First week of school plus weird, weirder, and weirdest.

Now that the kids have completed a full week of school, it is time to post their pictures from the first week.

Parker's first day of grade 9

Stanely's first day of grade 12

Adam's first day of college

Parker and Stanley start at the same school in the morning, but Stanley needs to transfer to another site for the afternoon. So far, they are just getting on the bus to go to school as we wait for 'approval' to take the bus (which is not full). Adam has mostly been bored with orientation but expects to learn interesting stuff after the first week or so.



This week was a little rough although it was quite enjoyable.  I am trying to remember all the strange things that went awry, but here is one of the things that started it all off...

Wendy had to go to a meeting in Stoney Creek (far side of Hamilton) on Thursday, so Adam was able to drive her there in the morning. On the way, the check engine light came on. Thinking it was the same thing that happened in August (it was the gas cap being too loose), Adam opened and closed the cap a number of times.  No dice.

After a quick trip to our neighbourhood garage, it seems like a part in the the exhaust system had failed (charcoal filter and associated sensors). This was estimated to cost about $700 plus tax. Grrrr!

Oh well, what else could go wrong? Jinks!

On Friday, our couch of almost 20 years decided to fail us. Fail you say? Yup, I've never heard of a couch that fails (they tend to wear out), but that is what happened. Wendy was sitting in the middle of the couch and noticed that the back was beginning to lean back a little more than 'normal'. Being a recliner on both ends (but not the middle) this was an unusual occurrence. On closer examination, we determined that the wood supports under the couch had failed.

The centre of the couch is laying on the floor near the windows

Maddy doesn't mind the improved view of the street

So, we decided to go looking for couches on the weekend. We did a sketchy repair with a couple of bolts (which won't last long), so we have some time to look. We had a plan!

During the sofa surfing on Sunday (over the weekend it felt like we had to sit on every couch in southern Ontario!), Wendy noticed that my shirt appeared 'ripped'. True enough, a shirt that I have owned probably about as long as the couch took that very moment to disintegrate. OK, no big deal. We decided to go home, change, then go out to look at more sofa's. Sounds like another simple plan.

Not so much.

On the way home, I was driving behind our friend's car when, out of the blue, jumps a Hamilton police officer waving me down.  Yes, I got a speeding ticket! All the while doing the same speed as our friend's car on a downhill segment of road where I almost always pick out the speed traps at distance. Grrrr!  And I don't think Wendy's car repair, our couch issue, or my shirt ripping had anything to do with it. Cost me $40 but it didn't cost any 'points', thankfully. Seems that a school zone on a Sunday is an area that they are focusing on to catch those evil insensitive people going a few km over the limit (the ticket says 50 km/h in a 40 km/h zone).

Hopefully that is all that goes wrong in the next little while. I am sure that I will remember even more weird things, but as weirdness goes, it is kind of entertaining. So far...