Turkey Day Travel Troubles.

What a day, what a day.

You thought that by now I'd be sitting at Grandma Name is Shirley's house, suckin' on a Harpoon Winter Warmer, whining about the traffic and bragging on how good the truck handled the weather and the ride. Yeah, I thought so too.

But our ongoing bad luck with Thanksgiving Related Travel continues into this millenium. The day started out normally enough. Doug took Geoff to school for me because the Chevy has been experiencing technical difficulties (five years of faithful service and we're pretty sure she won't survive the winter, much less the week after we get back. Transmission, by the sounds of it... but we'll see, we'll see). So he took the truck, I had laundry and packing to do, and a ton of work for cateringman that I promised would be done prior to my leaving for Thanksgiving.

I had no idea how much time it was going to take me. Four hours! Holy cow! Anyway... I worked like mad, did dishes, and load after load of laundry. When Doug got home at about 12:30, I figured he'd be tired and want a nap before hitting the highway, so that would afford me at least another hour of work, and of dryer time.

At about 3:30 I decided it was high time I took the dogs to the kennel, as I figured they'd be closing early. I ran out to the truck, put them in the back seat (Kinger can't figure out how to get up into the bed, and I can't pick him up... Jack can't figure it out either, but at least I can lift him. I let them ride inside). I noticed we were just about out of gas, so I figured I'd swing by the gas station, drop off the dogs, and come home and load up Quimby for his big ride to Grandma's.

I pulled out into the street and could hear this horrible thumping noise. I couldn't figure out what it was as the truck was handling just fine. I turned the corner, parked in the Church parking lot, and got out to see what was up. We have a flat. A massive, huge, evil flat.

I couldn't leave the truck there with or without the dogs. So I drove home (four doors away). I cleaned the snow off the Chevy, and said a little prayer asking the Motor gods of Detroitus to get the Chevy at least all the way to the vet's office. I'd worry about what would come next when I got there.

(By the way -- we got about 7 inches of snow today. Par-tay!)

The car barely made it. I checked the dogs in and asked if someone there could spare a minute to drive me home, less than a mile away. One of the vet techs did just that... I didn't think the car would make it back. I got home at 4:30, found Doug awake and going through the mail, ready to go.

I filled him in (You want the good news or the bad news? Good news is the dogs are allllll set. Bad news is we're immobile!) He was none too happy. I noticed that there is a brass rivet in the tire, small... looks like something that got run over in the garage when I took Quimby in to get his sticker. So the sucker is flat, it's dark out, Doug and Pete (the tenant) start talking about getting Pete's patch kit out and getting it inflated. I said "Just put the SPARE on, it's a full sized SPARE, we have tire coverage for this... we'll deal with it later."

In short, it was pretty dark out, we opted to change the tire in the morning to the spare, we'll take it with us to NY to the Dodge dealership nearest my mom's house, and we'll have daylight for the trip. Doug is getting up early to do the tire, I'm making breakfast, then we're on our way. We'll be to grandma's at a respectable hour.

And if worse comes to worse, we'll call the Roadside Assistance and have THEM come change the tire. I'm sure Doug will be able to handle it. So we're home. I am done with ALLLLL the laundry, ALLLLL the cateringman stuff, the kids are watching Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh (which I SO don't get. What is the deal with that stupid show???) and Doug's asleep. Next time you hear from me it will be December. I won't get to post in the morning, and I'm sure none of you are reading anyway because you're all like ... settled in Drinkin' that Harpoon Winter Warmer.

Happy Thanksgiving. Be good, be safe. Here's some photo evidence of my yard in the snow today and Geoff at school.

some snowy tree action at the Way Out Inn, where the dogs did frolic, the wind didn't destroy the frosting, and this is the earliest REAL snow I remember here for quite a while.
Geoff does a Japanese Tourist/Sonic the Hedgehog Peace Sign thing in his Pilgrim hat	You can tell which vehicle left the yard today. Well, until I discovered the flat on Quimby and had to take the ole Chevy out...