Thirt. Teen. Years.
I thought I just started it, like, a couple of years ago.
😆😆😆😆
I crack me up sometimes.
This blog is a teenager! I've been writing in this blog longer than I've been working at [place where I work]! Longer than I've been driving the Nox!
I mean, I know that I started this blog about the time we started our adoption journey, but it doesn't occur to me that that was so long ago now. I mean...I was in my 30's when I started this blog. (Late 30's, but still.) Now I'm in my 50's. (Early 50's but still.)
Erh ma gersh. I wonder how many times I've changed the password in 13 years? Ha. Ha.
Anywho...
Not much going on today. I drove the Lincoln to work last Thursday and Friday. That was fun! It's not stressful at all driving a literal land yacht though pre-rush-hour traffic. I even tried leaving early so I'd not hit the heart of rush hour traffic. But who am I kidding? Driving that thing in the city at all is stressful. It used to just be stressful because it's such a boat, but I'm used to driving it now. That part doesn't stress me out. What stresses me out is other frickin' drivers. People who don't know that there's a reason to leave space between me and the car in front of me -- my car doesn't have anti-lock brakes, therefore it takes longer to stop than modern cars. Not only that, but I don't want other cars that close to my car. In general, but especially in a classic car that's going to be more difficult to replace parts on if some idiot causes any damage.
It's also not really fun driving a boat with no air conditioning on the hottest days of the month. But I didn't care -- the reason I drove it to work is because we decided to finally go to the North St Paul car show on Friday night, and the easiest way to do that was to go directly from work. So actually, I spent the night at my Mom's on Thursday night so just drove the Lincoln to work Thursday morning. I stressed out about parking it in the lot at work, too, because that's how I roll.
At least, I consoled myself afterward, I wasn't still working in downtown St. Paul and had to try to park it in the parking ramp! I think that would've been a big H-E-L-L N-O.
But I knew it was too long to fit in just one spot, but I didn't want to park as far away as humanly possible like I usually do. I know, I don't overthink at all. I still worry that kids are going to steal the hood ornament, because my mind is still stuck in the 90's, lol. Anyway, I tried like 3 different parking spots before I settled on one that I liked, because it was far enough away that I didn't feel I was taking patient parking, but close enough that I didn't think anyone would mess with it without being noticed. (Cars have been broken into in that lot before.) And it had to be in a spot where I could get the door open without being in danger of hitting another car, because those doors are as long as some compact cars, and I had to be able to drive forward out of a spot because it's a freaking long car. Anyway. Hashtag car girl problems.
Then I got to my Mom's house, and we went and ran her errands or whatever, and got back to land for the night. She had thoughtfully cleared space in the garage so I could park there. But the neighbor across the alley had their garbage receptacles placed so that I wasn't able to just pull up and execute the ol' 3-point turn to get in like I used to. I did end up moving their receptacle once, but it still took about 5 minutes of back-and-forthing it to get in. A little embarassing, but more maddening than anything because my Mom -- bless her heart -- who does not drive and has no freaking idea what it's like to try to back any vehicle, much less a 19.4-foot behemoth, into a small garage, just stood there smiling at me the whole entire time. I was hot and sweaty (no A/C, remember) and getting more and more frustrated and in my head was like WHY ISN'T SHE HELP DIRECT ME INTO THE FREAKING GARAGE?!?
Ahem.
I'm trying to show grace. But if you see someone struggling to park something, anything, wouldn't you maybe HELP THEM!?!?!
Alright, alright. I'll quit. It's not the first time I've tried to just say -- no, it's OK, she doesn't drive so she doesn't get it. But it's also not the first time I've completely understood why my Dad got so frustrated with my Mom so many times. Like, all the time. With anything having anything to do with driving.
So after I executed my beautiful 38-point turn and got the car safely parked in the garage...my Mom was like, "You should have pulled in straight, it would have been a lot easier."
No. No it would not have been. Because I would have then had to try to back it out the next morning.
LE SIGH.
I love my Mom, I really, really do. But this is how we get along. It's how we have always gotten along. This is not new. It has always frustrated me to high heaven and back, and I need to vent about it or at least write it out so I can try to figure out new ways to deal with it and/or try to understand it so I don't just keep it inside and get mad about it. It's like she's in a bubble and doesn't see anything else around her but her. I know she had childhood trauma. Lots of it. I have started to see how it has affected her, but I'm not going to write about it here yet. Mostly I'm going to write about how it has affected me, because it has.
Anyway...so that's the story of why I drove the Lincoln to work on Thursday and Friday. I might drive the Maverick to work sometime. I don't know why I feel like the Lincoln is so much more reliable than the Maverick. Maybe because the Lincoln has actually been gone through by a mechanic and the Maverick hasn't? IDK. But we've driven the Maverick back and forth to the cities many times and it's been fine, too, so, whatever. We have an AAA membership, it's fine. :D The Maverick is easier to park. A freakin' barge is easier to park than a Lincoln Town Coupe.
Probably. I've never tried to park a barge before.
So. I've been working on planting more flowery crap in my yard this year, a little at a time. I used to be afraid to, because I wanted to make sure everything was perfect and I wanted to research what to plant where, and I wanted to decide on what kind of landscaping and whatnot and everything. Somewhere along the line this year I was just like, eff all that, I'm just gonna start buying stuff and putting it in the ground and whatever happens, happens! Actually, that kind of started last year. But I had this problem of buying things to plant and then waiting too long to plant them because I was overthinking where to plant them because I wanted everything to be perfect. I bought 10 Norwegian Spruce seedlings that came with 2 lilac bush seedlings and waited so long to plant them that only like 5 of the seedlings survived to planting. That was last summer, so I ended up planting them anyway, and some of them took off but then a couple of them got accidentally mowed down and, long story short, two of them (and neither of the lilacs) survived to this year. Now one of the seedlings is taking off and the other is, eh, I think it might still be OK. The year before that, I planted some hostas under some of the trees up front, but the deer ate them. This year I noticed they've come back a little bit, but the dang deer have eaten all the leaves off my hostas in the front. Last summer (actually, late fall) I also got some plants from my sister-in-law -- something called hot lips, and I forgot what the other one was -- that we planted in the yard, and the hot lips survived the winter but then got accidentally mowed over and didn't come back after that. I also tried to transplant some phlox from my mom's yard but I think I put them too close to the A/C unit and they all seem to have died.
ANYWAY, I've picked up a few other things this year here and there and have randomly yet somewhat strategically planted them in the yard. The only thing I think I may have waited too long to plant are the bleeding heart roots that were delivered right before we went on vacation -- but we'll see. I planted them anyway. If they come up in the spring, yay! I thought I was pretty much done for this year, but then I realized that fall is a whole planting season, too. Every single year I threaten to plant tulips and things that will come up in the spring, but I never have. This just might be the year.
Alright, the real reason I wanted to write is because I got a new keyboard with round keys that I'm trying to get used to. It's not bad. I think I'll like it. Temu retail therapy seems to be my new thing.
I'm outta here for now! TTYL
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