Challenges never end

OK, so I finally got a chance this week to get the Beast ready to take a real vacation next week. Monday I spent about an hour and a half at the DMV to get my new plates. Easy enough, other than the wait. Because they were stolen (back in May) there was no charge for the new plates. On Tuesday afternoon, I drove the noisy Beast to Badger Truck Center to find out what blew out on it and get an oil change.

Just a little back story here.... Memorial weekend I was planning to take the Beast home when Mom was failing fast. I didn't know how long I'd need to be home, and wanted to take Max with me as well as having my own space for my sanity. Saturday I went to take a load of stuff there, and discovered the back license plate was gone. Off to the police station I went with the front one to report the theft. I got an incident report and the officer told me I could still drive it and if I got pulled over for no plates, just to show my registration and the report of the theft.

So Sunday after finishing at church, I rode the scooter to get the Beast, loaded it up and had it all secured, and was just going to drive home to pick up Max and my stuff. As soon as I started the engine, there was a loud "bam!" and it sounded like an airplane ready to take off - plus the fumes were quick to convince me there would be no suffering through a 4 hour drive in that thing. Besides, with no plates & no muffler, I'd be pulled over by every cop between here and Wausau.

I had no time to worry about getting her fixed until this week. Wednesday noon, I got the report on what was wrong..... the catalytic converter was stolen too! They just cut the damn thing right off and undoubtedly sold it for scrap metal. Geeeeeeez...... so more time at the police station and a few phone calls to my insurance company, and the Beast is on her way to being repaired.

I wish I could get a hold of those creeps who robbed me not only of property, but time and energy and emotions that I did not have to spare. I'd love to tell them that they managed to mess with me at a time when I was already losing my mother, and just smack 'em in the face a couple of times. I'd love to shame them and make them feel even a little bad - although I doubt that's possible.

But thankfully, through all this stuff, there has been a lot of good in people to make up for the bad. Both of the police officers were very helpful and sympathetic. The people at Badger Truck were also as helpful as they could be. And I swear, those Progressive Insurance reps were the best of all. They were understanding and calming, and bent over backward to help make this as painless as possible. By Thursday afternoon, Ryan the claims adjuster had already called me to tell me the check was on the way. Even though I still have to pay my $125 deductible, it's far better than the $1100 or so that I would have to pay without insurance. The good news is that the Badger folks tell me the exhaust system appears to be fairly new, so I shouldn't have any upcoming repairs on that yet.

I'll be looking for a new place to store the Beast when she's not in use, but in the meantime, if anyone knows someone who'd like to buy a 1990 RV, let me know. I'll sell it cheap! I don't regret buying it - got lots of good use out of her between regular trips and my sabbatical and the best youth trip ever. But I think she's jinxed, and I just am tired of waiting to see what's going to happen to her next. My next RV will come along when I'm closer to retirement, and it will be a much newer one too.

Reclaiming my life

This has been an eternally long summer for me and my family as we've been going through the end stages of Mom's life. I knew I was worn out both emotionally and physically, but didn't realize how much. I figured out that from mid-May to late July, when I went home for Mom's funeral, I made 9 trips home @approx. 500 miles round trip. Every week, I went home on Sunday afternoon and came back on Tuesday afternoon. It took me until Friday to recover from the drive and couch duty (with very little sleep) and on Saturday I'd already be thinking about that long drive home again and wondering what condition Mom would be in this week.

The week after her funeral was simply about recovery for me, and the next was 'catch-up' time at work. But toward the end of the week, I realized I was finally feeling somewhat normal again. My bishop called me on Friday to see how I was doing, and during the conversation I was laughing about something. He commented on how good it was to hear me laugh again. I forgot how good that felt myself.

Now I'm finally getting back on track personally too. Saturday was my most productive day in a very long time - oil change for my car, cleaned the upstairs, baked banana bread, worked on my sermon. If I was wondering about it being a one-shot energy spurt, today was another good day. I got back on that treadmill, did some bills, spent an hour and a half at the DMV to finally get new plates for my RV (mine was stolen way back in May,) and got the downstairs cleaned. Tomorrow I take the Beast in for repairs and hopefully next week Max & I will head north for a week of actual vacation time. Of course, a couple of days will be spent with Daddy, but most of it will be just for me. I have no idea where yet, but it will be away and it will be vacation.

I have plenty of projects to get done here at home too, but those will now get done with time. One of those projects is to get some more of Dad's stories on this blog. But first up will be replacing a half dozen windows that are so clouded with condensation between the panes that I can't see the outside world clearly. Good place to start, right? Get a little more light in here, and the world will seem much brighter!