us.

oops

Denise being a mom is panicky, her only thought is a car barreling down on us and hitting Natasha happily sitting in her car seat. 

I am a little calmer, I know we only have to let the car sit for a minute so, I am busily directing traffic around us with my left hand and reassuring Denise with my right. 

The car did finally start after sitting through two lights and we moved on to home. 

Tuesday Denise should have a new car, and all should be well.

This has been a major stress point. We will be glad it is over for a minute. 

Oh the places we go, the things we see....

Yesterday, as I do about three days out of the week: I had to take Denise to work. This, was not a big deal, except it involved me getting up at 5:30 so she could get to work by 6:00.

I threw on clothes, threw water at my face, gave a promissory swipe to my teeth  at which my toothbrush I am sure just shook it's bristles at me, and went out to the car drove Denise to work. 

Stopping in front of Denny's I smelled something burning,and thought: Something is on fire, looked at the gauge and thought in horror:

 "It's me!"

I pulled the car into the nearest parking space, hopped out  and popped the lid. Yes, lid. Oh all right hood.

The reservoir for the radiator was boiling over, hot with brown slush oozing out of it. 

That's not good I thought. 

Since the radiator was full, it couldn't be the source of the overheating, I checked the oil and found it didn't even register on the stick, so I quickly went in and told Denise she had to cough up some money since I had none. 

Yea, well  my purse was MIA at this point.

Denise gve me the money and off I Went to sunocco, where they happily charged me $4.99 a bottle for oil, this made me frown, but after I asked if I could buy a Icee cup for a funnel, The clerk perked up and told me they had free funnels: To make things convenient.

That didn't make up for paying $4.99  for oil I could've gotten at Wal Mart for $2.00, but it helped. 

I went out to the car, and all of these truckers were standing around their trucks, whispering and watching me. I took a quick look at myself, made sure everything was buttoned, put away and I was otherwise decent. Everything seemed ok. 

So I just shrugged and proceeded to put the oil in the car. 

The truckers watched a minute then started to get in their trucks or go about their own business, about that time the cashier came out to dispose of some garbage and I asked her what the problem was.

"Oh," she stated "don't worry, they just wanted to make sure you didn't put the oil in the wrong place." 

Wrong place?

"yep", she said "one lady put the oil in her transmission, the truckers felt bad so now they kind of I guess check it out."

Do you have a lot of women stop here for this purpose?

"Oh yes mam," she shrugged  "we run out of oil right quick. Some people just forget I guess."

So now thoroughly embarrassed I threw the oil containers away, crept into my car and drove off, only to overheat yet again,  1 block down the road. And the truckers were where? Right no where to be found. 

Great.

I stopped, pulled over and waited for it to cool off. Let it suffice to say, I got home this way, turning off the car at stop lights, and spending 1/2 hour at a shell station one time. But I made it. 

Eric took it to Midas, and we got the Midas touch, literally. $123.00 but the car runs.

and me? I plan to  check the oil, every day from now on, just in case I am bringing a book everywhere I go. Not to mention not giving my teeth more then  a promisary swipe anymore. and forgetting makeup:

You never know when you are going to run into a station full of truckers.

Well, I am single.