About once a week I head up to my Mom’s to help her with cleaning such as the vacuuming and mopping. She’s disabled and it’s hard for her and really wears her out. Since I work for myself I’ve got the time to help and I like going up and seeing her too.
Yesterday I went up for our planned cleaning day but when I got there she really wasn’t feeling well. She’s been having these bad headaches and the noise and volume of the vacuum already bothers her so I said I’d let her lay down and come up the next day (Friday) instead while she was at her doctor’s appointment. That way she could rest.
So this afternoon, I leave to head up there. Stopped at the post office to drop off some outgoing packages. Get back in my car, start it…it stalls out. Start it…stalls. Start it…wants to stall so I’m revving it trying to get keep it from stalling so I can get it into gear.
At this point, I’m worried. Mom’s house is 30 minute drive away and I’m only a few minutes from my house. I don’t want to get stuck so I drive back home and pull into my lot. I much rather test it again at home so if I get stuck, I’m stuck at home.
I turn the car off, start it and…no problems. Turn it off, wait a few minutes, start it…no problems. Ok, weird fluke I think. It happens sometimes with my car. (Apparently there’s a weird electrical issue in some Grand Am cars which cause the car to sometimes auto shutoff upon start up because it thinks it’s being stolen.)
So I pull back out of my parking lot and head back towards Mom’s house. I’m no more than a mile down the road when the wiper blade – CLUNK! – pops off the wiper arm. The damned thing slides in AND snaps in place! How did it just fall off on it’s own?? (On the lowest, time-delay setting nonetheless.) I’ve never seen anything like that before, ever.
I quickly pull into the parking lot of a nearby bank, get out, slide and snap the blade back into place. I get back in my car, turn around and head home. Clearly the universe does NOT want me driving up to my Mom’s today.
I had a similar day last Wednesday. I was taking a friend out for the day for her birthday. I got in the car and just a few metres down the road I realised the drivers side windscreen wiper was hanging off. So I call my brother (works at a garage) and arange to meet him there to get it fixed. Pick up my friend then drive to town to get the new windscreen wipers. After that, as we’re driving down the road it becomes so obvious that we won’t make it to our destination as there’s so much water on the roads (it’s pretty much rained non-stop for months and the water has nowhere else to go now!). So we stopped off at a different town for an hour before getting some lunch and coming home. We’re going to try again in a couple of weeks.