One of THOSE Weeks. You Know--the NIGHTMARE Kind.

Too true.

My new "car."

Well, well. I alluded in my last blog to our car troubles. Well, the "troubles" has turned more into "nightmare." Our 1999 Daewoo Leganza stopped in Salt Lake as Andrew was taking his brother home from their camping trip. This is a really long story, that I'm really sick of--so I'll make it short. The timing belt broke and I guess damaged stuff in the engine (can you tell I know a lot about cars?), rendering our little car useless. Unfixable apparently. SO. Since a few months ago our other car didn't pass safety (and would cost $1100 to fix!), we don't have a working car.

So I am now riding my bike to work (which I should have been doing anyway) along the Provo River Trail. Work is only a mile away and it's really a gorgeous drive next to the water. But I had never gone that way before (I used to ride along Geneva that is now under construction). So Andrew told me that when I come to a park, cross the bridge and I could get to work that way. Sounded easy enough. I found the bridge fine and crossed it and just kept going on a little dirt path. But...I soon found myself in a heavily wooded area surrounded by fence. I was like, "Hmm... this doesn't seem right." Convinced as I was that this must be the way, I searched and searched for a way out. Nothing. I finally found a gate, but it was locked. I was now very late to work and very sweaty with tree branches and bushes whacking me in the face. I turned back around and headed back to the river trail. I had no idea how to get to my work from there, so I kept riding until I hit the main road. By that time, I was another mile PAST work. So I had to head back once again. As I panted and dripped with sweat (in 100 degree weather and I'm very out of shape), I was reminded of the movie title Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. At least that made me smile.

I got to work a good 45 minutes late and my supervisor was in the front office trying to find out if I was okay, when I came in. I was disheveled and panting and tried to explain where I'd been to my friend Michelle. I was really upset by the whole thing and groaned as I realized that I had no idea how to get back home. Luckily, Michelle is one of the nicest people I've ever met and on her next break she drove her car around to find the way I should've gone. She even got out and went down the trail aways to make sure it was the right one--in the process oil from the above railroad tracks dropped in her hair. She thought it was bird poo--nope, it was oil. She even returned movies that I'd rented over the weekend so I wouldn't have a huge late fee. Thanks Michelle!

So Andrew is going to have to borrow a car to deliver pizza, meanwhile we have to figure out how we're going to get another car. NIGHTMARE. The bike ride is pretty good exercise, though, and kind of fun now that I know where the heck I'm going and how to get back! (It's really easy.)

There is a slight bright side to the story. Last December, a week before I had Kate, I got hit by a massive SUV in the Walmart parking lot. No one got hurt, but it did put a nice dent in the Daewoo. The lady's insurance covered the damages, but I never got around to fixing it. The day before our car died I got a letter from Geico saying we never cashed our check. Check? I had mistakenly thought it was a voucher type deal--where you have to take it to a certain place and get it fixed. I guess not--we could've just cashed it. Which, under the circumstances, is much more helpful than getting a dent fixed on a broken down car. So--we have a little money (almost $600) coming to help us with car buying. So getting hit by an SUV six months ago was really a huge blessing! Strange.