UtterlyBoring.com

I’m kind of hoping Shannon wasn’t right (though she’s not the only one that’s told me these things come in threes, so I’m due for something else wrong with my car). So what’s happened so far?

1. Wasted Money On A New Car Battery: Late Monday night I couldn’t get my car started. I was able to jump it, so I figured the battery cables and connection OK, but when I tried to start it without the jumper cables, it wouldn’t start. So I made the assumption that the battery was dead (unfortunately I didn’t have an electrical tester to prove this — something I’m now going to buy). So Wal-Mart was the only place open at 11:30, so I ran down there, bought one of their cheap batteries, brought it back, went to bed. Next morning, put it in, car still wouldn’t start. After going to work late that morning (my wife had to drive me with all the kids out there), I got my dad’s electrical tester, and tested the battery from Wal-Mart. It was fine. Tested the battery I had in there before, and it was fine. Tested all the connections, they all appeared to be fine. So I traced the cables back to where the battery cable ground connection runs to the car — it’s in an awkward place behind the engine block. Popped it off, cleaned off a little bit of gunk, screwed it on, car started right up.

   So I’ve got a perfectly functional Kirkland/Costco battery if anybody needs one.

2. Radiator Leak: So I’m sitting there thinking I’m OK with the car, my wife is driving it home last night after painting her mom’s bathroom, and the car overheats. She manages to get it pulled into the Black Bear Diner on 3rd Street, which is a couple miles from my house. My wife, covered in paint and wearing her nastiest clothes, didn’t want to go and find a phone to call me, instead decided to walk home (I really need to get that girl a cell phone). So she gets home about 10:00, explains to me what happened, so I call my parents to see if anybody can give me a ride down there. I get a hold of my sister, we go out there, fill the thing up the best we could with 50/50 antifreeze, and her mechanic friend that was with her gets the radiator hose clamp on there a bit better to get me home. I woke up this morning, all the radiator fluid we put in last night had drained out, so I’ve obviously got something else wrong with the thing.
3. I really hope things don’t come in threes, as my brakes are starting to get squeaky in that car, too…

I’m kind of hoping the law of threes does take place, as then, in theory, something good will come to take their place. So maybe my car will break down entirely, and then I’ll win a new one in a contest? Yeah, that’s the ticket.

On other personal news that seems to be bogging down this site lately (I’m sorry), I still haven’t heard from the school, and I’m still having issues with a client, but hopefully those will wrap up soon and put a little less on my mind so I can focus on some other projects and start putting more entertaining content on this site.

And I don’t even know where my daughter’s going to school.

As I briefly mentioned last week, I’m trying to get my daughter transferred into the Ensworth Elementary school district. We’re technically closer to the school (note that Google maps doesn’t have complete road data for that area, so it’s off a slight tad — here’s Ensworth’s address) that we are to Juniper, which is what district we’ve been assigned (we’re about a block away from the Ensworth district). After calling and calling and sending e-mails back and forth, I finally got to talk to the Ensworth principal today (really nice guy), and he still couldn’t tell me anything other than “the numbers are still coming in” and “we’re at the top of the list if we let anybody in” (as we got our application in long before anybody else did) and that there’s about a “50/50 chance.”

I would think that two weeks before school starts that they’d have more of an idea as to what’s going on. Our daughter is already convinced she’s going to the new school, so she’ll be terribly disappointed if she’s not going there and will have to go to Juniper or get home schooled (which my wife isn’t ready for, but said she’ll do it if she has to go to Juniper).

So right now, I have no idea where she’s going to school, she’s not registered anywhere because I’ve been told to wait until I get confirmation before registering (though now they’re telling me otherwise). This isn’t like I’m trying to move to a district across town like some folks are — I’m trying to move our daughter to a school that’s closer to where I live. Ugh….you wouldn’t think it would be this difficult, would you? Being hung up in the air like this is stressful — which the principal acknowledged, too — but I don’t have much of a choice.

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