Friday was the day I was to go to the doctor and pick up the vouchers for DCI. I rose early and arrived on time, for my appointment. Only it was the day before, I got the day wrong?! It sucks getting old ;) I actually saw a fellow congregant to my church, and I attend 30 miles away?! We were both surprised. He's quite brilliant, but my favorite thing about him is his sense of humor. This was the pulmonology office, and when he saw me he thought I was working. I said, no, I'm a patient today. He said he was hoping we could wave a magic wand and make him feel better, but really, it was spoken tongue in cheek of that "community view" of how the organization runs. They do save a lot of lives and limbs. Then, he wanted to switch working breathing parts, and that was off the table since neither my sinus or lungs are working right now. He cracks me up. I rescheduled and went to the other side of town for the vouchers. The boy showed up at my office at 3 and we left for Murfreesboro. They wouldn't take our vouchers, but lucky other band folks, I had primed the ticket office well enough, they all got theirs' free. Ugh. I paid for mine. It was good, but we got home at midnight and had to be up early for marching band camp the next day.

There were loads of bleary-eyed, sated band folks the next day. We really had good times all around. We were there early with breakfast in hand. I talked with my fellow pit crew members (we build sets and are "roadies" for the marimba, bells, gong, etc. members), the boy talked with his best friends he's been texting all summer, loads of paperwork, instruction, and we're back up to speed for beginning this year's show. It was fun to see our friends and be a part of the electricity! We ended there and I had to go work on the boy's car that hasn't been starting. The error codes keep showing fuel, and so I was stuck on that, thinking the car knows more than I. Next, on to the realtors office where she and I talked. The boy was there for it all, so he gets an idea of how house hunting goes. At this point, I am showing him every adult process so he's not lost at all. My parents didn't walk or talk me though anything and I have learned so much the hard way. He really seemed interested and had questions. He's gonna be ok :) On the way home, we stopped for steaks and charcoal. We were so so so tired from the night before, the car didn't get worked on. Dinner was great and we slept in too late for church. I went to bed dreading putting the fuel filter on the car, but I knew I had to do it because the car was running really poorly and I'll have other kids to transport as of tonight, until October 31st. Kind of hard to carpool when you have no car to offer the group!

As soon as I got up, I saw the upstairs neighbors were towing the boat and I knew I had all day to get done, but should start early so it was cool (we're in the upper nineties). The car was parked on the street, where it'd sat all last week. It wouldn't stay started?! unless I had the key physically held in the on position. Not fuel filter, not fuel related, that's obviously ignition switch. At least I totally knew what it was. I'd set up to talk to the realtor about the one house I really wanted to see that she said was in a bad neighborhood? I only had until 1 to get done, so I went online and looked up the price for the part and where I could find it. It was only $65. Cool. Finding it on Sunday was harder. I did find it, and they told me to pick it up at 2:30. By this time, it was time to meet the realtor. We got there and she sheepishly said to me, I had the wrong neighborhood in mind, Oops! This is a good neighborhood. As we walked up the very steep driveway and the first thing to greet me was a very dented garage door. Every single window screen had holes and looked original to the 1980s house. Dollar signs were adding up in my eyes. The front door was wonky, and the moment we opened it, damp smelling. The parquet floor was fading, and a bit saggy, but not awful. The wall to my left had at least 30 pin sized nails in it, and "everything a $1" sign taped on it! People are so funny! Every home has it's "What were they thinking?" moment, and this was only the first. The kitchen had water damage on its ceiling. There was a board covering the back door entrance, where the floor had rotted out from under the backdoor. And a water cut off switch in the wall IN the kitchen? HA! The floor drooped in the middle. Cracks down the ceiling. I guess the living room only needed a new light fixture and carpeting? We went upstairs. The bottom three or so stairs had no carpet on them? The garage looked ok. Cracked walls all the way up the stairs. Cracks over every doorframe. And... another water cut off in the wall?! We eventually went out the backdoor, up steep hill that required a lot of terracing to be usable. The dining room bump out window was falling off the house. I looked at her and said, I'm not afraid of doing the work, or getting the work done, but it's a lot foundation work. A LOT! She said she had a great foundation guy, but we both shook our head's. The boy was still looking at the house. He really wants it. It has our dream entertainment room upstairs. It's huge. It's shady. His dream! If it was $50,000 less, I might buy it, and hire the foundation guy, but I seriously doubt it. Too much wrong with it. We left, and off to the local home improvement place. He was still picking out paint and flooring for that house ;) Last, we went and picked up the part and then home to fix the car. I took off the steering wheel cover and kept trying to figure out how to get at where the wiring plugged in. Into the house, watch a video, brought the boy out, felt where they led, and then finally did it. I was done by 5:30. If I'd known how to do it, I would've been done in 15-30 minutes, no joke. It was five screw, three bolts, and two wiring clips. As I put the car back together I thought, did I get it right? It started right up! I actually yelled Woo! We watched Harry Potter Deathly Hallows 1/2 and ate grilled chicken marinated with Italian dressing. He's learning how to grill and so it was our second foray into how it's lit, safety, etc. Getting pretty good. Pretty soon I'll have my own personal chef.

The realtor has other houses lined up, one I looked at and tried to get her on fast enough, had a contract on it the day it was put online. She and I promised to drop everything whenever any listing comes up we think is good. It's moving along.