So now Kurt is home, and that is lovely. Well, he's not home at the moment; someone has to go out and make the money, ya know. But he's back in port, and that's what matters.
We went to the mall yesterday, the hoity-toity one on the other side that I absolutely adore. It's awesome because it's so huge!! I went into Macy's, which is a two-level store whereas the one near my house is only one level, to buy myself a sweater or jacket or something to keep me warm. It was only 59� yesterday!!! I about froze my tushie off. I found this awesome denim jean jacket with a faux cotton hoodie attached. It's a faux hoodie because it's just the hood and the zipper in the front; it's not fully lined with the hoodie. It looks really great on me. Even a randomly passing lady mentioned it!!!
Then I just had to go up to the Special Occasion dresses and check them out. I've always loved to walk by them in Macy's, even when I don't have a formal occasion coming up. I guess I'm attracted to shiny, sparkly things!! I have a dress I can wear to the Khaki Ball, but I wouldn't mind getting a new one. I found this quite lovely floor-length (at least on me!) gown in many shades of blue that faded into one another. One side was shirred up, which made the fabric across my tummy wrinkle up a bit. I'm not sure if that is the acceptable look or not, but I'm pretty sure I could go up a size in the dress and it would look better. The dress had a halter top with dark blue shirred chiffon to go over the bosom, and just under the bosom was a line of rhinestones. The halter-top made my bosoms look ENORMOUS!! It was like, "Hi, I'm Boobs!! How are ya?!?!" :o) I'm going to go back to my Macy's at some point and see what they have there.
The strange thing was the dressing area in the Special Occasion dresses was full! I finally asked two of the teenaged girl behind me in line what was going on, and they said, "Homecoming." Really???? Geez, I didn't even have a date to Homecoming (which my school held over Columbus Day weekend) until mid-September, and here these girls are already buying their dresses in August! Yeeesh. There were also some adult women buying dresses, but I didn't ask what functions they were going to.
Last night my stress level went through the roof. There's no reason for it to have done so, but it did. I hate it when it does that. When Kurt left to go to San Diego three weeks ago, he disconnected the battery in the truck so that it wouldn't drain if I didn't start it every couple of days. I just stuck to driving my little Cavalier. Last night he tried to reattach the battery so he could take the truck to work, and he realized the bolt that attaches to the battery terminal was stripped. Not only that, but the terminal inside the battery itself was also stripped, and badly.
We've had issues with the truck battery for years, pretty much ever since we moved here. I remember filling up at a gas station, and when Kurt attempted to start the engine, it just clicked and wouldn't even turn over. So we popped the clutch and headed straight to the auto parts store to have the battery tested. It came out just fine, so we chalked it up to a fluke and thought nothing more of it.
That is, until I tried to take my truck to the airport one day and again it wouldn't start. This time, Kurt was underway, so I decided at first just to let it sit for the next six months. But eventually I decided I wanted to have both vehicles working in case I had to haul something large; my Cavalier is too little to haul much of anything. So I took it to Sears after getting it jumped to have a Die Hard battery put in. This was last July. They tested my old battery before they took it out, and again it tested just fine, but I went ahead and got a new battery just in case.
Even still, we've been having issues. Now Kurt thinks that the bolt on the connection has been stripped all this time, and because of the bad connection, the battery we've had in there just hasn't been getting a charge as we've been driving, like it should have been. He's thinking that if we get a new battery (because the terminal is stripped, and it's just easier to get a new battery) and a new bolt to connect the battery to the electrical system, all our problems will be solved. I hope so; that would be an easy fix! But it annoys me to no end that the guy who replaced our battery last year at Sears didn't notice the stripping of the bolt. You'd think he'd check for that kind of thing, especially since he'd looked at my serpentine belt and conned me into buying a new one.
I guess I just expect people in a service industry to actually provide a service! What a novel concept! ;o)
All this boils down to a stressful night because I got so nervous that this wouldn't fix the truck. For some reason, my brain goes into overdrive late at night and my stress levels go through the roof. It doesn't matter how often I tell myself, "Don't worry; we have a plan to fix it. It's all good!" I still freak out.
I turned my light off somewhere around midnight, and I think it took me ten or fifteen minutes to fall asleep. Then I woke up at 2am, completely, totally, and utterly awake... not to mention stressed. My heart was pounding, my mind was racing, and I could not for the life of me fall back asleep. I tried to read, but that didn't work. Finally around 3am I started a new book, and it distracted my mind enough to fall asleep. But then my alarm went off at 4:30am for Kurt to go to work. I'm so glad that I set my alarm; his didn't go off, or he might have turned it off before it went off. At any rate, I was able to get him up and out of the house on time. Then again I was stressed... so I had to read some more. I'm guessing I only got about six hours of sleep last night, and I don't function well on anything less than eight.
When Kurt gets home this evening, we plan on going to Sears and hoping they replace this battery with a new one for free, as they either should have noticed that the bolt was stripped and replaced it, or it's possible they stripped the bolt as they installed the new battery. If that doesn't work, we'll still get a new battery, and we'll make sure that we get a new bolt as well.
I told you we had a plan!! I just wish my sleep-deprived brain had listened!