The time spent traveling to Harrisburg was spent wisely. (Read: Debby put her foot down about things, and I know this makes me sound like a tyrant, but this really has gotten out of hand.) He doesn't need all this stuff, but he keeps hauling it home. He can't. I pointed out that he had multiples of power tools. I pointed out that we will not be buying any more houses. These are things that he will not likely ever need or use again. He does not need multiples any more. He does not need 3 buckets of lead. He does not need multiple project vehicles. He has 3 big tractors. He has 2 small tractors. This is nuts.
So.
We got to where we needed to be and we saw the truck. I am not an expert, but the first thing that I saw was that the tires were pretty sketch. Old. Dry rot-y looking. The idea of driving 3+ hours on a scorching day made me nervous. Tim looked it over. The pully that drives serpentine belt did not appear to be turning freely. It was low on power steering fluid. Was it just low, or was there a leak? Hard to tell with just a cursory look. The battery was too big and it was rocking against the hood of the truck. We took it for a drive, and he said, "Yeah. I'm not buying this. I don't think it will make it home."
So.
Poor guy got a few more hours of me on the way home. Again, I used the time wisely.
It took us longer to get home because, at Clearfield on 80, traffic was backed up. Bumper to bumper. Scads of tractor-trailers. It took us nearly 3/4 of an hour to travel 9 miles. I was driving and Tim was eating his supper. What irks me is that the entire 9 miles, there were signs. 'Left Lane Closed' and 'Trucks Must be in Right Lane'. Flashing lights. Over and over and over. And yet we crawled along at a snail's pace. I was leaving plenty of space between me and the truck in front of me so that vehicles could merge right.
Did they? They did not.
To top it off some guy in a big pick up truck behind me got pissed because I was not riding the bumper of the semi truck in front of me and began beeping his horn. He merged left and passed me waving his finger. He was stuck 3 trucks in front of me for the rest of roadblock, so I'm not exactly sure what he felt he accomplished.
Some person in a white SUV went flying past on the shoulder of the road passing everybody at a shocking rate of speed. Perhaps he had to poop. I don't know.
What was the problem? You guessed it. After miles of warnings, people were waiting to merge right until the left lane actually ended. That was the cause of the traffic snafu. Bumper to bumper vehicles were trying to merge into a bumper to bumper lane. It was maddening. I was never so glad to see the Penfield exit in all my life.
We got home at 9:30.
Tomorrow is the day of neutering. I caught one cat. She is safely caged and ready for transport. I waited patiently to catch a second. I watered my plants (I have a blossom on my tomato!), Tim weed whacked and mowed. (I thought he was nuts...the heat. The heeeeeaattt!)
We had driven two vehicles because I had an appointment at PT to get my final measurements done for the surgeon on Friday. After that, I was headed to my friend's to borrow a trap. That was a fruitful visit...she had a chair she needed gone, and it just so happened to match the couch we bought, so...we shook on that. We talked too long. We always do, and we always laugh at ourselves.
Anyways, I set the trap, and before I got out of the garage, I'd trapped Sigh, and put her cage in the basement where it is cool and dark. Here's the heart breaker. I waited and then made my way back to the garage with food. As normal, Possum came running . I had her. I had her by the scruff of the neck. I had her in the trap. I got the crap bitten out of me, and scratched all to smithereens, but I had that cat. When I released her and tried to pull my arm out to shut the door completely, she snaked out past me and was gone just that quickly. I think that she is frightened enough that I will not get a second chance.
I left the trap set and baited. My only hope is that maybe I can catch Tiger. I just feel so bad about this.
Trump's ceasefire did not hold.
I'm shocked.
It sure will not be the sons and grandsons of tRUMP.
I hear that they all have hereditary bone spurs.
I think you're a very patient woman, because I would have lost it on Tim. How much stuff does he need? Anyway, I'll shut up.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got one cat but I doubt the other will ever let you near them. How about a sedative in their food? Would a vet prescribe one? Just a thought. At least it would give you a fight chance.
I don't know what to do at this point. I've left the second trap set. Tiger has gotten herself trapped before, and waited comfortably sprawled, for us to show up and spring her. I hope she has done that one more time. If not, well...we've got one getting neutered. It's a start.
DeletePeople that behave like that in merge situations really piss me off, case in point, that jackass in the pickup. All that BS for 3 places in line? Really? Guess he owned you........
ReplyDeleteHe surely did show me. He showed me that he was a short tempered idjit.
DeleteWell, it was good that the flat bed truck was in poor shape. I do hope you can get Tim to part with some of his stuff. I have stuff in boxes in the basement that I don't need, but that I just like, but there is no where to put them. It weighs on us, that if we leave this house, there's another (there have been two massive ones) down size in our future.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that I'm looking around and having to make some hard decisions. I have three bedroom sets that I love. One is made in the factory where my grandpa worked. The other is a massively ornate victorian bedroom outfit with a marble dresser. I fell in love with it. Tim went back and bought it. The third bedroom set was an antique set from the '20s that I bought at auction when I was in the army in my own 20s. I loved it. It is the bed that my babies were made in. The bed that I read them bedtime stories in. The bed that I wept in when that marriage crashed and burned. The bed that saw starting over. The bed that would one day be the bed that I die in. I had to make a choice. Only two bedroom sets could come. I chose my life bed. I chose the victorian. So many pieces of furniture fill our big old house, and all of them will be studied and hard decisions made. The mirrored hall tree? That's got to go. The white silk living room. That's going. Piece by piece, I'm picking and choosing.
DeleteIt seems to me that I'm not the only one who should be doing a little picking and choosing.
It seems like Tim should be getting rid of things, lots of things, rather than acquiring more.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased to know traffic works as badly there as it does here.
Pity about the cat. I suppose some trust can be rebuilt in time.
Very wise words quoted.
I'm not a road rager under normal circumstances, but I was getting quite exasperated. I was ready to flip off the man who flipped me off. I didn't. I am trying hard not to add to the ugliness of this world.
DeleteFurious feral cats are something to behold ;) Glad you got it out to Tim about owning too many vehicles. As for the rest, we can all only speak our own truth.
ReplyDeleteWell, your comment has sent me off on a mental ramble. 'We can only speak our own truth'. It seems to me that too many people are saying that the truth is something that is not proven by the facts of a situation. We've got a president who does this on a daily basis. The evidence contradicts his version of events, but he and his ilk insist that his version is the truth. It is not the truth. We've got others who will present to you a piece of the truth. They suffer. That truth is undeniable. But fit into a bigger picture, we can see that they are not the only one suffering. To insist that their suffering is the only suffering one should focus on is disingenuous and self serving. It is not the whole truth. You've got conspiracy people who will create entire fantasies seemingly out of midair. I heard someone talking about entire plane loads of Chinese coming over wearing white clothing. Plane loads of them. But upon further observation, it was noted that every. one. of. them. is wearing combat boots. That's not the truth at all, but some people believe it is.
DeleteThe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
The word rings hollow these days, and this frightens me, so help me God.
A cat knows a trap before you even start to lay it,
ReplyDeleteWhoo boy. You are right about that.
DeleteIIs Tim a 'just in case' person? He sounds like it - back-ups for the back-up and a new one in case the old one fails.
ReplyDeleteCatching cats is fun at the best of times, but yours are naturally wary. Poor Possum! Hope your scratches are not too sore.
It's more than 'just in case'. He has a board that is probably 10 feel long, and it is thick, probably two inches. It came with runners, which were lying beside it in an old house we bought. It is an old homemade sled. It's neat. But it is in our garage. It cannot be cut. It cannot be used. We will keep this board forever, and it will do nothing at all...but it is neat. That's the sort of thing that I object to. We have a box of plate patterns from a time in the mid 1800s when women painted their china. They are neat too. We will never use them, but we have them. Old gas lights. Neat, but once again, will serve no purpose. Not to mention 5 cars, 4 trucks, 3 big tractors, 2 small tractors, and a partridge in a pear tree...those are the things that drive me nuts.
DeleteYour traffic story reminds me how much I hate driving when in bigger countries. Whenever we travel we don't hire a car but rely on trains and buses. Better for my stress levels!
ReplyDeleteThe only time that I've ever seen traffic backed up like this was for a bad accident, which is understandable. This was maddening, nothing more than people's own ridiculousness. I don't understand where the police were.
DeleteEven with one of my " tame" cats I used to have to make sure he didn't see the cat carrier before he was picked up!
ReplyDeleteA car screamed past me on a country road a few weeks ago, and I was chuckling when we got to a junction about 3 miles on and he was just in front of me!
We have cat carriers. Once they are sedated, hopefully they can be used to transport them back home. But for over night, it seemed kinder to have them in larger cages.
DeletePeople are so ridiculous sometimes. I really could not believe the person who blew past on the shoulder of the road. That could have been a very serious situation. As I noted, it was between two exits which were 10 miles apart. Where he was going is beyond me, because he surely couldn't drive 10 miles on the shoulder and there was no where else to pull off. I would like to have known the rest of that story.
That passing only to be stuck at the next red light is common around here, mostly youthful drivers. Once in a while there's the satisfaction of seeing them, after aggressively hooting and passing, drive straight into the speed trap everyone else had guessed about.
ReplyDeleteYou really have a lot of stuff. It's tough when you fall in love with it and it develops a history.
You are right that Tim has too much stuff. You can tell him we all agree with you!
ReplyDeleteSome drivers have gotten so aggressive and rude. I just move along carefully and politely and I get where I want to go anyway.