It has been awhile for me to post but here are some updates:

I paid 1500 for a car repair on Friday. The lovely gentleman told me all about a special they had ONLY this month that included a buy 3 get one free rebate on struts. My struts were original to the car and I have about 125k miles on my car. One was leaking something so I said ok go ahead. Found out when I read the fine print on the rebate, the rebate is good through October 31. This means I could have waited a month and then been able to pay cash instead of paying 700 cash and charging the rest. (I only had 700 in my repair account but would have had the cash next month with tax returns and pay check.)

When I read that I raised holy hell and now am waiting for the owner of the branch to call me and “see what we can do to make sure I stay a customer.” The guy who told me all this BS said, well we only had 2 coupons left, I didn’t know if we would get more. When I replied it was listed on the manufactures website and a website is listed on the coupon he just said well I didn’t know. Bull! I feel totally taken advantage of and can’t believe it. I am not sure what to ask the owner but I feel like asking for all the labor to be repaid back to me. The parts I can live with, just give me back the labor I didn’t need to pay for until next month.

I took my niece and nephew to the movies Saturday to see the Horton movie. Pretty good and well done I thought. Cute afternoon had by all. I paid for it from the money I made house sitting Saturday night and picking up them at the train station Sunday. ($60) put the rest into the cc bill for the car repair.

I took them and their older sister and her friend for a Jamba Juice (they were at an open gym for gymnastics training and missed the movie). While we were walking to our car I noticed the car net to us had their front windows open a bit and a child in a car seat strapped in while no adults were around. I was shocked that someone would leave their child in car unattended. Luckily the day was cool but I was furious. Since it was parked closest to the JJ I asked the kids (two 12 year olds, a 10 year old and a four year old to get in my car and put their seat belts on. I walked back to the JJ and yelled as loud as I could at the 16 or so people, “Has someone here left their child unattended in their car? I just called the police and I wanted you to know.”

A man slunk off his seat and about 8 people followed him out. I knew they were not with him but I am glad there were other witnesses because I totally chewed him out about it as he got his absolutely adorable daughter out of his car.

He actually told me the following two statements:

"It is not hot, the windows are down and she was safe as the car doors were locked." I asked him to relock his car the way he had before. In front of the entire group now standing there I stuck my hand through the open window and unlocked the car and opened the back door. No alarm. I told him if you unlock the car from within it turns off the alarms for most cars." He went white.

The second thing he told me was that his "daughter was shy and would not go with strangers." I said “really? I talked to her through the front door and she came right over to me and held my hand when she got out of the car. In 30 second you could have lost your daughter for ever.”

Just at that time the police came up, partly because I called and also because someone called and reported a hysterical woman (me) yelling at a man and a child (him). I don’t know what the eventually did but the police took statements from everyone who watched him get her out of the car and me.

The kids who were with me just watched and said nothing until I got back in the car then they said they were proud of me for saying something to him. I was so mad I had to sit there for a few minutes and calm down.

I told the friend of my niece to tell her parents I am not a raving lunatic but I will say something if it impacts a child. She told her mom who called me, all her mom said was thank you for teaching my daughter that sometimes it is necessary to get involved and save someone and that it is not OK to leave her younger brother and sister in the car for, even just for a minute.

For those of you who might have heard about the incident, I apologize for the disturbance!

The rest of the past few days have gone by quietly.