friends are family that you choose for yourself

Oh lord, ya'll.....where do I start?? Nah...I'll not bore you with all that and skip to the high point, like when my car started acting all ugly. Here I am, getting through the week on a loan from one dear friend and the trusty old Camry decides to give me a reality check. When it's a hundred freakin' degrees and I ask my nice co-worker to drive it around the parking lot and see what the heck HE thought. Could be plugs or wires, he said. If not, I'm headed to yet ANOTHER friend's shop tomorrow afternoon for a look see. I'll be damned if I give up easy on a car that Toyota had to put a new engine into for free. While still in warranty!!! Oil gel...bad deal for a lot of people. I was one of the fortunate ones that didn't have to pay out of pocket for repairs. My car has never had a name but I think she is officially dubbed Old Faithful after all this time. Ten years and almost paid for, with only minor cosmetic flaws ;)

I don't have a truck so I haul all sorts of things in Old Faithful like dogs who hang out the back windows and muddy bricks from whomever's house they are at and want 'em out of the way. For the patio-in-progress out back, you see. And my parents, bless their hearts. They're just so tickled to get out of the house they could care less what the ride looks like, long as there's air. She could sure use a detail job, though. Maybe for my birthday :)

Next week is Yaya's birthday and she'll be as old as me for a couple of months when I jump ahead again. She's a lifelong friend, along with the girl at work who shares her extra stomach pills with me and the other one who picks up my pantiliners on a megaworld run. And then there's my salsa sister who has chilled out enough that we can act like real sisters and call it like we see it with each other. Hefier oinked at me when I ate the whole granola bar!

There is no way I could ever attempt to remember all of the kindnesses that have bestowed upon me by good decent folks who care about me and want to do the right thing. When you live on the edge like I do, that is worth more than twenty zillion cousins and the in-laws. Perhaps it is the shrinking of that family circle that makes me appreciate those who choose me instead of have to put up with me because we're blood. We get along on holidays and all, but...well.

Probably the two best friends that I have at this moment are my daughter and my oldest brother. We are working in a somewhat haphazard fashion to enhance the quality of my parents lives as they age. Daddy got new jammies for his birthday so he'll have clean ones for our next sleepover. The current didn't go out during the most recent storm, but the cable did so that was a whole 'nother story about losing the remote in a fit of exasperation. I found it under his chair.

Ya'll say a little prayer for us here on the lane ^j^