August

Not much to report for the month of August.  I put in a lot of extra time working at the hospital.  It is just too damn hot to go outside so the air conditioner is the way to go.  We did make it out on the boat with Melba and Andrew (Melba has all the pictures).  Ryan and I both did our normal Fantasy Football Drafts that we did last year and I also signed up for an all girls league.  It ought to be interesting trying to keep all of the NFL stuff straight. 
August 27th Ryan and I were driving home from work and were about 8 miles from home.  It was pouring down rain.  The road we take to get home is called "dead cow road" or 238...... It is a lot of curves and hills up and down.  Basically a 2 lane road with desert on each side.  We drove though several puddles and then couldn't see and ran into a "larger puddle" aka wash...... My car immediately turned off and would not turn back on.  The water came up to about half way up the doors.  Luckily, we were not the only ones out there.  In fact, there were SEVERAL other people stuck and in the same position.  There was a tow truck that asked us if we wanted him to push us out.  While I was slightly worried about possible damage to the rear fender I said HELL YEAH.  So after sitting in the water for 3-5min we were back on dry land..... but stuck.

In the meantime I contacted my insurance company, Farm Bureau, and requested Roadside Assistance.  The tow truck driver out there said that there would be more of his trucks coming and he was willing to take us.  The roadside assistance people said that they would pay for the first $100 (15miles) and the rest was all on me.... Oh lucky me! Considering the dealership I always take my car to was 48 miles away I was screwed royally..... So, I paid the extra $150.  The car made it to the dealership safely, I rode with toothless Bob that smoked a pack of cigarettes on the way there and he was quite malodorous! The dealership did give me a rental car for the meantime which I thought was nice until I saw I was driving the LIME.....

O'well, a car is a car I guess.  So I finally made it home at 3:30pm that day from work after no sleep the night before! Decent!  When I got home after all of that I had the pleasure of calling the insurance company and them telling me that this may not be covered due to "An Act of God"...............

Long story short, it has been almost a month and I have had my car removed from the dealership, hauled to another  place for an estimate and probably new motor.  I advise anyone that has Farm Bureau or thinking about switching to think twice.  I have gotten the run around and basically had to make all of the plans, calls, and arrangements myself.  Remind me again why I pay out my ass monthly for insurance??? Needless to say this was an expensive lesson learned........ Never drive through mud puddles........... Oh and never trust Farm Bureau OR VOLKSWAGEN!!!!

Well after all that chaos on Friday, I figured the weekend would be spent relaxing and drinking away my sorrows about the car ordeal.  NOT, the storms continued in the Phoenix area and on Saturday evening we came home to the tree in the backyard broken and in our neighbors yard.  To top off everything it went though the brick wall.  Ryan and I both hated this tree because it left such a mess for the pool but I'm not sure that we really were wanting all of this chaos in one weekend.  Thank goodness no one was injured in any of the craziness.  Needless to say the 4 days I DID have off were spent cleaning up storm damages. I was ready to go back to work by Tuesday, no doubt!!