Another Pothole or Two

   There always seems to be 'potholes' in our road of life.  I finally got my new glasses from Woolner Family Eyecare in Ilion and I loved them!  They fit perfectly and I could see distance and close up with them.  Much better than peering over the lens like I had been doing with my old glasses.  Then...Zoey ate them.  Shattered one lens and chewed both ear

pieces.  I went back to Woolner's and laughing, and were able to replace the earpieces and reorder the lens.  It cost me $78.71 for the lens.  And, because 1 piece of the lens was missing I had to check Zoey's poop for 3 or 4 days to make sure she didn't swallow it.  Luckily, it never showed up!  That's all we would have needed...Zoey with gastrointestinal problems!  Now I'm waiting for Woolner's to call.  Jeff's waiting for his new glasses from them, too.  (Oh, Jeff suggested I move my mom's big old jewelry box to my bedside table and put my glasses at night...and charging ports... in it to keep them from Zoey after she destroyed an older Kodak digital camera I was trying to recharge.  My cellphone has little teeth marks on it, too!  So far, it's proven too heavy and bulky for her to move very far!)  
  We've been having some difficulty with our '09 Forester for several months.  Jeff  was sure it needed a tune-up but he never got around to scheduling one with Dave at Hillslide in Little Falls.  He always said 'back in the day, he could do it himself' but with computers involved all he could do was to keep checking the fluid levels and keep them up.  Monday morning we were on our way to town when all the lights on the dashboard started flashing wildly!  Jeff pulled over...on Rte. 5 near the stoplight by Lowe's...and checked the oil and transmission fluid.  He decided the oil was low so we went to Lowe's and he bought a quart and put it in.  The lights stopped flashing but didn't go out.  He decided we could finish our trip to town...pharmacy and grocery store...before heading home.  Jeff was afraid the onboard computer had short circuited.  After a phone call to Hillslide, Jeff took the Forester there yesterday afternoon.  He called me with the bad news when Dave had a chance to look at it...we needed a transmission job.  Oh, well, we had almost made it thru winter without a major problem or breakdown...almost!  Dave ordered a rebuilt transmission... that will take 3-5 days to come in...and then another 2-3 days to  install.  That makes it 5-8 days without a car, sitting here in the little house in the little woods.  And it will cost just shy of $1000 for parts, labor and tax.  (I guess I know what I'll be getting for my birthday this year.) 
   Jeff also talked to Dave about having the '99 Outback towed down to Hillslide after  the Forester was back on the road.  It needs new brakes and when they failed around Christmas I suggested we just to take it off the road for the winter and worry about fixing it in the Spring.  Well, it's Spring and looking back on that decision, maybe we should have had the brakes done then. Hindsight, huh?