Monday, May 15, 2017

My Mother's Day Week-end

My Friday morning started early again with my appointment to get my brakes fixed at 8 AM. I stayed in the waiting room watching the news on television and finishing off the yellow washcloth I had started knitting at the beginning of the week.
The good news is that the valve that was ordered the second time, cost less than the first, so instead of almost $800, I only paid a total of $576.77 (less than the bill for the four tires installed) I came home to pack my bag and some things I had set aside to take to my daughter's house, including the tin of home baked chocolate chip cookies. I grabbed a bite to eat and headed for Toronto when the "check engine" light came on. I turned around and headed back to the Canadian Tire in Kingston. By the time I arrived, I was so upset I was beside myself. Those servicemen took the van immediately and gave it a thorough inspection. They found an emissions leak where the gas cap goes on. They removed some corrosion and fixed the problem and charged me nothing for the inspection and the work that took more than an hour. They assured me it had nothing to do with the work they had done on the tires and the brakes. The timing was coincidental; but they felt so bad for me having spent all that money and having to come in so many times during the week, they had decided not to charge me anything. They did leave me with the invoice however. Had this happened at any other time, it was a $95 job. Luck was on my side today.

I finally got away to Toronto, but didn't arrive in Bradford until almost 6 PM. Of course, I arrived in the middle of rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon. But I made the trip myself, without any problems, when I had never done it before. *patting myself on the back* Saturday was my grandson's 6th birthday. We spent a couple of hours in the morning decorating, blowing up balloons, and preparing snacks for the party. It was an Avengers themed party for some of his classmates and a great time was had by all. Later in the afternoon, after his party guests  left, the second party got underway when extended family arrived. My poor grandson was ready for an early bedtime that night. We all went to bed early as a matter of fact.

The next morning, soon after Mother's Day celebrations, I decided to hit the road early to try and avoid any heavy traffic. It looked like it might rain so I was anxious to beat the weather as well. The off ramp from the 404 to the 401 is really tricky and I knew I would have to pay close attention. There are four lanes that exit: two go into the downtown, one exits to the 401 West going to London, and the fourth exits onto the 401 going East to Kingston. I had to be in the correct lane or I would have had to make a forced exit to somewhere I didn't want to go. It was a white knuckle drive, but I made it. *again, patting myself on the back* The rain held off until I arrived in Oshawa. From there it is smooth sailing as there are few merging lanes or off ramps to contend with.

I made good time despite the rain. By the time I reached Napanee, the sun was out. So I decided to do some grocery shopping at No-Frills and Giant Tiger. By the time I left Napanee, the dark thunder clouds had moved in. By the time I brought everything inside the house and took the dog outside, it just started to rain. While I was taking pictures and putting away the groceries, there was thunder and lightening. I slept for a while before I had to get ready to go out for dinner at my son's and his GF's apartment. They had invited her dad and step-mom, her brother and myself for a lasagna dinner with salad and garlic bread. So yummy! The moms got to take home some potted mums for Mother's Day.

There were a number of phone messages waiting for me when I got back home, but it was too late in the evening to respond. I am very glad that not all my weekends are this jam-packed with activity. It was an incredibly busy time.
Produce cost $13.12
 5 lbs imperfect carrots $1.97, frozen bags of veggies $1.50 a bag, red potatoes $1.49, 2 tomatoes $.89, and celery at $2.77
Meat cost $28.37
 Pork loin was $8.16, 4 lbs. of ground turkey for $10, hotdogs cost $1, 30% of centre cut pork chops cost $4.21, and Montreal smoked meat was $5
Pantry items only cost me $11.18
 Campbells soup cost 50 cents a tin, mandarin orange slices cost 79 cents a tin, Primo spaghetti sauce was 88 cents a tin, pizza sauce cost me 97 cents and Nescafe instant coffee was $3.87
Bread was $6.89

Dairy cost $8.91
The 4 packs of yoghurt were only 50 cents each.
Finish dishwasher detergent was $3 off for a price of $13.97
Total groceries cost $84.42, including taxes, with food costing $68.46

5 comments:

  1. Oh, my! That was quite stressful with the check engine light coming on! But, it was so very nice of the service personnel to take care of the problem for you at no cost!

    You certainly deserve a pat on the back for driving yourself to your daughter's! Especially after the stressful morning you had had! But yay for you for doing it!

    Sounds like you had quite an eventful weekend, with all that going on - the vehicle repairs, the two birthday parties, Mother's Day dinner, grocery shopping, laundry, and everything else! I think you need at least a day or two to rest from the weekend!

    Hope you have a lovely week ahead of you, Susan. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're right. It was quite the eventful weekend. Thank goodness they are few and far between. Yes, I would have liked to recuperate for a day or two, but we have been experiencing some gorgeous weather that I need to take advantage of. I have been mowing the grass and pulling weeds as much as I can. It is such a big job and it was delayed this spring with all the wet and chilly weather we had.
    The timing of that "check engine" light was very advantageous to me. This is the second time in two months they have come to my rescue and did not charge me. The first time was when the brake light first came on. They topped up the reservoir with brake fluid at no charge and cautioned me that IF the light came on again, it was probably a slow leak and to get it looked at. It is the main reason I took my car to them when I needed work done.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You handled your trip like a pro! You know, I've been driving around Orlando for 30 years now, but sometimes I start getting a little confused, especially when I haven't taken a particular road for a while. I'm pretty dependent on my GPS nowadays to tell me exactly in which lane I should be. I'm a little ashamed of it, but I'd rather get to my destination sooner than later, ha.

    I'm taking my SUV in for a much needed check-up next week. It has 140K miles on the odometer and has had the oil changes and various little problems fixed, but the last purely preventative maintenance check-up was at 80K miles! I was thinking that I needed to get my timing belt changed, but the mechanic told my that SUV doesn't have a timing belt. And I've been stressing about the timing belt possibly breaking for 40K miles, ha. The estimate, however, is $1,150 and that's before them finding any problems (I think they'll tell me I have to replace some of my brake pads). Ouch, but it's par for the course with a large SUV and overall it's been a great and dependable vehicle and hopefully will last me several more years (it's 10 years old already!). Plus my daughter and I will be traveling with it in a couple of weeks (oh boy, that's coming up soon, isn't it?!) so it needed to be done.

    I'm glad you had a lovely, if busy, Mother's Day weekend. Mine was pretty underwhelming and I need to stop having certain expectations as my kids, as sweet as they can be most of the time, don't seem to consider Mother's Day as a day where THEY should be doing something for someone else. I'm trying not to be bitter about it, but, to be honest, it's really starting to chafe, having to be the one who always does for others and it not being reciprocated. So lowering my expectations will be something to work on in the coming year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A preventative maintenance check-up is $1,150? OMG! I guess I fared not too badly then. That's how it is when you haven't got a clue about how much things cost. Rick did all of the preventative maintenance. I guess he saved us a pile of money. Yes, I guess now is the time to get it done, especially before a long distance trip.

    We have a long holiday weekend starting today. Our Monday holiday is called Victoria Day, and is traditionally the day that we visit the nurseries to buy our bedding plants for the flower beds. I think I will be only buying red and white annuals for planting in my containers this year for Canada's 150th birthday.

    ReplyDelete