Family Extortion

So my mom calls me up and says she needs money to fix her car so she can go to her doctor's appointments. I just was fired from my job and fresh off of a nice driving trip with my son to San Jose. I don't and I won't tollerate this type of demand from anyone knowing that I can fix things myself when I don't have the funds. O.K. mom, I'll be down to your place at around dinner time.

Assessing the problem from what she told me on the phone, she needs maybe fuses and a flasher. I don't know anything about the car she drives, so I locate the manual and parts at my local Kragen. And I'm off.

On Labor Day weekend, I drive to El Cajon and it takes over 3 hours in traffic. I'm not a happy camper in traffic because my last job required me to drive in traffic for a minumum of 3 hours a day. I'll fidget with the radio, take sips of water, chew gum, sing, watch for accidents, avoid idiot drivers, try to stay in the lanes that are moving, look at other peoples rides, anything to pass the time. The drive was grueling. By the time I got to the Oceanside rest stop, the base fire truck was parked on the side of the road and clearly everyone was rubber-necking to see what the hell was going on. All they were really doing was slowing down the flow of traffic wih their presence - nothing going on! ARG! So after I pass that, they traffic picks up a bit and starts to flow nicely after Carlsbad.

I get to my mom's place and make her test all of the lights with me since she said her blinkers are out on the inside of her car. See, Jiffy Lube does this shit for me, so I don't have to worry about it. But anyway, OK Mom, left, right, stomp on the breaks, turn your lights on and off. She had a side light out on the front left. Great. I snip the plastic ties are holding up her felt formed under dash cover, locate the flasher near the steering column, pop it out of the holder and switch it with the one I bought. Then I go to the other side of the car and open up the fuse box and with the needle nose pliers, pull each fuse out and examine it for a break. And it turns out none were broken. OK, so I position myself under the front end of the car to pop out the housing to where the blown light is and retrieve the bulb. It's corroded, yuck. I have to remove the corrosion and clean off the connection so it will work again.

So then I hop in my car with my mom and she's got something to return to Kragen while I have to pick up the tiny light bulb so her blinker on the outside will work. And we go to the Kragen in Lakeside. It's not a long drive, but it's not around the corner or in the neighborhood either. Grr. Thank God, this little dopunk auto shop (and I mean so dopunk that it comes equiped with a southern accented hick - good lord) has got the part. We get back and I finish up the car and by this time, I'm not hungry, just hot and irratated. So I decided to spend the night at my moms. This equates to sleeping on the floor in the living room because she lives in a senior complex full of efficency apartments.

The next morning, we get to talking and I asked her, "What would you be doing if I wasn't here today?", and she says "walking". I can do that. So blah blah, after I find some sort of breakfast - oatmeal with no sweetner - I said lets go walking in Balboa Park. She doesn't like to drive into San Diego. I don't know why she doesn't, but she doesn't mind that I do. So the GPS is not working, and I just decide to turn it off and go by my internal compass which works a good 95% of the time unless I get turned around, but that's not hard to fix, now is it? 8W, 5S, look for the signs to go to Balboa Park and we're there in no time flat... it's 9:30AM on a Sunday morning and nothing is open. All the museums open at 10AM and so we park near the entrance across from the natural history museum. We get around the corner and the first thing out of her mouth is, "I'd like to go there". I must have "Sucker" written on my forehead, huh. I said we can go there once we are done with our walk. I walk with her to the botanical gardens and around he fountain, then over to the art museum and she needs a break. I love to hear the bells chime and off in the distance... a pipe organ? Oh, I got to see that... I didn't know Balboa Park had a pipe organ pavillion... cool. We walk back to the visitors center because you know how old people like collecting stupid colorful cards to places they will never go... it sounds as though she wants me to pay for a gd sd bay tour on a fucking boat. Shit. I hate visitor's centers now... And then we walk to the back and go out to find a cafe coffee cart. Atleast it smelled good. We walk a little further down the sidewalk and I hear the pipe organ again and I'm drawn to it's sounds.

As we were walking by, we had to pass the Japanese Frendship Garden. It's a separate area with a separate fee I guess with a special garden inside. Well, ya seen one Japanese garden, you pretty musch seem them all. Koi pond? Check. Highly sculpted bushes? Check. Maple tree? Check. Tea house? Check. Pagota? Check. Yup, same stuff. And it didn't open until 10AM either.

It turns out the Spreckles Pipe organ pavallion has a concert every Sunday afternoon for free and I had caught some of the warm-up from the organist. The stage doors were closed and locked and my mom is complaining that she's hot yet again. So we walk back to the visitor's center and rest.

After she's ready, we walk in the shade of the buildings back up to the Natural History Museum and eariler she said she wanted to go there, so hell, why not? And it's got A/C so maybe she'll stop complaining she's hot. Nope. We go through the two floors of exhibits using the elevator because she can't handle stairs anymore or atleast thats what she tells me and then on the third floor she's pooping out again. So I said it was time to go.

So I drive back to El Cajon and it's lunch time and we're hungry. Mom wanted for me to go to a greasy diner, but I wasn't feeling it. I drove by this place called the Downtown Cafe atleast three times and it looked fun so that's where we went. And I paid. I paid.

What did I pay? A day and a half of my time, the gas it took to get there and back and from el cajon to SD and el cajon, the museum tickets, the lunch and car parts. But I didn't "loan" her any money I wouldn't get back and I gave her some advice about her debt. She won't file for bankruptcy to get rid of those damn credit cards. And it pisses me off.