04/06/12

1.  Went to the park this morning. Trailhead park was one of the first parks I ever went to here in Austin with the boys.  Brings back fond and wistful memories of walking.  :-)  Mosey is such an extrovert-- he went and found some kids playing soccer on the field and inserted himself into the game.  He came back up by me after a while and told me he tried to convince the boy that there was no Santa, but he didn't think the boy believed him.  Oh, no!!!  He broke one of our family's cardinal rules-- thou shalt not interfere with any other kid's belief in Santa!!!!  I feel really bad.  I hope the damage is not too severe.  Mosey now understands what he is *not* to do again.  Joseph worked on his outline for a while-- got it nearly done, too, and then disappeared with Brigham playing guns.  They were apparently snipers fighting an enemy camped just over the hill.  I really love seeing them playing together.  I got to see my friend's brand-new 10-day-old baby.  So tiny!  I think he's maybe just barely 6 lbs, if that.  About the size of Joseph when he was born.  Was my great big boy ever that small?

2.  I had a very weird experience in the afternoon.  I'm trying (really I am!) to get my car inspected.  The inspection sticker expired in February, but I have to get some repairs done before it can pass inspection.  So I took it down to the car place we usually go to.  The guy went out to look at the car, then came in and made some calls to try and locate the part it needs.  He found one for $800 plus $160 in labor.  Ouch.  I was bemoaning the situation-- so much money just to get my car to pass inspection!  He said to me, "You maybe could find a place that would pass the inspection even without the new part."  I didn't get what he was saying at first.  So I said, "I wish I knew of a place like that!"  Then he kept talking and I slowly got the picture.  He was basically telling me that he knew some guys that would give me a valid inspection sticker for $100, without ever seeing the car.  I don't know how I sometimes find myself in these situations, but I do.  I found myself too far into this interaction before I fully understood the situation.  Meanwhile the guy thinks I'm totally going along with what he's saying.  I am too flustered and stupid to figure out a graceful way to get out of it, so I just go along.  At one point he said to me, "I've known these guys for twenty years.  I do something nice for them, they do something nice for me.  But it will be a hundred bucks.  You do know how these things work, right?" I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing at all.  Finally I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.  So he told me to come back Monday with $100 and he'd give me the sticker.  I left with this horrible feeling inside.  I wasn't even tempted.  Sell my integrity for $900?  I don't think so.  But I didn't know what to do because I knew I had to get back to him to call it off, but I wasn't sure what to say-- "Hey man, I know you offered to do something illegal to help me out, but I think it's nasty and dishonest, so no thank you."  Maybe he needs to hear something like that, but I don't have that kind of confrontation in me.  Finally, as I was driving home, I realized the dumb ABS/brake light is NOT on for once.  So I drove straight to the Jiffylube and had them run the inspection on it.  It ended up not passing anyway ("system detects small leak"), but it had nothing to do with the ABS/brake light thing.  Oh well, that would have been too easy.  But it was enough to give me a good excuse.  When I got home I called the guy back up and said, "As I was driving home I noticed the ABS light wasn't on, so I decided to go try and get it inspected and see what happened.  I was really lucky and the light stayed off the whole time, so I won't be needing your help after all."  Phew!  I'm glad that's over.

3.  As awkward as that situation was, it was a great vehicle for a conversation with my boys about temptation and how the Holy Ghost works.  How awesome to find myself in a situation that, for another person, might have posed a difficult ethical dilemma, and not be tempted at all to make the wrong choice.  The situation was tricky only because I was too stupid to figure out what was going on soon enough.  And how chilling it is too feel the Holy Ghost absolutely leave the room as soon as I *did* figure out what was going on.