365journal: Day 1

All right! So it is the first day of my 365journal. The journal in which I track each day with a picture and short story to follow it. This picture is a very simple one. It’s not extravagant or picturesque or even noteworthy but there is a lot of story to go with it.

Yesterday we were on a trek to pick up a TV from a person on Craig’s List. We got a great deal on it and it is in great shape, sort of a miniature of the one we have in the living room. A nice one with a clear screen and all the gadgets we need to operate with peripheral devices and make watching TV in the bedroom more pleasurable.

My lovely wife made the deal and set up a pick up time. She then sent me the address and I Mapqwested it and attached all the contact information so it was readily available. I take a look at the distance and it says 24 miles northwest of us. Normally 24 miles means nothing but in Chicagoland, 24 miles is an outing not a jaunt especially around 6 pm.

Anyway, I forgot all about this until I got home and my wife and I talked of leaving. Once in the truck I noted the distance to her again and was then reminded that our son had just been here on an overnight trip with a high school friend a week or so before. During that trip they not only traveled the 24 miles back to his home but they went to a fair which was 24 miles south of us thus the trip one way being 48 miles one way and 96 miles in totality! Not to mention we were never informed of this adventure, the old, get forgiveness instead of permission. But I digress as usual.

Traveling to the TV set was a little longer than I expected but it wasn’t a bad drive. Then when we got there, we discovered the folks we were buying from were house poor. I mean this house was so huge my garage and living room would fit in the living room. And it was on this small lot where you could hand toilet paper to the bathroom window in the house next to you if needed, ridiculous: but inside, hardly anything at all. Very sparse smatterings of furniture and odds-and-ends here and there. Then he tried to up-sell us on some hideous lamps that look like something out of Barry White’s bedroom in the 70’s. Sorry dude, you can keep those, just fork over the set.

So we get the TV and head back. The drive was decent and not eventful at all. We went to Taco Bell and got some dinner, which by the nature of Taco Bell will not agree with your stomach especially if you are going straight to bed afterward. Get the Dream Meanings book out and try to keep up if you attempt this feat.

So we get home, and starting the next day, today that is, we are supposed to be having our driveway sealed so I cant park in the garage or driveway which means I have further to walk with this TV set. Across the street in over-flow parking is the lot for me. We park and I look down and my “Check Engine Soon” light illuminates: wonderful!

So as I get aggravated with my truck having issues, I start thinking in my head, this TV now costs an eighth of a tank of gas, whatever the cost for my repair will be, $30.00 and a back ache from carrying it down the stairs of the house poor guys place, out to the truck, from the truck to the house then eventually upstairs to the bedroom. And my truck is still a problem which irritates me more. I am reminded of a friend I lived with in high school that went out to get a hardees biscuit in the snow one morning and drove his car off the elevated driveway. The car got stuck and cost $150.00 to tow off the embankment fo the carport, to fix the breaks and tubes that were damaged in the wreck was near $50-0.00 so that biscuit sale that was 2 for 1 at $2.00 ended up costing over $600.00. Expensive biscuits. LOL

But we have a good TV and I like it. My truck would have the engine light come on regardless it would have just been on the way home from work or to the grocery store this week anyway so the TV didn’t cause it but the comedy of errors and my aggravation as I think of the entire event along with flakes on Craig’s List that don’t like to show and add that the money we will make off any sells we have will probably go to fix my truck just irritates me that much more.

Then we get in and start to eat our Taco Bell and the baby is acting up because she’s tired. She’s ready to explode and doesn’t like her daddy and mommy being away for so long. Not to mention she has been glued to the TV now most of the day and is probably in cartoon “Yo Gabba Gabba” overload so give her a break.

So that’s the story. We got a good TV, I have my truck parked until we get it checked and Taco Bell will eat your stomach lining.

DISCLAIMER: I in no way want this to sound as if my wife made a bad decision or we shouldn’t have made this trip: I was in full agreement and felt it was a good thing to do and still do feel that way. We needed the TV, it is a good set, the trip was fine and everything is okay and I am happy with our decision. I am glad we got the TV and I am glad the truck acted up across from the house instead of on I90 in rush hour. I am just irritated I am in a position where I cant just fix it and sell it and get something new. The rest is just circumstance that makes for an interesting story. I love you honey!

XO ILY YM