Rough weekend

Friday after participating in a funeral for one of our church family, Mama and I drove to Cleburne, TX to look at a car Victoria had found online. It was a Toyota Rav 4; very clean, fairly new. Mama and I test drove the car after making the hour plus drive to look it over and were mostly impressed by the vehicle, but the sunroof was not working when I tested it. That put me on edge. The price of the car was a little high for Victoria’s budget and even though she needs to seriously shop for a newer car, she does not need to go into debt to get one right away. Mama was a bit more concerned about the smell of the car. It had the odor of being smoked in.

The cleaning it had been given to overcome that odor and the fragrance put in the car to give it a “clean” smell were both a little obvious. Victoria is very sensitive to smoke, to the point that she cannot tolerate even the aftereffects of someone smoking in a car. With two minor strikes against the purchase, we advised Victoria to hold off for the moment even though the dealer made us a great offer on the price. Plus, the car had been advertised as having heated seats and it did not have heated seats. A sticking point for Victoria. Mama was called by the dealer yesterday to let her know that the operation of the sunroof had been restored by replacing a fuse. Perhaps an easy fix, but we are experiencing an ongoing fuse issue with our Sequoia. Again, it is an easy fix, but it forbodes a larger problem when fuses need to be replaced often. So, we spent almost three hours on the road Friday evening with nothing much to show for it other than some baking we took care of on the way.

Saturday was brutally windy. The ambient temperature was just above freezing but the wind made the air very frigid. The wind kicked up enough dust and whatever other allergens were being blasted about that by Saturday afternoon I was feeling the tickle in my bronchioles that alerts me to a pending bronchitis. By Saturday evening the cough had begun in earnest and I had a miserable night Saturday night. With the very noisy cough such an infection gives me I was unable to attend services at church yesterday. So, this was not a fun weekend for me. I was not out in the wind any more than absolutely necessary, but it was enough. I was troubled all day Saturday because I knew I could not expose myself to the weather conditions without getting sick and we were leaving a lot of chores undone to shield me from the potential for getting sick. Yet it gripped me anyway. So, here I am, coughing my way through the days and nights hoping and praying it will pass quickly. It never does but hope springs eternal.

Meanwhile, as Mama and I are anticipating the arrival of her new furniture Wednesday, I began looking for a desk to replace the six-foot table I now have set up as a desk on the living room. I found several that would do on Facebook Marketplace, so Mama began making the contacts. In our searches, Mama settled on a rolltop desk and began to focus her searches for that item. In doing so, she found someone that needed the desk they had advertised removed from the house ASAP. The price was good, and the pictures looked good as well so, yesterday afternoon while I was feeling really rough, Mama arranged for us to go look at and potentially purchase the desk. Whereupon Trace and I headed out to make the hour-long drive to look at the desk.

We were only a few minutes from our destination when Mama called to let me know the desk we were going to inspect was not the one she had thought it was. She had gotten cross wired on her multiple communications and sent us after the wrong item. When we arrived at the house, we were shown a worn, low end rolltop desk sitting in an upstairs bedroom. We passed on the acquisition. The owners were a bit shocked since, as we found out from Mama later, the desk was being given away. They needed it moved out of the house and were not willing to do that themselves. We apologized to the sellers and left the house to make the drive back home. Another two-plus hours of unproductive windshield time.

Meanwhile, the desk Mama would like to get is still waiting on us. The owner will not be able to get us the dimensions until next week. I am not sure why. However, that desk, judging from the pictures is much higher quality that the one we elected not to move from its upstairs station. Time will tell. Mama’s furniture will arrive Wednesday, and we will then know how much room we have to allow for a desk.

Eventually this will all come together but last weekend was not the weekend I had planned.