I Expected More For My $988.20

Is it wrong of me to expect T-Hoe to run well after paying $988.20 for repairs last week? As I used to say to my students when posing a question with an obvious response: "Let me answer for you..." NO! I am not wrong. The work was done. The bill was paid. Now things should be back to normal. Well. Except for our bank account.

Everything was fine on Errand Day with The Pony. The gas tank issue has been fixed. You can even put the nozzle in and clip the handle thingy so it pumps itself. Everything was fine on Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. 

The only difference I noticed was that when backing out of the garage a couple times, T-Hoe was coughing. You know. Kind of sputtering a bit. I attributed that to Farmer H putting in some gas when testing T-Hoe to see if the gas tank worked. I know he put in over $6 worth on the day T-Hoe was supposed to be done. And then the next day, he put in a little more, to make sure the problem was solved. You never know when you might get some "bad" gas. T-Hoe doesn't get the gourmet stuff. Just plain old regular. It can vary at different gas stations.

One of the days, I was sitting at the stoplight by the Gas Station Chicken Store, headed over to 10Box, and T-Hoe coughed a little more. I just thought I'd be glad when I ran some of this gas out, and got T-Hoe's regular elixir at the Sis-Town Casey's again.

Sunday, I returned home and parked T-Hoe in the garage. When I turned off the engine, it kept running! Not for long. Maybe 5-10 seconds. Kind of coughing, then stopping.

Monday, the same thing happened when I parked T-Hoe in the garage. I hadn't noticed it in town, during my stops there. Maybe I was just preoccupied, or there was other noise. This time, I turned T-Hoe back on. Then off. Same thing.

I told Farmer H on Tuesday morning. He furrowed his brow.

"Huh. It shouldn't be doing that. I'll have to tell Mick. The timing mechanism might have to be reset. He had it off while he was working on it."

"We paid all that money, and now T-Hoe is running worse!"

"He can fix it."

"Will it hurt to drive? Is it going to sputter and stop while I'm at a stoplight, or waiting my turn at the roundabout?"

There was a pause. "No... it shouldn't."

I am not very confident in that reply!

Later on Tuesday, Farmer H changed his tune. When I asked about the timing mechanism, he said, no, it was spark jumping. That's something I never heard of. He had some cockamamie description. Anyhoo... he said he had talked to Mick the Mechanic, who said to bring it by sometime.

"Mick was surprised it was doing that."

"So was I! I thought maybe it was just the different gas you put in."

"I used Casey's gas. But I don't have no idea what THEY put in it."

"It's funny because it didn't do it in the beginning. Now it does, but not every time."

In fact, T-Hoe ran just fine all day on Tuesday. I told Farmer H. We agreed (!) to let it go a few more days and see what happens. Because it's an issue that can't be fixed if the issue isn't happening when Mick looks at it.

Now Fave's Shoe Is On The Other Foot, And In My Mouth

You may recall a story a while back, in June, when Fave at the Gas Station Chicken Store was afraid she had insulted me by saying, "You look thin today." Heh, heh. I took it as a compliment. I didn't even sass back and say, "Oh, I suppose all the other days I look like a big fat cow!" The thought had crossed my mind, but I knew Fave's blurted comment was coming from a good place.

Anyhoo... Fave has mentioned that interaction a couple times, regretting it. She felt like she put her foot in her mouth, and kept apologizing. Well. Fave's shoe jumped onto my foot on Friday, and quickly took a giant leap, then a sloppy swan dive into my own mouth.

"Did you win anything on your tickets?" 

I asked innocently, as always, concerning the lottery tickets I give her every Thursday, as a "tip" for being so nice and selling me lucky tickets.

"No! Well. I DID win $5. But... did you know you gave me a ticket that was already scratched?"

"NOOO! What? I didn't mean to! I can' believe I did that! I'm so embarrassed! I guess I stuck it down in the box with your tickets and the ones I buy for my son Genius, before I put them in their envelopes. I'm so sorry! But at least I gave you a winner!"

"Yeah. It's fine. I looked at it, and I thought, 'That's weird.' But it's the only thing I won."

"Oh my gosh. I can't believe I did that. I'll try not to let it happen again!"

I'm pretty sure I was red-faced when I left. That's like being caught re-gifting. Or wrapping up your trash to give somebody. I'm so relieved it was at least a winner. But wait. My Fave faux pas was not over. On Saturday, the other foot demanded equal mouth time. I asked

"Did you win anything this week?"

"You asked me that yesterday! And I said only on the ticket that was already scratched!"

"OH NO! I'm reliving it! Now I'm embarrassed all over again. Forget I said that."

Fave had a chuckle. I was mortified. Again. On my way out the door, I said,

"Gotta get home and scratch these so I can save one to give to you!"

I hope I can keep my mouth shut, and both feet out of it this week.

Mrs. HM Ranks Lower Than A Dog

I can't have anything for myself! Have I mentioned that? Not even if it belongs to someone else. No small kindness for Mrs. HM. She's an afterthought.

On Sunday, I bought a Save A Lot pizza for Farmer H to have for supper on Sunday and Monday. It's like a deli pizza from the Devil's Playground. Not frozen. You buy it and take it home to cook it. I dug through a stack five-high to get just the right pepperoni pizza for Farmer H. They had two of the three-meat kind, but they looked older. As did a couple of the pepperoni version. But I found the best one.

While Farmer H was driving The Pony home, I got his pizza ready to cook. I added more pepperoni (bought at the store, because he kept "forgetting" to bring home the ones he got for FREE from his Harem, and left at one of the flip houses). I drained a can of mushrooms to add. I sliced a little onion. And I tore up two slices of provolone cheese to add on top.

Farmer H said it was really good pizza. He ate half that night, and the other half on Monday night. In fact, he was full, because he'd had a full Salisbury Steak lunch at the Senior Center that day. I was scratching lottery tickets at the kitchen table when he came back to the kitchen for dessert. (He was not all THAT full, it seems!) 

Anyhoo... I noticed Farmer H throwing away his plate, after putting something on the kitchen counter.

"What's that? What are you doing?"

 

"Oh, I was putting what was left there for the dogs."

"Wait! You had PIZZA left? I might have wanted that!"

"Well, it was just a little piece. You usually say no. You can still have it. Here. It's fine."

"NO! I can't eat that! You put it on the DOG TRAY! That's been there for months! It has old grease and everything else on it."

"It'll be fine. Here, I'll get it."

"NO! I am not eating off the dog tray! All that trouble I went to, fixing up your pizza, and you can't even ask if I want to try it."

"I didn't even think of it. I'm sorry."

Well. There's that.

Mysteries A-Field

Have I mentioned that I prefer to be informed when Farmer H is expecting random associates to be showing up at the Mansion? He will be heading to the doghouse if he doesn't shape up!

Last week, I left for town and thought I saw SilverRedO and a pewter colored truck parked in front of the BARn. They were backed down in there, SilverRedO in front of the big door, and the pewter truck on the Mansion side of SilverRedO, next to some trees and junk. I asked Farmer H about what he was doing when I got home.

"I wasn't doin' nothin'. I just got home about 10 minutes ago."

"What? Then why were there two trucks parked in front of our BARn, facing out?"

"I don't know. One Buddy has been wanting to come out and use my burn pile to burn off some junking stuff. But I told him no, because it had been too dry. He didn't SAY he was coming out. But he might have, since it rained last night. He don't have a red truck, though."

"That's why I thought it was you! And the other truck was the color of your old Ford. Kind of a silver/copper mix."

"I'll have to ask One Buddy about it."

"You might want to check and see if anything is missing! They looked suspicious, how they were parked. Like they could have been loading something out of the BARn."

I don't know if Farmer H ever checked for missing treasures, or if he talked to One Buddy. But on Monday, I saw that pewter truck again on my way to town. This time, it was parked beside Farmer H's burn pile. Facing up towards the gravel road, with the driver's door open. The door was RED!

Huh. I'm sure I saw two whole trucks there before. But this was unusual, to have a red door on a pewter truck. It was about 1:00 then, on my way to our financial advisor appointment. Afterwards, we dropped off T-Hoe at Mick the Mechanic's shop, and Farmer H drove me home in SilverRedO. 

The pewter truck with the red door open was still sitting there when we drove by at 4:00.

"See? That's the truck I saw before, but with a red one next to it."

"That's One Buddy. I guess he's been burnin' stuff. He didn't tell me he was comin', though."

"He's been there for THREE HOURS! With his driver's door open! That's not normal."

"I'll go over and talk to him. He's been sleeping in his truck down at the lockers. Just goes out and goes to sleep. I don't know what's going on."

Sweet Gummi Mary! My mind switched from thieving to drug overdoses! Not that Farmer H has buddies who do such things. But I sure don't want either happening on our property.

Farmer H came back and said One Buddy had been over there working on a broken lawn mower. This might sound suspicious to normal people, but I just assumed that Farmer H had promised One Buddy the lawnmower if he could get it fixed. Or maybe was going to pay him to fix it.

You never know what might turn up in your field out here. At least One Buddy didn't stink like a dead armadillo or a skunk.

Screaming Mini

On Saturday when the overly-friendly (or just plain normal) guy annoyed me at the lottery machine, I had no inkling that he was not to be my only source of annoyance.

I moved on to the bananas. While I was picking out eight green-enough ones all on one bunch, a man and little girl wheeled past me. I noticed, because that little girl was loud. The kind of loud that makes it hard to keep a neutral look on your face. She was probably 3-4 years old. I assume the guy was her dad. I'm guessing late 20s for him.

Mini was whiny. She wanted things. Not necessarily items from the shelves. She wanted to walk around, independent of Daddy and the cart. He wanted her holding onto the side of the cart. I'm pretty sure he didn't plop her in the child seat because she wouldn't have it. Did I mention she was loud? And whiny.

As always happens when someone annoys me in a store, they were on the same path as I was. Up and down every aisle I needed. She'd range away, and he'd tell her to come back. He was calm and patient. And totally ineffective. I got weekend-dad vibes. It WAS the third weekend of the month. I know a thing or two about parental visitation. I don't think a full-time dad would have put up with Mini's shenanigans so calmly. And no mom is going to send Dad and an elderly toddler off to the store on a Saturday.

Mini probably was trying her dad, testing her limits. I'm not sure she ever REACHED a limit. I would have knelt down (on younger knees) and looked that little girl in the eye. "You need to do what I say, and stop screaming, or we will leave. Right now." I did it before with Genius. And left the store, cart in the middle of the aisle. It only took ONE TIME.

Anyhoo... I was really glad to get out of there and give my ears a rest. I'm pretty sure that Dad was exhausted by the time the weekend was over.

They're BOTH Stinkers

We charge Pepper's Halo 5 Collar every afternoon. It's usually between 4:00 and 5:00, depending on who gets home first. Pepper is good about coming to be de-collared and re-collared. That's because he gets a treat after both. 

We set the collar on an upside-down box on the chair by the kitchen door. The charger stays plugged in on that wall. There's a magnetic connection between the collar and the charger. You have to get it aligned just right. Sometimes that requires sliding the opening in the canvas collar-cover thingy. It wraps around the collar with several Velcro closures.

Anyhoo... charging takes about an hour. The collar has been working great lately, after having two bouts of the charge not holding for the 36 hours it's supposed to. 

On Wednesday, Farmer H was home first. As I came up the gravel road, I saw him on the lower 10 acres, mowing. I slowed down and pointed to the back seat. My sign that he was needed to carry in groceries. Farmer H drove over behind the garage. The dogs were romping around waiting for me to get inside and give a treat. Farmer H took the groceries in while I remained in T-Hoe, waiting to close the garage door after he walked back through to the mower

On my way in, I stopped at the side porch for petting.

"Huh. One of you smells like smoke. And the other... is that skunk?"

Funny how neither Jack nor Pepper admitted that they smelled a bit less than fresh.

When I stepped into the kitchen, the smell hit me immediately. SKUNK!!! That had to be from Pepper's charging collar. I leaned over. Yep! No way was I touching that. WHY would Farmer H put that stinking collar inside the kitchen? A mere five feet from where I sit at the table with HIPPIE, scratching my lottery tickets in the evening. Of course I sent him a text:

"The whole kitchen smells like skunk from Pepper's collar. The charging is done, but I'm not touching it."

Ten minutes later I got a reply:

"Ok i didn't smell it  ill put it on him"

I cry shenanigans! He DIDN'T SMELL IT my rumpus! Let's remember that Farmer H is the one who declares he has a very sensitive nose, and can smell mold on bread before it is visible. I mentioned that the next day when he was carrying in groceries from a different trip.

"Do you have Pepper's stinking collar in the house again? You have outlets on the porch where you could charge it."

"I'm sorry, HM. I didn't smell it. It's inside. I didn't notice it today."

"You say you can smell MOLD on stale bread! But you can't smell SKUNK?"

"I never said I can smell mold. I SEE the mold."

"That's bull! You have always said you can SMELL THE MOLD! Anybody can SEE mold! That's NORMAL! I sure wouldn't be serving you bread with mold on it. But you've told me you won't eat a sandwich because the bread smells moldy."

"No. I don't smell it. I see it."

Pepper and Farmer H are BOTH stinkers!

At least Pepper didn't get a full spray. It's noticeable, but not overpowering. Farmer H had the nerve to say that he had smelled a little bit of skunk in the back yard when he was mowing, but didn't think anything of it. The dogs HAVE been chasing something down behind the Mansion, barking a lot. I thought it was just the possum they like to torment.

It Did FINALLY Happen! I Think...

T-Hoe did not come home on Tuesday! He spent a second night away, on the parking lot of Mick the Mechanic. Of course I was devastated. We had PLANNED it, by cracky! So I wouldn't go a day without T-Hoe.

Farmer H felt bad. He came home at 2:45, and offered to drive me to town. Of course I agreed. We took A-Cad, easier for me to get in and out. And not so junky as SilverRedO. I got my scratchers. They were terrible losers! But what did I expect, with Farmer H involved? That man is like a walking jinx for lottery tickets.

Farmer H had planned to drive back by and see if T-Hoe was out of the garage, but decided against it.

"I'll go by tomorrow morning with HOS (Farmer H's Oldest Son) after we work on the apartment. We'll drive it home, and then I can drop him off. You won't have to do anything. You should have your car by 10:00 at the earliest, or by noon."

"IF it's done!"

"They'll have to fix it. He thought it was fixed, and gave me the keys and said take it to town and put gas in it. It wasn't fixed! I bet it took me 15 minutes to put $6 of gas in it at Casey's!"

"SEE! Welcome to MY world. Since JUNE!" 

[Actually, The Pony's world, except for a couple of weeks.]

"I just thought it might work better at a different pump. It didn't! They found out that the charcoal canister had exploded. That's not uncommon in a 16-year-old car. [T-Hoe is 18! From 2008] So there was a problem with a plug. [I thought like an actual drain plug, but I suppose he meant a blob of charcoal clogging up a line.] So once they can find that, it should work."

True to his this promise, Farmer H was home at 11:30 on Wednesday. He left my key and the folded-up bill on the kitchen table, and escaped while I was in the bathroom. How much did it cost to fix T-Hoe's little problem?

$988.20

I divided the picture, so it wasn't so long and thin and sticking into the sidebar.

We either got a "break," or Farmer H was talking out of his rumpus. He said he thought they had T-Hoe in the garage Monday evening, maybe for the oil change, because he wasn't sitting on the parking lot Tuesday morning. Then again, he said he thought they worked on T-Hoe all morning. But T-Hoe wasn't done by 2:30. The hours of labor don't jibe with Farmer H's reports.

I wonder if it would have been so much if Farmer H had taken T-Hoe for repairs the first week I noticed the problem? When pumping gas was just slow, but not yet virtually impossible. The line might not have been plugged yet, or might have been easier to find. It might have taken less than four hours of labor.

Anyhoo... I haven't driven T-Hoe yet. On Thursday, we'll see if T-Hoe is accepting gas. Farmer H escaped before I could ask him if he tried it this time.