Last weekend, we decided to put our house on the market
(which is blog post on its own soon).
Given there was a lot to do around the house, we decided it may be best
for Annie and I to visit my family back in my hometown and leave Aaron to get
some things done, because frankly, trying to get anything done on the weekend
and keep a tidy house with Annie there is nearly impossible.
This would be the first time Annie and I would be traveling without
Aaron and so I needed to learn to put up the Pack N Play for Annie to sleep in. Thursday night, I spent about an hour trying
to put it up and take it down. Who knew
that darn thing could be so difficult?!
Aaron kept showing me how to do it and each time I couldn’t get it to
pop into place or I could get it all broke down but one side. I was a little concerned how it would go over
the weekend trying to put it up and down myself but come to find out, that
little life lesson was the least of my troubles.
We left Friday night near Annie’s bedtime so that she could
just fall asleep in the car as it’s still disastrous traveling in the car with
her, she hates car rides and usually cries all the way thru them but when we
plan it around her sleep schedule, she usually falls asleep fine in the
car. As I was hoping, she fell asleep on
the way there. When we were about 30
minutes outside of town, my gas light came on.
Darn it! Life lesson #2, pay more
attention before leaving at how much gas I have left. Aaron always fills up my tank on Sundays and
given it was a Friday, I was almost empty.
I’ve become way too reliant on him filling my car up that I rarely put
gas in myself so it’s something I just don’t pay much attention to.
I debated if I’ll make it to Fairfield or not but decided
that being as late as it was and traveling with Annie, it would be really bad
if I ran out of gas. So I pulled over at
the next gas station and I was hurrying as fast as I could, I didn’t want to
wake Annie so I grabbed the pump, slide my credit card and stopped at $20
thinking that would do for now. I kept
peaking in on her as I was antsy for my receipt that never printed. Annoyed now that I have no idea if I actually
paid for my gas or not, I had to go into the station so I ran in quickly, found
out that I choose a pump that the card reader wasn’t working (of course I did)
and hurried back out back to my car.
Nothing like leaving your sleeping baby in the car all by herself,
terrified a cop would pull up and arrest me for bad parenting!
Back on the road, we were set, we were only 20ish minutes
outside of town and Annie was still fast asleep. About 5 minutes of being back on the road, my
car started to make this catching/pull that I could feel ever so slightly. I thought, hmmm that’s strange. And then as we get closer, it kept happening
more frequently and I knew something wasn’t right. As we are only miles outside of town, my car
completely lost power and I am barely moving on the highway. I pull off to the shoulder, with my foot all
the way on the gas, going about 10 miles per hour. I barely make it to my Grandparent’s place
and my Grandpa is standing outside waiting for me. I get out of the car and tell him something
is seriously wrong with my car and that I think I put bad gas in it.
I hurry, grab the Pack N Play, get it set up with little
issues, get Annie transferred then grab my gas receipt and called the gas
station to ask what kind of gas is the $2.59/gal. Clerk’s response: DIESEL. My response: OH S@$T! Yes folks, I put $20 worth of diesel in my VW
Tiguan. It’s getting late, there is
nothing I can do about it at this point.
I call my Dad and call Aaron, there responses were practically identical
“You did WHAT?!” Yep, I sure did.
Saturday morning rolls around, I call every mechanic in
Fairfield and it’s just my luck that there is not one open shop in town on the
weekends. Are you kidding me?! Not a one.
So Grandpa and I run out to try to problem solve this situation
ourselves. We purchase a small gas can
and fill it up with premium gas in hopes of diluting the diesel. Came back and ended up with half the gas on
the garage floor, half in my car’s tank.
What freaking mess trying to get it to pour right, cheap Wal-Mart gas
can! My car won’t even start. After a good hour of problem solving in 90
degree heat with a garage that has a strong smell of gas fumes, we give up.
After grabbing a quick lunch, I told my Grandpa that we have
to figure out how to get the car seat out of my car and into theirs. Next life lesson: installing a car seat. Well more like life lesson on how to
uninstall first. We watched numerous
YouTube videos, we called Aaron and he tried to talk us thru it on speaker
phone, 30+ minutes later we got it out.
Then to install took FOREVER! We
thought we had it in right then I gave it a tug and it literally pushed
completely over on its side, obviously not strapped down correctly. Then when we decided to go with the seat
belt method and during all this we messed with Annie’s straps and then had the seat’s
harness straps too tight and couldn’t figure out how to loosen them. 90 degree day, no breeze, gas fumes are
strong, working in a hot car. Both my
Grandpa and I were a mess! 2 hours later,
we had a car seat installed. By this
point my Mom was super impatient and dying to see Annie so I wiped my face off
with a cold wash cloth, hurried to get Annie ready to go, loaded up and headed
out to my parents.
Exhausted, we arrived and I was making phone calls to get my
car towed. 90 minutes later, I finally
had my car towed. Too many life lessons were learned that
weekend but I am beyond thankful that we made it to my hometown safely and
Annie and were not stranded in the middle of the country. As well as the fact that my car was totally
fixable and actually didn’t cost me that much and we were able to drive back
down Monday to get it. Life lessons can
be learned the hard way, and the hard way I certainly did learn! In a weekend’s time, I can now set up/take
down a Pack N Play (don’t laugh, that’s a big feat for me!), install a car seat
and know to pay attention at the gas pump.
Good grief!
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