As seems to be the pattern lately, things have been a touch busy lately. Nana came into town this past Tuesday and it has been wonderful. Just having an extra set of hands, eyes and ears has been fabulous, but these hands also iron for me and put kiddos to bed and make delicious things like chili and chowder. And they have also played and sang and held and hugged….its just been great and like I tell Brandon most every time a mom of ours is here, it would be so nice if they were closer.
So now on to a list of strange things that occurred this past Friday.
While driving to Mattie’s school to help set up for the annual Fall Festival, my car started to feel funny. It seemed like it didn’t want to switch gears and when I would stop at a light, it would take for ever for it pick up and go. Like I do whenever I have any sort of automobile trouble (or really any trouble at all), I texted Brandon. Does he always fix my trouble? Not at all, but I always feel that he needs to know that I am having some sort of problem. We ended up having to take my car into the dealership and it didn’t take the mechanic 5 minutes to assess that the transmission had to go. Thank goodness, it would be covered under our warranty. But here’s the crazy thing, the warranty is up at 100,000 miles and we are at 98,000. So the Acadia didn’t get to come home with us and the dealership happily offered a loaner car. Last time we had a loaner car, they gave me the biggest they had…..a chevy Malibu. It was a perfectly fine car, however, it didn’t fit 3 carseats very well. Luckily, it was summer time and we just didn’t go many places. But its kind of important that I go and pick Mattie up from school every day and legally, its frowned upon for me to leave one of my other children at home alone. So Brandon was very firm that we had to have a replacement car that would fit us. They gave us a Suburban. The only other time I have driven a car this size was back in high school, I got the privilege of driving my family’s big ol’ van for a few days. Looking back, I can’t remember why in the world I was driving that huge thing because I had my own car. But I did and I also remember not knowing whether I should laugh or be mortified when I got out. Anyway, I have been a little apprehensive about the whole deal. From the dealership, Brandon drove The Black Pearl (as we have named our temporary vehicle) home and I took his car.
This is when the day started getting really interesting. I had to make a few stops before I got home and one of those was to the grocery store to pick up some caramel apples for the Fall Festival. After getting the apples, I opened up the trunk thinking that would be a great place for them to ride. Apparently that’s a great place for Brandon’s secret hoarding habit as well. I don’t have time to list all the things living in the trunk of the Accord, but a few of the items I noticed that didn’t seem to belong were: golf clubs (the whole set complete with the bag) a duraflame fire starting log, a tube of Lila’s Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, 4 pairs of dress pants on hangers, a whole PlayStation still in the box and a 2liter of Diet Coke. And like I said, that was just what was on top and clearly visible.
I was still puzzling all that over in my head when I noticed a very odd car pulling into the bank across the street’s ATM. It was a limo, but not just any limo – a maroon Dodge Charger limo. I have never seen a Charger limo or a maroon limo, so to see one that was both of those things just seemed double weird. And why in the world was it going through the ATM at 3:30 in the afternoon?
My last stop found me at a little clothing store where I overheard one woman asking another if she knew the closest location for early voting. They discussed voting locations and where they both normally vote and then as things seems to be wrapping up, one lady says to the other, “Whatever you do, you HAVE to vote. If you don’t vote, you might end up in bondage somewhere.” I have no idea what that even means. I could understand if she was implying even one candidate over another, why we needed to vote for one particular one, but no, it didn’t seem to matter who got my vote….as long as I participated in the electing of our nations leader. As long as I voted, the chains of bondage would pass over me. So all of you readers, keep that in mind next week.
And the last thing that struck me as newsworthy was that McDonald’s is now serving sweet potato versions of their little apple pies. I can’t report how they taste, but from what I understand, sweet potato pie tastes a lot like pumpkin pie and I think a little personnel pumpkin pie would be a terrific idea.
Before I close off here, please not that Gap has 40% off all their currently on sale items and here in Memphis, that also includes uniform pants and shorts. I went this evening and scored several pairs of uniform shorts for $4.00 and I feel its my duty to share that shopping tip with you.
Mama Tried 
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