Weekend Adventures and then some

On Thursday I believe it was, Peanut grabbed his wooden flute and headed outside. My sister said to him, "That is a great toy to be taking outside."

His response, "Well, it's not a toy, it's an instrument."

My sister and I looked at each other and said, "Um, okay then."

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About a month ago, I went zooming by a sheriff's car, getting off my cell phone as I went. Of course he came zooming after me. I didn't have my current county sticker on so I knew it was going to be a fun stop.

He let me off with a warning.

Two weeks ago I had turned onto the road that led to my street; I was a mere 5 minutes from home. Then a sheriff's car slid passed me.

I turned left onto my street thinking I'm safe. Nope. I look up from text messaging Nascar Nut to blue lights whirling in my rearview mirror. Since I was mere seconds from my driveway, I kept going. I'm sure the sheriff was wondering when the hell I was going to pull over.

Well, this time I didn't have my seatbelt on and of course the sheriff noticed. He asked me where my county sticker was, inquired as to my seatbeltless status, then noticed Peanut was out of his. When I responded that I had taken it off at the light and Peanut knows he's allowed to take his off as soon as we hit the rocks, he nodded and said he'd be right back.

He was back approximately 10 minutes later with a summons. Yay.

This morning I got stopped again and you know, it's just my luck that cops keep noticing the bright yellow sticker on my windshield when I drove around in my maroon Honda Accord for 1 entire year with both an expired inspection and county sticker. I wish they'd go to the no sticker rule already and be done with it.

I got lucky with this sheriff though because he dropped my license in his car somewhere and couldn't find it. He said he laid it on his ashtray (which he showed me but there were so many techy gadgets in there I had no idea where in the hell the ashtray was....because I was too busy looking at all the cool stuff) but it fell and he couldn't get it out. *sigh* So I'm driving around licenseless until he gets someone to dig it out for him. I guess because he felt bad, he's going to dismiss the charges in court. I think it's because he knows how much trouble I can get into if I'm stopped and don't have my license with me. (Of course, I also think he pulled me over just because and that is kind of freaky.)

He did tell me to scrape the expired sticker off my car because then cops would have to run my tags in order to figure out my county/city of residence. My question to him was, "But what good is that really going to do when you guys (because here all but 1 of the sheriff's are male) will stop me anyway?" I'm thinking he told me this because they're lazy and having no sticker is a deterrent or a way to have an *oh well* attitude. Isn't that kind of shitty though? It’s also kind of scary.

I can't really complain because that's one less ticket I have to pay for.

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Friday I saw XMen 3 and it was okay. Of course they left it open for a 3rd since the comics themselves don't end after just 3 issues.

On Saturday Nascar Nut and I attended another adoption event for the huskies and I've decided that Kazu is going to be mine whenever I move out. This means no kitties for me because he'll eat them up quick-like.

Saturday night we went to Kings Dominion, got a buzz off their strawberry daiquiri’s and stood in line for 1 ride for about 1.5 hours. It was nice though because we were there with no kids! We rode the Hypersonic XLC which shoots you off like a freakin' rubber band, slingshot style. You don't go up high, but you lose g's because of the speed at which you are shot off. (We did get to see a Luna moth freak people out, though. Luna moths are absolutely stunning, have no mouths and only live for 11 days, just long enough to mate then die.)

On the way to Nascar Nut's house though, I caught the smell of antifreeze wafting into the car. Not. Good. says I. So I tell Nascar Nut to pull over quickly and what does he do? Miss the exit because speed racer himself didn't want to cut another car off (which he wouldn't have and anyway, who cares, my head gasket was at stake!).

We ended up pulling onto the side of the highway just passed the exit. He puts the car in park and I reach over to pop the hood. I then get out, open the hood and watch as liquid squirts out and steam rises up. Then I got back in the car to call my sister. It was 11pm at that time and she reached us around 11:40pm. Nascar Nut learned something about me this weekend but I'm not going to tell you. Maybe he'll tell you in comments.

Sunday morning, if you happened to be going South on 95 (in Virginia) near the Ashland area, you saw my ass hanging from underneath the hood of my car, fixing my 2 short bypass hoses. Yes, I know how to fix those, too. It's great fun because you get to cut them off with a knife which can sometimes exert a certain amount of satisfaction, :).

I got the one off then we drove to Advanced Auto Parts where I purchased a piece of hose that was double what I needed for $1.73. Overjoyed I was because that meant I had enough to fix both hoses as both had been bulging near the brackets but only the one had exploded.

Back at the car, I tore off the 2nd one, measured it against the new hosing and cut it in half. Of course, the rule of putting clamps back on hosing is you can't do it too tight or you risk them cutting into the hosing. Everything under your hood rattles, shifts and groans while driving any speed so the clamps have to be kept away from the other hoses, too. While doing this, a brilliant man I will refer to as Bubba drove by, honking his massive 18-wheeler horn as he went. He was driving a Dodge Ram.

After a bit of tweaking by Nascar Nut, everything was a go. We drove both cars to Sheetz where we quickly found the radiator cap to not have been on tightly enough. We fixed that, put more water/antifreeze mixture back in 'til it was full, then drove home.

And yay, my car runs again! Well, until someone gets the bright idea to replace the struts, strut mounts and tie rods in the front end of my car, which, in case you don't know, is the entire front suspension.