2-4-09 Wednesday (Things that Break)

I've updated our itinerary. The link to the Google Calendar is to the left. Doesn't "itinerary" sound so important?

I spoke with my mom the other day. She told me my Uncle Alan is in the hospital with lung issues. They were going to have to do some surgery to get to some fluids and what not. I called my Uncle and spoke with him. He was weak, and in pain but seemed interested in our travels. He doesn't use a computer so he's not been in the loop. We got disconnected a few times (we were driving around Lake Tahoe). My cousin Carissa called this morning to tell me that the doctors are pretty sure that Uncle Alan has lung cancer. On that note, Jim and I are still smoke free. The family is waiting for a specialist to come in and offer his diagnosis and opinions and treatment options. It's a scary and sad situation.

Sometime during yesterday's laundry, the washer spun completely out of balance. Whether it was simply unbalanced or perhaps I had it overloaded, I'm not sure. Anyways, we stopped the washer and restarted it. Since that point, when it spins, it makes a ticking noise. I did a load today and when it got to super spin, it sounded like all hell broke loose. Finally something inside broke even more and the drum won't spin. We'll try to take it apart ourselves and see if we can replace whatever is broken. A new washer/dryer combo is over $1,000.

We did some major grocery shopping today at Walmart and Sam's. We've got a couple of weeks worth of meals planned and many of them are low fat. I'll be making lasagna with a lot of low fat stuff. I'm still not ready to part with ground beef, but we did get a lower fat mixture. I'll let you know how it comes out.

While in Walmart, I stopped in the air freshener section. I wanted some continuous freshening thingy for the toilet room. I cannot believe how large this section is. Floral scents in every shape, size, texture, manual vs. electric, sprays vs. candles..... amazing. We Americans are obsessed with scents. So I decide to go for a cheap gel type tube thingy. So many scents to choose from. Apple Cinnamon Crap, Pretty Meadow Turd, Fresh Linen O'Skid Mark, Piney Potty Poop, Tropical Mist Shit. I can't help it. These things never hide the original smell; it simply confuses the brain for a short time. By the way, I chose the Apple Cinnamon.

Tomorrow we drive to Sandev in San Leandro. It's the same place we were at when we were visiting San Francisco, you know, the RV/mobile home park with the trains. The price is right, the location is right, so we'll deal with trains.

My cold is virtually all gone. This pleases me. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of runny noses, then stuffed, then runny. It's all so annoying.

No pictures today. Sorry, I'm not even up to putting icons in my story. I'm not feeling that well AND the local news is on and it's so depressing. California is broke, unemployment is up, Chili's is closing 35 stores, what's next?