A Case of the Mondays

We were supposed to leave to go camping yesterday.

Daniel had to give a presentation for work about the Rock Island Dam today and will be doing an onsite visit of the dam tomorrow. We thought this would be a perfect time to hit up the Rock Island campground as a family.

However comma, things have not gone as planned.

On Monday Daniel took our SUV to get a tire rotation and alignment. These are the only things he pays other mechanics to do for us. Generally he does all of our mechanical work. This is a blessing and a curse. Anyways, the mechanic who worked on our car managed to break a bolt on the control arm. They told Daniel he would have to pay for the new bolt AND the time involved for them to fix their mistake. An unknown amount of time because they couldn't manage to remove the bolt that they broke.

Instead of paying an obscene amount for them to fix something they broke, he had them put the wheel back on and he drove it home.

So instead of packing up and finishing fixing our camper slide, he spent the rest of Monday taking the wheel off and searching for the parts he needed to fix it.

Tuesday he went to the funeral of his Grandmother's husband, Mr. Ralph. With the pandemic still going on we didn't think it made sense to take the kids, so I stayed home with them. We thought he could pick up a needed part in Manchester after the funeral (Chattanooga didn't have any parts we needed). However, Manchester did not actually have the part in stock, even though they said they did on the phone.

Faced with the dilemma of not being able to fix our SUV, Daniel called places from Murfreesboro to Knoxville trying to hunt down the part. A shop in Knoxville had it, for a better price AND the tech there gave Daniel more pertinent information about the needed part.

Thankfully Daniel's dad was available to drive up to Knoxville to get the part. Yesterday was a busy day and Daniel didn't get to work on the car at all. This was probably for the best because it poured rain for most of the day. He did manage to finish his presentation that he had to give this morning.

That brings us to today, Wednesday. We were supposed to leave yesterday to go camping, and here we are praying that Daniel can get everything fixed. Otherwise he will be driving to his worksite tomorrow and camping at Rock Island will be completely cancelled for our family. Which is a bummer.

On top of that, I ran some errands today and things were just not wanting to go my way. First, I loaded up recycling only to realize our recycling center doesn't open until 11:00 on Wednesdays. So I drove off the mountain to Hixson to return some library books and pick up holds that will expire soon. However, I made the mistake of leaving my wallet and library card at home. I had my card number in my phone, but the library refused to give me my books without ID. I feel like if I had walked inside (if the interior of the library was open), they would have lent me the books because I am there all the time and the librarians know me. But with a call-in from curbside service, they refused. I redeemed the day a little by grabbing Chick-fil-a for lunch before heading home.

I have packed as much of the camper that I possibly can so that we can leave as soon as (if) Daniel gets everything fixed. At this point I'm hoping, but not holding my breath. Fingers crossed we can at least meet up with friends on Friday for the second part of our camping trip at Edgar Evins...