Trapped in a White Trash World » car trouble

Unbelievable morning

Chaos — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:04:13 +0000

Hello again to those of you who actually read this blog! I am sorry I’ve been away so much. Packing and moving and unpacking and trying a new sleep/awake schedule has made blogging pretty low on my list of daily things to do anymore.

I did however have to tell the tale of what’s happened so far today.. and it’s not even 9am yet.

I was talking to a co worker last night about how this morning was going to be busy, but should all go smoothly enough… well the problem was it all hinged on one thing – the bank’s computers. Today is 16’s Chorus Festival. Her dress was taken to the dry cleaners Tuesday and we told them we’d get it Fri morning when they open at 7:30. The plan was this: DH was to wake up 12 and 16, get 12 off to school on the bus. Then 16 was to get 6 and 11(she had a birthday) up and ready for school while DH put gas in the van and went back to the old trailer to find 16’s shoes for chorus because she forgot all about the shoes until last night. (We STILL haven’t gotten all our crap out of that trailer! It makes me nuts). Then he was to come back with shoes, get girls, take 6 and 11 to school, then take 16 to get her dress and pay for it. Then 16 was going to take DH to work and drive the van on to school where she could change into the dress and shoes in time to do her door-holding task as the other schools arrived to compete. This was all contingent upon my paycheck direct deposit going through and us being able to access it, because unfortunately even after the huge tax refund came and went, we’re back to living paycheck to paycheck.

So, here’s what really happened. At 11pm last night I checked the credit union site and my direct deposit was there, but the available credit was still zero. I kept checking it, but by the time I got off work and went to bed at 3:30am, it wasn’t available. Well, when I woke up, DH was gone and 16 was doing a poor job of getting the kids out of bed. DH had to yell at them when he got back. He also told me the gas station declined the debit card and his card wouldn’t work in our ATM. So he took my card and left again. The van must have been on fumes by then. 16 got the kids ready and after waiting and stressing on DH, she decided to take them to the bus stop and make sure they got on the bus ok. (There’s been some morning drama at the bus stop with our 6 yr old, so we’ve been taking them instead of riding the bus normally). So, anyway, DH got back and said the ATM wouldn’t give him any money. So I went into Mom Mode. I got up and got dressed. When 16 got back, I got her phone and called the cleaners and asked if we could get the dress and pay for it when the bank opened, they said it would be OK. 16 wore black Crocs since she was supposed to wear comfy shoes to do door holding duty anyway. Then I took them both in the car which has plenty of gas – it just is missing lights and has expired tags. I took DH to work, then went to the cleaners, got the dress, took 16 and dress to the performing arts center at the school and watched her walk into the building in the rain with horrible wet hair… praying she could borrow a hair brush from someone. And now I’m back home. The bank opens in a couple minutes and then even if the ATM doesn’t let me access my money, the teller will. Then I can put minutes on the phones, pay the cleaners, get cash for gas, come back and get the van, drive it to the gas station down the street and fill up the tank, drive to the old trailer and find 16’s black pumps – then text 16 to tell her I have the shoes and where to meet me outside the school… then I go back to bed and try to get more sleep since I have now only had 3 hours of sleep. Oh,… and to top it all off, my Mother in law is coming for dinner tonight.

Someone shoot me.

Being sick sucks

Chaos — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:09:17 +0000

I normally have a very good immune system and can fight off a cold or anything pretty easily. However, this particular illness has knocked me for a loop. It started with DH getting sick last week. He missed work, so had to see a Dr. He said he had an upper respiratory infection. Well, he recovered pretty quickly, but then it hit me and for some reason seemed determined to hang on. I missed work Sunday night due to it, which is pretty bad since I telecommute.

The weekend also sucked since Friend doesn’t see or send emails over the weekend. He only does email at work. I sent him a few emails whimpering about being sick, but not much more than that since my eyeballs even hurt. Monday, I still felt icky, but was able to email him at least. I’m not sure why, but things definitely seemed to have cooled down. Maybe he didn’t like what he saw at lunch? I dunno. I mean he still wants to email and flirt, but I don’t think he was as serious about how far he wanted this to go as his previous emails had led me to believe. I think we’re both very cautious, not wanting to fall head over heels for each other again, since we can’t really be a couple. We both have families we won’t break up for our own selfish desires. He said he’s OK if nothing else ever happens, but if it does, then it will be up to me – and that he’ll never pressure it to go further than I want, because he cherishes our friendship too much.

Tuesday I don’t think I really talked to him much at all. It was the night of 10’s chorus perfomance, but I just couldn’t go. I was still feeling horrible. I knew I’d cough all through it. Since MIL was here to see it, I asked her to take 10, 6 and 12 to the school for the performance. 12 took pictures for me. Fortunately, I had already requested off that night of work so I could take her, so I was able to just sleep and try to get over the illness. Then Wednesday all we ended up talking about was my kids being such a pain. 12 actually asked me to get her help with anger management. That’s the first step! Then we get to today.

Today (Thursday) I woke up at 1:30pm (I work nights remember) and laid there and actually thought “I don’t want the rest of this day to happen. I want it to just go away” Earlier this morning, DH had gone out to start the van to go to work, and it wouldn’t start. That clicky clicky noise outside the window woke me up, so I laid there and listened to it, and dreaded the rest of the day. He called the garage to come get it AGAIN and he started walking to work. It’s 2.3 miles from here to his job, but it’s hilly. If there were sidewalks, it would be a great way for him to exercise. Anyway, a little later, the wrecker came and woke me up as it picked up the van. I heard them try to start it too. Dead as a doornail. I made sure the phone was nearby and I went back to sleep. So, when I woke up after noon, I knew the day was not going to be fun. I was still recovering from this respiratory infection, I’d have to figure out how to get the van, I’d have to deal with the kids all evening alone since DH was closing the store, the house is a complete disaster area, and I had to work.

Well, I got very little done around the house,.. like nothing at all. I went back to sleep til 16 got home at 3:30. I put her to washing dishes and put 12 to cleaning her room. Then DH called and said to find a ride to get the van, they finally fixed it. The power doorlock on the passenger door was locking and unlocking by itself and draining the battery. So they removed it. I called a friend to come take me to get it, and it was all fine. No more drama with his van breaking down etc. In fact I had texted another friend and asked him, but he thought he was reading an old text from the first time I had asked him when it was in the shop a couple weeks ago, so he ignored the text. HAHA. I told him it did feel like deja vu. Got back home, listened to 6 read me her reading story for today. She’s doing MUCH better now that she has her glasses. She got those on Monday with her Daddy. They both got new glasses. I love my vision insurance! Anyway, 10 started showing symptoms of being sick too, so I sent her to bed. The elementary school is having pictures tomorrow, so we picked out a cute outfit for 6. 10 will likely miss it since I’m sure she’ll be staying home. Also, since 10 was sick, she didn’t do her allotted dishes (she does plates and silverware) and no one wanted to help out and do her dishes. Did I mention dishes always seem to have to be done BEFORE dinner and rarely get done AFTER dinner? SIGH. Anyway, I managed to get dinner started, but had to have 16 finish making it so I could get to work. Then had to make sure 16 got 6 into the tub and all squeaky clean for her pictures tomorrow.If 6 is left to wash herself, she usually forget to actually wash. heh.

So, did I get to talk to Friend today? Yes, a little. I told him about the van situation, and he said he wished I lived back in our hometown where he lives, so he could come take care of me. Awww. Then when I got the van and came back and told him, it was about time for him to leave. He was going to go install new hardwood floor in his Mom’s house. (did I mention this guy is amazing?). He said he was glad I got my van back and hoped I would be able to get DH home from work OK (I sent 16 to get him), and then added:

i hope you have a good night and maybe we will get to talk more tomorrow. hope your feeling better too. love and miss you…

Awwwww! He misses me. I can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already. It’s good because it’s a pay weekend for DH, but I don’t get to talk to Friend over the weekend, even if I wanted to, so that’s a bummer. I am *really* hoping this weekend turns out as productive as it’s supposed to be and next week is a much better week all around.

An old “Friend”

Chaos — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:32:09 +0000

Update on last post first of all. It’s ironic really how my life plays out. I got a friend of ours to take me to get the van yesterday. On the way there, his old clunker van starts acting up. He swears it’s not the gas, since he has a readout that tells him how much gas he’s used, even though the gas gauge doesn’t work. Right. So, he gets it going again and takes a completely wrong turn. He’s lived here 26 years and had no clue where he was going. Well, anyway, it stopped completely, and he got it into a parking lot. We called another friend to come take me on to get my van since the shop was going to close soon. We figured his was out of gas even though he swore it wasn’t. So, I went to get DH from work, went back home to get the gas can, stopped and got 3 gallons of gas, then took it back across town to his van and put it in. It started up after a couple tries and ran fine after that. Lucky him, he doesn’t have a mechanics bill. Mine was another $143 It’s MORE than the first time, though they took a whole $5 off the tow bill, bless them Grrrr.

On the bright side, no checks attempted to go through yesterday, so we should be good there.

Now, about that friend.. well… back in high school I had a small group of friends. I had a best girl friend and a guy who I was utterly crazy about who was also a dear friend. If you’ve been reading about my life so far, you can see where this is going. Since Murphy writes his laws while sitting on me, yes, the guy I was crazy about and who claimed I was his best friend – and my best girl friend started dating. High school sucked. Actually that was just the end of my Sophomore and first half of my Junior year. They broke up before Christmas break of our Junior year. Boo. Hoo. But there is more to my story.

The summer between our Sophomore and Junior years, my best girl friend (not-so-best at this point since she stole the guy she knew I had a crush on – the bitch) was off in Nashville with her sister. My birthday is in July, and I was turning 16. My Mom wanted me to feel special on my Sweet Sixteen birthday even though she couldn’t afford to get my much. So, she said I could have a pizza/movie party. So I invited all my friends. One one came. My best guy friend I had a crush on who was dating my other best friend who was far far away… Just me and him and pizza and movies and sitting around being bored. He even brought me half a dozen yellow friendship roses. So, he and I went for a walk around the neighborhood as the sun was setting. It was nice, we’d been friends for years and he was easy to talk to. We got back to my house and sat on the porch. It was a big wide covered porch with wisteria vines growing on it, quite romantic actually. We sat down in patio chairs and talk as it gets darker – kind of flirty talk now – he was always a flirt. I’m not sure how, but the conversation turned to my one and only “boyfriend” I’d ever had. He was a freshman and I was a sophomore and we met at a church youth meeting twice and went to the movies once. I mentioned he had been my first kiss, but it was all wet and sloppy and I didn’t like it. Well, my Friend (I will probably call him “Friend” from now on) said he didn’t kiss like that, and I said “Prove it.” So, he stood up, took my hand and I stood there in the dark on the porch with him and he kissed me. O M G I think that was still the best kiss I’ve ever had even to this day. I still remember my heart racing, and how wonderful and perfect and dreamy it all felt. We went inside to sit on the couch together, but MTV was playing Headbanger’s Ball and I didn’t have any love song tapes. We found one tape with a love song on it, so he put it in.. One More Night by Phil Collins. Then he sat back down on the couch and we kissed a few more times and cuddled and talked about how nice this was … then his dad came to get him. That memory is now 22 years old, and it’s still as vivid as if it were last night.

Unfortunately I turned into an idiot after that night. I felt horribly guilty for kissing him while my friend was away in Nashville living it up with a bunch of college students and one guy in particular she kept writing about… Yeah I was stupid. I told Friend it was a mistake and I was sorry it happened and we could just forget it happened. Soon, school was back in session, our Junior year, and they were back together. It was horrible. I think that was when something inside me snapped. I told my girlfriend I had kissed her boyfriend, so she and I were pretty much not friends after that, which made it much easier to spread a few r. umors to make her life miserable. … I was a real bitch, but I felt like the woman scorned. I wanted him and I had my chance but gave him back to her, and then I realized she really didn’t deserve him… I never said I was mentally stable in High School – or now. They eventually broke up over a lot of drama (yay me!), but he swooned about her all the time, wouldn’t go back to the flirty Friend he had been, he even still took her to our Junior Prom. Me? I went alone. Yeah… I’m seeing scenes from Carrie in my head as I write this. I wonder if I blocked some really terrible things out… Hmmm

So, Junior year sucks, I pine for him the whole time… and after prom is over, suddenly he starts flirting with me again. Passing notes in the hall etc. I went to his house a couple times to hang out, under the watchful eyes of like his entire damn family jeez. Well, after school was out for the summer, the phone calls got longer and a little more R-X rated, letters we sent each other were pretty hot too. He was 17 by then, and I was coming up on it. Well, things worked out that my Mom and Dad both went to work in the morning and neither one got home til after 3, and I was alone at home that whole time. Friend had a job too, but would tell his folks he had to work on a day when he was really off and come see me instead. A year later almost to the day, around my 17th birthday, we arranged for him to come to my place that morning. More than just a kiss happened that morning, so Friend who was my first real kiss also became my first lover. It wasn’t anything like the romance novels, that’s for sure, but it was great to be with him anyway. He’s very passionate. (Well he was at 17, I guess they all are then). I wasn’t his first, I know that.

That summer had a few more morning meetings like that, and I couldn’t wait til school started and we could be a couple there and hold hands and have lunch together and I could call him my boyfriend. I was so in love.. but then he told me he didn’t love me, he said I was his best friend and he liked playing around, but we weren’t dating. My heart was broken. I remember my sister was visiting that year for her ten year HS reunion, and she told me to forget Friend and keep my eyes open for someone new… My Mr Right might still be out there and I hadn’t even met him yet. A couple weeks later our Senior year started and I met DH in Physics class. This is where it is supposed to end with a happy Jane Austen type ending right? No.

While I was smitten with 17 yr old DH, he seemed oblivious to the fact that I was female. Flirting didn’t work, nothing I did with Friend worked. So, I resigned myself to being friends with DH. So, since I STILL didn’t have anyone I could call a boyfriend and I was lonely and had ZERO self esteem by this time.. what did I do? I went back to Friend and we started fooling around again. All while he’d date a different girl each week. He was quite handsome and charming. His Dad was half-Cherokee, so he had the dark Native skin, but he had GORGEOUS green eyes.

Fast forward some… My Dad passed away in January, and Friend came to the wake and sat with me the whole time and was there for me. I went to prom with DH, Friend went with yet another girl friend of mine and wouldn’t even dance with me. After we graduated, I’d still go meet with Friend now and then, but spent most of my time with DH who was now my best friend though he hated to hear me talk about Friend. I ended up going to the same college as DH, and even though he and I ended up being in serious relationships with other people, we finally got together the summer before his senior year of college.

I had dropped out of college after my freshman year (not socially ready), and went to FL to get a job with some friends of mine there. Was in a bad wreck. Came back to my Mom’s house (she had remarried by then – pretty quick yeah), and recouperated. (Her house was about 2 hours from the town where my college had been and thus all my new friends and DH.) Well, of course Friend lived there in my hometown and we talked on the phone a lot and he ended up asking me to his place one night when his family was out of town. I was healed up enough by then. It was a pretty wild night, very passionate since we’d not been together for about a year. That was the last time we were ever together.

I married DH in 1991, and Friend came to Mom’s house that morning to see me. I looked awesome with my hair all done in hot rollers at the salon early that morning. He seemed like he wanted to say something else, but wanted to tell me congratulations and hoped I’d be happy … but he couldn’t stay.

A year later, he married – a woman ten years older than him who he’s started dating while she was separated from her last husband and she had two kids. I have NO idea why. I went to his wedding. I threw rice, I told them congrats. That was the last time I saw him… for 14 years.

My mom and his mom were actually pretty good friends and even worked together for a while at a diner. So MOm would keep tabs on him and send me news now and then. I knew he’d had two kids, a boy and a girl. His health was pretty bad for his age. He had a stroke and then congestive heart failure, but overcame both and ended up becoming a runner and lost a lot of weight. His wife was a very jealous woman and forbade him to talk to other women and he was not to contact me at al. I stopped sending Christmas cards after a couple years. When our ten year class reunion was due, I called his mom to see if he was going and she said she’d ask him. She never did (Found that out recently).

In November 2005, my mom passed away from ovarian Cancer. I was devastated as was my whole family. My sister had just moved back home after being gone for 30 years with her husband in the AF. She planned to open a bakery coffee shop with Mom… she was taken much too quickly. So, standing there at Mom’s wake, 18 years after my Dad’s I remembered being there with Friend sitting by my side helping me through it. This time I had DH but he was extremely uncomfortable, didn’t know anyone and kept fidgeting. My brother and sister were in the receiving line with me. Then I saw Friend’s mom and dad come through the line. She told me Friend was going to be there. My heart stopped I swear for a good 20 seconds. Then it wouldn’t stop racing. I could not believe the affect it was having on me, just knowing he was going to be there. I remained calm and greeted people and was still prone to crying. Our Congressman came, as well as the mayor and many other people. Many said they’d never seen so many people touched by one person before. My Mom was that kind of person. I was talking to one of the many people who told me they remmbered me from diapers etcetc, and then there he was, standing in front of me. Taller than I remembered, dressed in a suit and tie, same dark tan skin, same green eyes, fuller mustache, a little more age in the face, but overall, exactly the same as the 17 year old boy I’d been in love with. We talked for a while, then he stood next to me in line just as he had at my Dad’s wake. Then to be as polite as I could, I excused myself from line and went to the hallway to talk to him. DH says we were talking for 2 hours, but I don’t believe that… well maybe it was.

It was as if there had not been a single day passed, much less 14 years. We exchanged emails and phone numbers, and promised to stay in touch. We did write occasionally and got caught up on most of the big stuff that had happened. He seemed happy and content with his life, and I was happy for him. So, other than a few joke emails and the occasional How Are You? email, I didn’t intrude on his life too much.

In January of this year, he told me he was having serious kidney problems and was having extensive tests done at a major hospital 5 hours away. I emailed and asked how he was but never heard back, but did keep getting junk mail stuff from him, so I figured it was all ok. Recently however, he sent me an email that was a little different than the others he’d sent a couple years ago. It started with a couple of Hi, How are you, emails, and then I got this …

God I wish you lived here, I would love to steal you for the day and go somewhere and be like we used to be. I need a friend like that so bad. I feel like I can tell you anything and it always made things seems so little after we’d talk. Sometimes I listen to old tapes of music that we used to listen to and just close my eyes and think back. Life was so simple and easy and we thought it was so hard. Since I have been so sick I have really looked at myself and the way I have turned out and not been very happy with it. I made so many mistakes doing what others expected instead of what I wanted. Only to turn back time, now there is a thought. I love having a family and I don’t regret having children, but sometimes I wonder how different my life would have been had I followed my heart instead of my penis all time. But you can’t go back, now can you. I guess I shouldn’t be so sad and depressing, I just miss having a best friend that understood me and didn’t judge. that is so hard to find in an adult. Not that we’re not adults, but you know what I mean. the last time I saw you to actually talk to you is was so easy, and it was like time had stood still and our friendship was so perfectly protected. I am still a dreamer and I guess I always will be. I miss you and I love you. Look forward to hearing from you.

I was amazed. That was more emotion and honesty than he’d shown me in all the years we’d known each other before… but to be fair, we were kids back then.

The emails have continued back and forth since then, and we finally have been able to get a bit of closure on our relationship back then. Like this one for example which kind of blew me away…

Do you remember that day I came to your house right before you married ****? I wanted so bad to say stop, but I thought you was happy and I really wanted that for you, although I knew in my heart it was wrong and I had other commitments at the time. Did you know I dated two other people up until about 3 weeks before my wedding. That should have been a hint to my dumb ass. **** doesn’t know me at all and the more I talk to you the more I learn. There is so much in my head that I have never told anyone and here I am just spilling it to you like it is nothing. I have really missed having you in my life even if it is not the way I really want it, it is a start….

Well, I keep hinting and kind of asking if he wants to get together for lunch or a drink etc. But he keeps saying I can go meet him for lunch at his job, which is an hour away. He has mentioned we could maybe meet in a neutral city where he has Dr visits and I often go to go shopping. But lately, he’s not really been very forthcoming with the whole getting together thing – but he just got back from the beach with his family, so I figured he was just trying to get back into the groove from that. Then today, after I mentioned I had today and tomorrow off and planned to just go out and have fun and see some movies and relax, and I wish he was able to go out for a drink with me or something, and he agreed he wished he could too… and then I got this email when I got back from a movie with DH tonight when he got off work – it was a reply telling him I was going to the movies and for him to have a good evening and weekend:

you too. i hope you enjoy the movie. i am going to (neutral city) to meet with a friend after work.

I was like WTF?? He kept saying we could only meet at lunch and I’d have to drive all the way there, but he can go meet someone else after work in a place I already told him I could go meet him and is a lot closer??? I wrote him a rather bitchy email, but after writing about our past together, I sent him another one telling him I’m still mad, but I still want to meet him somewhere. What do I expect out of this? I don’t know. Will I see if he’s still a good kisser? Maybe. I’ll let you know!

When it rains it pours…

Chaos — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:48:05 +0000

Looks like house hunting is on hold until further notice.

We got the van back. Our friend took DH and 6 to their eye appointements, then to the garage to get the van. The diagnosis? “We can’t find anything wrong with it. You must have left something on and ran the battery down.” Huh. DH told them, no this has been going on for weeks. They said they tested the whole electrical system. Start is fine. Alternator is fine, Battery is fine, but something ran it down. Nothing was drawing power from the battery when they tested it. They charged us $121 to tow it in and not find anything wrong with it. So, he drove it home and picked me up. We went to Walmart to pick out frames for 6 to get reading glasses and for DH to get a whole new pair. He got a very cool looking pair that comes with magnetic sunglass lenses. 6 got Hannah Montana purple ones. They’re really cute on her, and since she doesn’t have to wear them all the time, I figured non-flexi-frames would be OK. The tech was very impressed with my vision insurance. I don’t pay a penny for the exams, frames or lenses. It’s through my employer which is based in California, so that’s nice. Then we went on to our friend’s house to feed and water the animals. The address for the guy with the commode on Freecycle was near there and thankfully not on the other side of the county. He had such a wonderful place tucked back in a hidden meadow at the end of a long gravel driveway. Definitely had some money. Must be nice to retire like that. Anyway, the toilet looks like new, and wasn’t an old clunker type I had expected it to be. Got it in the back of the van secured and drove back home. By the time we pulled in the driveway, I wasn’t sure it would go an inch further. Right on empty.I told DH to call his mother and tell her to send money. So he did, and it ended as many calls to her do, with “Yes Mother” … Shoot me.

So, I emailed DH’s brother in law who my MIL is staying with in NJ. I told him we had to have gas money, the woman owed us a lot of money for gas and animals food and emotional duress. He works for a big tech company in NY. I figured he could spare some gas money for his poor white trash relations in the boonies. So, within an hour or so, I had $50 in my Paypal account. Thank fully I have a Paypal debit card from my days as an ebayer.

Well, this morning, DH had to take 10 to school sicne she had a sleep away camp through school at the 4H camp. The van started fine, he came home got ready, puttered around, and then went to drive it to work… wouldn’t start. So yeah this blows all the theories we had about condensation or something happening overnight being the problem. And it certainly didn’t sit long enough with any small power drain going on for it to kill the battery. And it wasn’t a dead battery noise – it was a whir whir whir of it not turning over. I got up and went out and said maybe jiggling connections would help, but everything is tight and secure, nothing to jiggle. He eventually got a friend to take him to get some gas (he forgot the Paypal card when he took 10 to school so didn’t get gas. He’s lucky he made it there and back!). But it still didn’t start. So, the friend took him to work, and DH called the shop to have it towed in again. They were like,
“You mean is won’t start again?!”
“Yes”
“Huh well ain’t that somethin’”
“Yeah”
“Well we’ll bring it in and take a look at it”
“Good”

The wrecker came and woke me up, and they tried starting it, still same noise, so they took it away. DH worked til 10 tonight, got a ride home with another friend (thank GOD for friends!) and said the shop never called him. He works again tomorrow, 8-5. So I don’t know what we’re going to do about the van and getting it. I really need to get that car running. I know they have batteries at Kmart and he could get one on his way home and write a check for it. Our paychecks go through Friday night at 11pm, so the check would be covered, thank goodness! I’m just praying the check he wrote to the shop yesterday doesn’t go through tomorrow. If it can just wait one day…

Sigh… well, on a somewhat brighter note, I’ve decided since we can’t really move anytime soon since we have got to be able to have money in savings for unexpected crap like this before we get a big rent payment.. I’m going to use the extra holiday money I got for working Labor Day and get a small portable dishwasher. My kitchen is tiny, but there is a countertop dishwasher out now that will not take up floor space. It’s not very big, but if we can get all the dishes caught up, and just wash stuff once a day after dinner, it will be amazing. I found a website that will ship it pretty cheap and not charge sales tax and it’s on sale, all total $209 for a new dishwasher. Reviews say it won;t handle big pots and pans so that’s a concern. But unless I find a cheap full sized portable dishwasher at an outlet store or salvage place then I’m gonna get it. The dishes in this house are a major concern and argument starter. I’ll let you know what I end up getting.

I just hope the stupid van doesn’t take all my money!