moosh in indy.

In general I am not an angry driver.

In general.

Unless you pull one of these four bunghole moves while sharing a road with me.

a. Blocking an intersection. Hey derfwad, if the road on the other side of the intersection is full don’t park it in the middle of the intersection hoping you’ll get through before the light turns red. Because you won’t. And when you don’t, We’re going to be grumpy stuck on our side of the intersection with a green light because you never learned patience and common courtesy.

b. Turning left on yellow and half or full blown red. DUDE, wait a couple minutes for the thumping green arrow or the beginning of a yellow. Wherever you are going will still be there in two and a half minutes. Your fellow motorists will also not swear under their breath at you and send you noxious bubble gut juju’s.

c. Speeding through a yellow and a half or full blown red. DUDE, yellow means SLOW DOWN. Not speed up. Okay? It will really help clear up a lot of the previous complaint if you’ll get your panties out of a bunch and slow down and stop for one red light. Seriously.

d. Butting your way to the front of a merging lane. OH! How this one ticks me off. If it says “lane ends, merge left/right” THEN MERGE LEFT OR RIGHT. Don’t speed up past all the sign abiding drivers to get to the front of the line, hold the rest of us up while you aggressively butt your way in with your blinker on at the very last second, stupidhead. I learned a little something in second grade, maybe you missed it, BUTTING IS RUDE. Always has been, always will be.

Phew. Okay. I don’t complain much on this blog, I don’t like to do it. But I will have you know that I can write all these complaints in truth because I am not a yellow light speed up red light left turn stop in the middle of the intersection butt my way to the front driver. I am usually even able to let all those bunghole drivers slide past me without even a smidgen of irk.

But today?

Not so much.

If we could all drive our cars as grownups with the basic courtesy and manners we learned in kindergarten the world would be a much happier place. Okay? Okay. Thanks.

Walking into a mechanics shop as a lone woman with a small child could easily be listed in my top five list of “stuff I don’t ever enjoy doing.” I don’t enjoy the feeling of being screwed over. But I do enjoy vindication.

Back home I had a mechanic whom I could trust. I had signed an estimate for $1,200. They had my money.  When I came to pick up my car the next day they said “Good news! What we thought was wrong wasn’t wrong so we fixed what was wrong and you only owe $189!” (In Salt Lake City, Plowgian Auto Repair 1357 E. 3300 S. 801-467-2854. Ask for Larry.)

Another time we were driving with the moosh to Kansas City and our air conditioning went out somwhere in Nowhere, Missouri. We stopped at a mechanics where they filled our low freon and plugged up a leak so that we could make it to our destination comfortably and fix the problem when we got back home and had the time for a lengthy repair. They did all of this for free. (Meineke 2315 W. Clay St. St. Charles, Mo 636-940-7294. Ask for Dave.)

Is it so sad that this kind of service is rare these days?

Instead I take my car in for a $17 oil change and end up trying to be tricked into a $350 bogus repair (And I know darn well without a doubt it was bogus.) (Goodyear 1303 S. High School Rd. Indianapolis)

What happened to integrity? Is there any way to find a decent mechanic anymore?

To those of you in Indy, have you found someone good? How about anyone else? Got someone you want everyone to know about? I have no problem making the end all be all list of trustworthy, honest mechanics so that us moms don’t have to feel like enormous targets when we take care of our cars ourselves. Please comment or e-mail me, mooshinindy (at) gmail (dot) com.

Beware you shady mechanics, you never know when the girl you try to screw over has a blog.

I sometimes wonder what someone with all the patience in the world could do for the moosh. Someone who had the patience to sit down with her and teach her every time she asks “BUT WHY?” instead of answering “BECAUSE.” Someone who could not worry about time and just let her wander at her own pace and discover new things. Someone who wouldn’t lose their own temper at every other blood curdling tantrum that came their way.

Why, oh why, do I only see my own glaring faults as a parent?

I am taken aback sometimes at the pure awesomeness that is the moosh. The things she says, the way she does things, the stuff she knows. Given that I am with her 90% of the time I should be able to take credit for a lot of that shouldn’t I?

So why can’t I? Why do I feel I am being self indulgent if I pat myself on the back for raising a somewhat decent and completely swell kid?

Ever heard the saying “I was a really good mom before I had kids”?

Totally applies to me.

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I wrote this before I left for church. Before I left for church madder than a wet hen. As I sat in my class seething with anger and frustration at myself and the world in general the teacher read this quote from our late Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley.

“And so I plead with you tonight, my dear sisters. Sit down and quietly count the debits and the credits in your role as a mother. It is not too late. When all else fails, there is prayer and the promised help of the Lord to assist you in your trial. But do not delay, start now, whether your child be 6 or 16. Do not trade your birthright as a mother for some bauble of passing value. Let your first interest be your home. The baby you hold in your arms will grow quickly as the sunrise and sunset of the rushing days. I hope you will have every reason to be proud concerning your children. If with all you have done there is an occasional failure, you can still say, “at least I did the very best of which I was capable. I tried as hard as I knew how. I let nothing stand in the way of my role as a mother.”

It’s hard to be hard on yourself after hearing something like that.

I so love church.