Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Epic Fail

Sometimes I think if it can possibly go wrong, it will go wrong to me.  I know that's super petty and pessimistic, but I swear, it honestly seems that way.  It doesn't really matter what we try to do, it never works out the way we envisioned in our head.  'Course, I guess it happens that way for everyone.  So if you're like me and are prone to epic failure, you'll really enjoy this next blog.

We weren't able to grow pumpkins on the farm this year (I still am super disappointed about this!).  I had in my mind this cute little patch were people could go and find the perfect pumpkin and take pictures.  I wanted to plant pink pumpkins and partner with some organization to donate some money to Relay or SMOC or some other great cancer organization.  Yeah well, that didn't work out.  At the time we needed to plant, it was 100 + degrees and we didn't get any (not a drop) of rain for three weeks.  So, needless to say, no pumpkin patch and no pink pumpkins (but I'm still carrying the torch that next year we WILL have both!)  Since we were unable to grow pumpkins, we have to purchase pumpkins. This means that usually twice a week we're headed to Raleigh to the Farmers Market to pick up a couple of bin boxes of pumpkins.

We sold out of pumpkins Sunday and I wanted to be open today since the kids are getting our of school early around here (last year I had some calls so I thought, what the heck, we'll try it), therefore we needed to make a pumpkin run.  Yesterday was the only day this week we were for sure we'd be able to go, so after my 30 week (only 10 more left!) appointment for Sea Monkey we took off.  We had to be back for Farm Bureau's annual meeting at 6.

Everything was awesome until we stopped to eat lunch.  When we went back to the truck it wouldn't crank.  We assumed it was the battery (the interior lights were on, since The Husbands door doesn't quite shut exactly right).  Luckily we had jumper cables and a nice guy at the restaurant jumped us off.  Then we stopped for diesel and it cut off again, which told The Husband the batter wasn't getting charged.  He assumed it was one of two things, the wires connecting the alternator and the battery or the alternator.  Now I'm not getting into the mechanics of how this stuff works.  He goes to explain and I zone out.  All I know is we're already pushing it for time and now we're delayed.  My frustration hits an all time high.

So we stop at the local auto parts store and the little guy comes and checks it out, sure enough, what is the problem?  The alternator.  It couldn't be some quick little wire, it has to be something we've actually got to take off the truck to fix, not to mention the expense.  So right there int he parking lot The Husband goes to taking off the part while I sit on the sidewalk (the cold hard concrete) and The Boy alternates between worrying me and worrying The Husband (bless his heart, he really wanted to help.  He kept standing there and pretending to do whatever it was The Husband was doing.  But he was anxious and kept running around and jumping and he got coordination from me so I knew it was a matter of time before he fell and scraped something [this wasn't that nice smooth concrete, it was the rough finish so yeah, it woulda really hurt] so I kept trying to get him to stop which led to greater frustration on my part.)  Eventually I give up and The Boy and I walk to Walgreens where I find nail polish 1/2 off.  Silver lining.
The Boy & The Giant Pumpkin

Cannonballs - great for chunkin'!


The Husband showing off his artistic ability
Finally, we get the old part off and the new part on and we can head out again.  Problem is we're beyond super late at this point.  The entire way there we're biting our nails that the pumpkin guy will even still be there.  Thank goodness he is, or else the entire trip would have been wasted and the Husband would have had to get up at the crack to come today to get them, therefore putting him in a bad mood which would have put me in a bad mood.  It's around five before we're ready to leave though, which means we'll be traveling home with a trailer full of pumpkins in rush hour traffic, and we'll miss the meeting which I was supposed to take a cake too.  Still, we're in one piece, my frustration has eased to humor, and no one's in a bad mood.  So I guess it's alls well that ends well on this one.  Plus a new color of polish.