Benefits of being motherless

  Well, first of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  Since my hubby is working in Italy, and it's just me and the kids, we aren't really doing T-day here - too much food, for just me and 3 small kids.  And people here don't really do cornbread dressing, so, oh well.


So the temperature is starting to drop, it's 8 Celsius today, and my friends over in Prauge got the first snow yesterday.  Not to mention that they were predicting this winter to be the coldest Europe has seen in about 100 years.  So I needed to put anti-freeze in our Volvo station wagon - yeah, I drive a station wagon!


Marius was like just go get some anti-freeze and put it in the car, you're supposed to flush the system, but just put some in the resevoir, but don't start the car, I'll deal with all that when I come home at Christmas.  And so I went this morning, after bringing the kids to school, and bought some anti-freeze and water.  I then walked back my bloc where my car was parked, and proceeded to flush the system myself.

I got strange looks from passer's by, I mean most men here don't know what they are doing when it comes to cars, much less, (God forbid) a Woman!!!!

  But there it is, my car is now safe for winter, with fresh anti-freeze & water sitting peacefully in the radiator and it's resevoir.

This is where I'm grateful to my mom for not being around while I was growing up.  I love my mom and all, but it actually worked out better for me that she wasn't there.  If she had been, then I don't think I'd have the awesome relationship with my dad, that I do have.....

....and he wouldn't have taught me to change tires, brake pads, oil, and flush a cooling system.  I wouldn't know where spark plugs where, what they do or hot to change those either.  I wouldn't know where to find the steering & brake fluid, or bleed the brake lines; making sure to pump all the air out of the lines to avoid catastrophe!

If mom had been there, I would have learned about make-up, hair, and how to dress myself.  But then I wouldn't be able to take of myself in regards to car mechanics (making sure I don't get ripped off by a mechanic), or stranded on the side of the road and at the mercy of whatever freak happens to stop to "help" me!

I guess the draw back to that I always related better to guys than to girls.  I could talk "shop" about cars, hunting, guns, politics, history, etc.  Where all the girls ever wanted to talk about was clothes, shopping, boys, make-up, clothes, shopping, boys.....

...you get my point.  The draw back to that was that guys always viewed me as one of them; "one of the guys".  Which was cool, because that usually meant I had a shield from the weirdos and creeps, on the other hand, it kinda cramped my style while on the 'dating scene'.  Even if my guys didn't scare a potential suitor off, then I did, because they realized they couldn't pull the proverbial wool over my eyes! 

But then, I met a few guys like my husband, who were awed that I could cook well, wash clothes, be girly, but wasn't completely reliant on them to do all the "guy" jobs.  That I could hold my own with them, even if that lug nut was screwed on just a bit too tight, and I needed their muscle to loosen it for me.  They were just genuinely impressed that I knew which tool to give them when they asked for a crescent wrench!

So thanks mom, for leaving me in dad's hands!  Without his teaching, I'd be up a smelly creek without a paddle!