Doppelgänger

A Looooooong Week (and it's not over yet!)

It has been a looooooong week for me.

Starting on Monday with 40 below windshields.

My van refusing to start.

My sister's car battery dead too

and my niece Maggie's car, dead

and my niece Lily, who works with me, her car dead too.

And both of my nieces boyfriends cars dead

and my brother-in-law driving back home from business out of town

hitting black ice and sliding into a guard rail. 

Fortunately he was fine but he totaled his rental car and was stranded.

My friend, who lives way out in the country, down a long snow covered gravel road

fired up her big diesel truck and came into town and jumped my car.

We left it running while we headed for Lily's house

so that we could try to get her car going,

No luck.

Then we came back to find mine dead again.

So my friend got her jumper cables out again and got it going.

I spent the evening going out every hour and running the van.

I even set my alarm so I could get up during the night

and I was covering it with a blanket to block the wind.

Tuesday morning, it started!

I drove to work, over the bridge into Iowa

and my van died in the parking lot.

Oh, and I forgot about the phones.

I had been on a cell phone family plan but as of the first of the year, we all went and got our own phones.

In an effort to save money (as always) I got a Tracfone but my number wouldn't transfer over.

They had to send me a new SIM card and it still wouldn't work,

So through all this ordeal, I was without a phone.

I had to communicate with family, friends and work via Facebook.

I now love Facebook.

So Tuesday, work friends jumped my van several times but it kept dying.

My sister dropped off Lily to work and took me home.

The next morning, Wednesday, my sister ran me back to work and we tried to start it again.

No luck, so my friend, a co-worker jumped it again.

Success! 

I drove it out of the driveway and started up the hill and it died.

My sister and I went and bought a new battery.

When we got back to work, Doc came outside and installed it for me.

I was so happy.

As I drove across the BIG bridge,

the battery light came on.

But it was running.

Then today, Thursday, the light was on again.

Everyone said it had to be the Alternator.

I felt sick.

I had lost a full day and then a half day of work hours.

No pay. 

And now this.

I called around, it was going to be expensive and then I called the dealership where I had bought it.

It was still under warranty minus the deductible!

I drove it to the Service Dept and they shuttled me back to work.

It spent the day there and they found NOTHING.

and they said the light was OFF.

At the end of the day, they came and got me and to my surprise charged me nothing!

I was so happy. 

I stopped at the Dollar Store and picked up a few things

and happily drove home.

As I turned onto my street, the light came back on.

I'm choosing to ignore it. 

It's been a long week.

I've been very stressed and 

YES! I ate chocolate.

But I'm lucky to have some good people in my life,

people willing to lend a helping hand so that I don't feel so alone

and helpless.

...especially when I'm forced to leave my Co-pilot at home.

I really missed having my Blue with me.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm Not moving. So...

First, thanks again for all the wonderful comments to yesterdays post.

The comments really touched my heart and motivated me .

I will try to ignore that number count.

I mean, that's just Followers on Blogger and doesn't include email, Bloglovin, etc.

And whoever stopped Following me...maybe they quit Following a lot of people.

I shouldn't take stuff so personal.

Moving on,

OK then. I'm not doing my "I'm Not moving...But" Sunday posts anymore.

Instead I'm doing "I'm Not moving. So..."

Yeah. I'm going to post ideas and photos of what I'm going to do to my own home

to make it be the best it can be...for me.

Eventually I'm going to actually post pictures of my house.

Gulp.

Kinda scary territory for me.

Even though I spill my guts here on the blog, it's intimidating to think I will show the interiors of my home.

After all, I don't even like letting people in the house.

I'm so conscious of all the things that need to be done.

And the fact that there are so many amazing homes in blogland has me very apprehensive.

But I'm gonna do it.

....pretty soon.

So today I will start with photos of home exteriors that are inspiring me.

Little houses pinned to one of my Pinterest boards.

Here's one:

source

I went to the link to read more about it and found that it's an actual tiny DOLL house!

LOL!

OK and there's this one, LOVE this one -

that link takes me to the message warning that the link could be SPAM and to go back.

Love this one too. - 

that link APPEARS to be house plans but it's not, it's more SPAM

This link said that the website could be "spammy or unseemly".

This one is cool. On HGTV but when I went to their site, I couldn't find it.

and finally, this one. LOVE LOVE this one!

and the link was back to HOUZZ.

I adore Houzz, I have "boards" over there too.

I can get lost for an hour, easy.

So there are some ideas about what I like and might get inspiration from.

If I can find the links!

Maybe I'll just stick with Houzz.

I haven't had any SPAM problems over there.

I'm looking forward to 2014, working on my home, working on my Art and on my writing and sharing the journey.

Thanks for reading!

but...Why?

Why can several people tell me that they like my hair, outfit, artwork or whatever

and it makes me happy, for a moment.

Then later, I wonder if they really meant it.

But if one person criticizes and even raises an eyebrow towards me

and I'm mortally wounded and dwell on it for days.

Last week I received 2 nice emails and also a Facebook comment about how much they each enjoyed my blog

and it made me feel happy and motivated.

And yet today when I noticed I lost a Follower,

I felt like someone slapped me.

Really?

Who? 

Jeez, I have not even broken 100.

After all this time.

After years of blogging...

Sigh.

I need to regroup and think about stuff.

Bummer.

Enough Already

2014...just Be Happy!