Expectedly Unexpected....

I logged onto my online homework page today to see what I needed to do and, ironically, my assignment pertained to blogs.  The pros, the cons, and what some of my favorites are.  Naturally my favorite blog is written by that ingenious of all writers, ME!  LOL!  In all seriousness though, it reminded me that it had been a long time since I had last blogged and SO MUCH has happened since then.

Since you last heard from me, we have endured several natural disasters that led to some not so natural disasters, but I won't go into detail on any of that... after all, it's nothing that you can't turn on the TV and find on any given channel at any given time.  While tragic, I'm not in the mood to write on tragedy this evening.

It has been a very busy time in the Mulder household.  February and March were particularly busy as I somehow got it into my head that it would be a good idea for me to go back to school at the same time as I move my business off base into a larger location, (It couldn't be smaller... since my last space was my master bedroom!)... meanwhile, Dave had to travel around some in March so I had all of the kids and household chores as well.  Between college, homework, work, relocating my studio, household, two toddlers who can't seem to stop fighting EVER and a preteen who has soccer practice 3 days a week and anywhere from 2 - 5 games a weekend... and usually away games... I was finding it difficult to keep up. 

Apparently mother nature decided that I didn't have nearly enough on my plate so she hit us with a huge earthquake and a subsequent tsunami and radiation scare that left me evacuating my home for a day while trying to entertain everyone to keep them from being scared.  I am only going to touch on this subject as what was a mere scare and inconvenience for us was a devastating tragedy for others and I in no way, shape, or form want to detract from that fact.  My heart-felt prayers go out to all of them.

Add on to that the fact that my Serpentine Belt on my van decided to break while I was at a soccer game 30 minutes away from home.  It took me 1 1/2 hours to milk it home by alternately driving as far as I could until it started to overheat, then shutting it off and coasting until I could coast no more at which time I would pop the clutch to start it back up so that I had enough battery power to make it all the way back to the house.  Every time I popped the clutch, the look on the Japanese drivers' faces who were nearby was absolutely priceless... Especially during those occasions that I was going a little too fast and tried it in too low of a gear, resulting in the unmistakable S-C-R-R-R-E-E-CH of tires that have been locked up.  Half of them wore masks of terror like I only just managed to bring my vehicle to a ear piercing stop before mowing them down with my vehicle, while the others looked at me with sheer amusement or contempt, their thoughts written clearly on their faces, "Dumb Gaijin (Foreigner) shouldn't be driving a stick shift if she doesn't even know how to properly shift without killing everyone!" LOL  I couldn't help myself, I made my eyes as big as saucers and pasted a panicked look on my face just to fuel their horror.  I haven't laughed so hard in quite some time!

I finally nursed it up to Camp Foster where I could pick up a new belt and, wouldn't you know, they didn't carry that part in stock and had to special order it.  Normally, that's a 24 hours process, but due to the fact that it was late Saturday, the Japanese don't work on Sunday, and Monday was a Japanese holiday, the soonest they could get it in would be Tuesday afternoon.  Because Dave's vehicle is a little two seater, it was basically useless to my cheaper-by-the-dozen brood so I went ahead and paid the $55 for the $10 part and proceeded to limp my family the rest of the way home.  The next three days consisted of "honcho'ing", (The Gaijin term for a Japanese Taxi), it around for the next few days. 

Tuesday after class I directed the honcho to swing by the parts store before taking me home.  As promised, my belt was there and I was just a few nuts and bolts away from self reliance once again... or so I thought!  I promptly rush in the house and change into a pair of my old Marine Corps coveralls and trot my way out to Dave's shop out back to gather my tools.  With an entire back wall dedicated wall to wall and floor to ceiling to enormous Snap-On tool boxes that would make any NASCAR pit crew proud, I knew that it would be a matter of minutes before I was rock-n-rollin' in my pimp soccer mom van once again... or so I thought!

Now, while Dave's shop is a sight to behold looking from the door, don't invite NASCAR in yet... unless they can change a tire with a bicycle pump or refuel a race car with rat poop!  After searching through each and every drawer for proper tools, I came away with a tiny bucket of makeshift tools... none of which were metric, by the way... and prayed that something that I had would work.  By the time I admitted defeat and went to beg a neighbor for some real tools... embarrassing, by the way, for someone married to a Mulder, king of all rednecks, Tim the Tool Man reincarnate.. it was starting to get dark.  I got everything disassembled and damned if I couldn't figure out how to route the belt. 

Sucking up my own pride, I went back to that same neighbor and asked him if he could take a look at it.  It was with much relief that he couldn't figure it out either (Pride)... and he's a gear-head too!  I finally packed it in for the night and spent a good portion of the rest of the evening trying to find belt diagram on the web for my van.  After much eye blearing research without a single shred of information I determined that the joke was on me for spending hours disassembling a van and spending $55 on a part for a van that doesn't really exist!  It all must have just been a figment of my overworked, under payed mind! HA!

The next day, with a little sleep and a whole lot fewer surprises and frustration, I figured it out and got it all put back together again... and the best part is I was able to show my gear-head neighbor how to do it instead of the other way around!  CHICK POWER!!!

After finishing my final exams, hiring an employee to help me in my business, fixing my car, averting family and natural disasters and everything is finally settling down into a nice calm routine, Dave returns home and everything gets turned upside down again! 

I guess if there is one thing that I can be certain about it's that I can always rely on the fact that my life will never be dull!