Ahh, we’re finally in Florida. And none too soon.
I have to say that as of last week I was pretty much burnt toast. After a month of getting the house ready to sell, then on the market, and then negotiated, we went to Settlement last week. Or I thought we were – I did my part on Tuesday, and the buyers were supposed to do their part on Wednesday. But that turned into Thursday, which turned into Friday… which turned into Friday afternoon, when it was too late to record before the end of the month and too late for a wire to be sent.
I also had a large implementation to get through for work (which finally got finished on Thursday). The weekend before we left we actually did a massive reorganization of the upstairs,including painting Annika’s room pink and doing musical furniture for the four rooms upstairs. We also of course did a massive cleaning of all the closets and the kids clothes. Then with the preparation for the drive down to Florida, and with the other normal bajillion things that also need to get done when you have kids that have needs and a pregnant wife who is doing her best to cope with all of this herself- well, lets just say I was at 9 on the “dark” meter of the toaster.
The drive down to Florida started out just fine. We left at 5:30am which was torturous, and after a brief traffic scare merging onto 95, it was actually fairly smooth sailing. The girls were magnificent , the DVD player got a good workout and they were just fine. We were making good time too, on schedule to hit J’s parents house at 10pm in FL. Around 4:15 or so we were on I-95 in southern Georgia contemplating dinner. I spotted something in the road and swerved to avoid it, and BLAM we hit it, and we hear a horrible crunching noise. I kept control of the car (including J, the kids, Zoe in the back and the carrier on top!) and got to the side of the road. Leapt out and saw that the front tire was shredded (with smoke coming out of it) and the rim a bit torn up, I inspected the other tires and they all looked good, but I immediately knew that this was not just simply getting a tire changed out. The wheel needed to be replaced, because the Odyssey only comes with the donut. Mostly importantly all the girls were fine, and in fact after the scare of the collision, they were satisfied watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the screen.
Called AAA and waited. A cop came and dragged the debris off the road, and then came by and said it was a driveshaft from a truck! (Where the truck was, who knows?) He made a report for my insurance company (not that I plan on submitting it, but in case) and continued to wait for the AAA guy. He eventually came, put on the donut (after switching a good tire to the front, he put it on the rear) and we limped off to at least regroup for dinner. Called around and found no place within that area (at Saturday at 5pm) that carried a wheel, let alone a replacement honda stock wheel. So we were faced with the prospect of staying in a hotel until Monday at the earliest and then getting to Tampa, or crossing our fingers and hoped the donut made it to Florida.
In the end, we decided to chance it and simply drive at 50-55 the whole way. As torturous as that was (lots of people flashing their lights at the slowpoke in the right lane), we finally made it to J’s parents around 12:30. LONG ASS DAY. The kids eventually got back to sleep, although they were discombobulated at first.
So now we’re in Florida, and it just started to become sunny. The kids have been in the pool, and I just found out that the wire transfer from the closing FINALLY just happened, so I can contact my insurance company and tell them to drop the insurance. That should be the last order of business with the townhouse, save the refunds from the escrow account and the insurance. Finally!
As far as the car, I’ve been calling around to see what the damage is. The estimates from the dealerships varied between 900-1200 bucks. I can get a wheel and a TPMS sensor from a dealership about 45 minutes away for about 450, and then pay to get a new tire put on locally for about $200, so that’s what I’ll be doing. Hopefully that’s the last stressful thing to deal with on this vacay.
Oh, also last week I had our anniversary trip fiasco published by an online travel ombudsman, to get reaction from his readers. He didn’t warn me he was publishing it (a little annoying, but whatever). After reading some of the hateful and ignoraant comments, it was an exercise in dealing with people’s ignorance and the adage “Your opinion about me is none of my business.” I know what happened, and actually one persons research reaffirmed that it happened the way we experienced it, but many people thought we weren’t just paying attention and ignorant. (Ignoring the fact that we actually got emails/texts from the airline saying the flight was delayed.) After obsessively hitting refresh for the day, I’ve made it a point NOT to go back and look at the comments, because it’s just masochistic. Mostly a way for the universe to test me out a little bit more.
So we’re here until next Saturday, when we venture back home. Then a week at home, and the week after that we go to CT to see J’s brother and his family. Then we’re basically local until the baby comes in September.