Olympics

So, how many of you are having a hard time turning off the tv at night and going to bed? I've dragged my butt to work each day this week. I have a little bit of an excuse. We were on vacation the first week of the games and it was easy to stay up late and sleep in the next day. That was easy to get used to. Maybe our businesses should just shut down for the two weeks of the olympics, it's only every four years! That actually sounds reasonable for those of us who work for the government. It would show national pride. But alas, the wheels of government continue to grind along no matter what is happening. I'll just have to deal with burning, red eyes and cat naps at lunch...or should I say that my boss will have to deal with it.

For those of you who haven't hear yet Amanda and Eric have recently bought cars. Two different reasons. Eric as an investment and Amanda for freedom and independence. Eric bought a little Acura hatchback from a friend and is fixing it up to re-sell for a profit. Amanda's is a Geo Storm that has been passed around the neighborhood. The last fellow to have it had abused it, but it's in reasonable shape for transportation to school, work and home.

Speaking of fixing up a vehicle, have you priced tires lately? I can remember just a short while ago seeing adds in the paper for $25 tires for small cars. Try doubling that. Then add the mounting fees and disposal fees and taxes and tire on that Geo was $69! Poor Amanda just about croaked when I told her how much it cost her. But now she has four good new tires and I feel better about her driving it around. The old tires were so bad that the whole car rocked back and forth as you went down the road. You could actually see the cables showing through the tread.

One last vehicle story. Our Suburban has been running poorly the last couple of years. It started with sputtering while trying to haul our camper trailer up hills. It progressed to sputtering while just trying to go uphill without anything in tow. I had a guy work on it and replace one of the injectors and clean the rest. Eric and I then replaced all the spark plugs, wires and rotor cap. That didn't fix it. Then went to a dealership and had them work on it. They replaced the fuel filter and replaced the head gasket. That made sense actually. Sucking air while trying to haul something at high speed. Quite a bit of money but what can you do. It still coughed uphill while pulling the trailer. At least it wouldn't do it without a load. Well, last week I pulled a trailer (much heavier than our camper trailer) up to Wyoming for Youth Conference. I was hesitant to volunteer to pull the trailer because of the problems we've had, but it was a necessity as it had all the food and baggage in it. I pulled that first hill out of our valley and waited for the usual sputtering. It never happened. When we stopped at a rest stop in Wyoming I almost said something to one of the other drivers. But I was scared that I might jinx it. The truck pulled some big and long hills on that trip, both up and back and never once hiccupped. I attribute it to the prayers of those on the trip and my wife at home who knew I was nervous using the 'Burb on this trip. Heck, she was the nervous one. Now I just hope that it's okay to pull our camper trailer for Labor Day weekend. Wish us luck!!

Oh, back to the Olympics. How many of you, at work, plug your ears while a sports report is on the radio, so you can go home and watch it that night. Acting like it's live. HA!