Surprises, the flu bug, and weather woes

My daughter and grandson picked me up at my son's on Sunday. Neither she nor Eli were feeling well, so the visit was short. However, we did make our stop at Costco to stock up on a number of items. Leaving the store, I was driving and when I reached the highway the car started jerking and revving the engine. 

I pulled over and D took over and we limped our way home. The car was misfiring at lower speeds, but once we got it to 100 kph (60 mph), it would do reasonably well, until we were on a slight incline. Then the car would drop its speed and she would have to ease it up to the limit again. It was a tense ride home but we did make it. 

On the drive we talked about the car; D has had it for about 6 years, and it is now 11-12 years old. In the past five years, she's put almost as much money into it as she originally paid for it. The local Chev dealership has had in the shop at least once every spring. They diagnosed bad spark plugs (and some other piece that I don't recall) each time. This didn't seem like spark plugs to me, with the exception of the mis-firing at the lower speeds. Rather, as she would attempt to increase her speed, the RPM would go very high before it would seem to change gears (it is an automatic). Since the transmission light kept going on and off too, I self-diagnosed it as a failing transmission. She had just had it in the shop for a oil change and fluid check so we figured it probably wasn't low on transmission fluid. Of course, I'm not a mechanic, as my daughter remind me, so whatever it was, I was very concerned.

It seemed pointless to me to spend any more money on the vehicle. If it needed a new transmission, it would be very costly and would leave her without a vehicle. Since my vehicle is in Arizona, we'd have no way to get around. As a result, we perused the local websites of the car dealerships, finding only two vehicles in our price range. The first, a yellow Ford Mustang would have been fun but not practical. The second an orange Ford Escape seemed more useful. After a morning of phone calls, we drove over in D's car...it made it there. 

After a test drive, which was so much nicer than the old car, we headed back to the dealership to do a bit of wheeling and dealing. The total price was acceptable, though a little higher than I would have liked. (Isn't it always?) After our agreement, I put a deposit down, and the salesperson - the same woman who sold D the other car - sent us off to the next town over with the bill of sale so I could get a bank draft. Back in our town, we stopped at the insurance broker to pick up the license plate, and finally to the dealership to drop off the draft and the dealer plate. 

D will either privately sell the old vehicle (unlikely) or get someone to pick it up for scrap. At the moment it is parked in the garage - one the small SUV will not fit in. She's actually okay with that, she can park beside the garage to plug in (block heater), and the Escape has command start. In fact, she can start the car with her cellphone!

After spending several hours in a vehicle on Sunday and Monday with my daughter and Eli, it wasn't a surprise when I woke up Tuesday with a tickle in my throat and a runny nose. The symptoms kept increasing through the day, with a sore throat, cough, and dripping nose. 

We got a few inches of snow throughout the day, and both D and I were out to shovel. She did the majority of it, as I got winded quite easily. It seems that a nasty flu is making its way through the community. She was speaking to the school early in the morning, as Eli was still coughing. The principal told her that he was aware that 20 junior school age children were at the emergency room the night prior, and that number did not include the toddlers and babies who were brought in. Both D and I had our flu shots in October, but the variant out there isn't well covered by this year's vaccine. Eli had not gotten his, he is allergic to eggs, and must have his vaccine at the hospital. Every time D would want to take him, he'd come down with the sniffles. He definitely had the worst case of the three of us.

The temperature dropped significantly overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Have I said how much I'm missing the sunshine of Yuma? I spent the night either shivering or sweating, waking myself coughing, so much coughing that my ribs hurt. Wednesday was a write-off as I spent much of the day napping. I'd be up for a half hour or so, and then feel exhausted and need to lie down. At 8 p.m. I woke up, and stayed awake for four hours before falling back into a deep sleep again. The coughing had eased off.

I woke Thursday feeling so much better. My cat had thrown up overnight so I got the little green machine out to clean the carpet. By the time I was finished, I was wiped out again and slept another hour and a half. If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you'll know I don't do sick well. It annoys me that I can't manage to stay upright and get some things done around here. The kitchen floor needs mopping (desperately), I wanted to finish decorating my Christmas tree, and perhaps start a knitting project.

The tree featured in the photo on wednesday was a surprise! D bought the tree for my space. Her/our main tree is in the dining room and covered in her ornaments, silver and blue. After last Christmas I gave away my ornaments that were red/green/gold because I didn't think I'd have a use for them again. I did keep a few favorites, six bird bells, and a couple of cats. D bought me some icicles for the tree and another bird ornament.

I managed to stay upright for much of Thursday, finished decorating my tree, stripped and remade my bed (D helped), had a shower, did some banking, folded laundry, and cleaned up the kitchen after dinner. I didn't easily fall asleep, and when I did, I only slept for about 5 hours before waking...at 2:13 a.m. Though I tried, I wasn't able to fall back asleep. Up at 6 a.m., I fed the cats, unloaded the dishwasher, did up the dishes left in the sink overnight and made a cup of tea. I definitely felt so much better.

After dropping Eli off at school, D and I picked up some groceries, an extension cord for her new car, and outlet expander for me. We were back at home, car unloaded and putting away the groceries in less than an hour. With a windchill near -40 we hustled!

As a result of the winter weather, we've decided that this weekend will be spent here in the house. I've got curling to watch, RBC Dominion Western Showdown being held in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. It is a men's and women's event so there seems to be a new game to watch several times a day. I'm streaming it on the Curlingzone You-tube channel.

I haven't started a new knitting project, but have turned my mind to the Advent calendar jigsaw puzzle D bought for me. I started it on the 12th...which mean it should be half-completed...it is not. 

The photo above is the only photo I took this week. It was taken on Monday, before we had another few inches of snow. 

Have a wonderful week ahead everyone. Hope you are warm, happy and healthy!