I did have a fairly relaxing weekend last weekend. I surely needed it!

As to this week, has been like the last couple of weeks. I wouldn't even know where to begin...

**We did have some good news and scored a free coastal hotel stay in San Diego for our September wildlife trip. Woohoo! (Was not expecting that at all. This trip keeps getting cheaper. I am so glad that we went for it).

Otherwise, Murphy has just been toying with us:

**AC made a HORRIBLE sound. It turns out just some wire came loose and was hitting the blades. Since we took it apart and re-tightened all the bolts it has been sounding much quieter. Nice! Bullet dodged.

**We left for a bit Saturday and when we came home the cat was squinting one eye. All I could see was emergency vet visit in my near future. Thankfully it cleared up. (Probably just got something in his eye and worked it out?)

**Car troubles. Let me just back up and say that yes we drive older cars. In my experience, our cars have always been in better repair than average. Because we can actually afford to keep care of them. So I have absolutely no frame of reference for this...

So dh gets home Sunday from the movies and he hears a CLUNK when he parks the car. He looks under the engine and finds a part. The car seems totally fine and he decides to drive it over to the mechanic on Monday.

Mechanic is totally and completely stumped. They threw out initially that it looked like a transmission bracket but they can't seem to find it. The receptionist is convinced it's a washing machine part (LOL). Their theory is that it fell out of our other car but we assure them that is impossible. If he hadn't of heard it fall out we would have maybe gone that route. We start to believe someone left a tool in the engine that got tore up or something. OR something got kicked up into the engine on the freeway and fell out when he stopped?

Before we even took it in I told myself this is probably "nothing" like everything else. BUT... Since we do plan to replace this car in 6 months or so, I am running through my head that at least the kids don't have school and we can probably manage okay for a couple of weeks if we have to go car shopping, etc. I know this is ridiculous worst case scenario that will never come to pass. Right? Lord knows I don't want to buy a new car RIGHT NOW though I admit in the grand scheme of things it probably doesn't matter. We'd pay a lot of money just to keep the option of driving the car longer. So as long as it's fixable we are probably just going to fix it. We have already reconsidered car replacement as the medical bills pile up. Not the worst thing to put it off an additional year.

This whole thing was a reminder why it's good to "go there" and to have that Plan B. In the end it was a transmission bracket and they figured it out after everyone looked over the car for hours. They were so happy and relieved that they found it because it would have completely destroyed the engine if they did not fix it. They said they transmission could have just fallen out (WORST case) or caused damage to the engine (probably more likely).

So there's another bullet dodged.

{I have no idea why part fell out in the first place... That is a whole other thing}.

So yeah, that is SOME of my week.

I keep thinking it's Friday. (on Tuesday and Wednesday even). It's been such a LONG and exhausting week, on many fronts.

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We were also keeping a bucket list #4 trip (THIS YEAR) in mind because an opportunity came up for dh. We found out Monday night that it was not meant to be. I think we are kind of emotionally deflated because of that.

He's trying to sell a movie script. One door closes and another door always opens. There will always be a million doors, and it is expected to probably have a lifetime of doors slammed in your face. This was just such an exciting opportunity and a bigger risk was taken because of it. & we never would have planned the wildlife trip if it would potentially interfere with this.

The new open door is that he already has a meeting in LA while we are down there for the wildlife trip. Who knows - maybe this is a better opportunity.

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As to dh's medical stuff, we have a meeting next week. Will go from there. Life hasn't given me a quiet moment to even think about that.