Tape -- My New Essential Purse Item

I've taken to carrying a role of packing tape with me in my purse. You just never know when you might need it. Like yesterday, when I was minding my own business driving the Saab, and suddenly, one of the back windows (I kid you not) just fell down, apparently having fallen off of the track. This had happened several months ago with the passenger side front window, so I knew immediately what the problem was when the window just fell down. The first time this happened, we drove around town for weeks with a bright green garbage bag taped over the window before finally finding a place that could fix it.

Luckily for me, I still had tape in my purse from the rearview mirror episode the week before (as I mentioned in a prior post, I knocked the rearview mirror off of our van when I backed into a wall trying to get into the parking lot at the grocery store), and so I whipped it out, held the window up with one hand, and taped it up with the other. The car looks lovely, really. Apparently, the Richardsons can't go more than about 5 days without having some kind of car disaster. I just like the ones that can be fixed with tape. No pride here, friends, just practicality -- who cares what our cars looks like, as long as we have rearview mirrors that work, and windows that roll up!! (particularly given the frigid temperatures here this week)

Let's face it, dealing with car issues has been one of our biggest frustrations here in Belgrade, and car repairs have been one of our biggest expenses during our short time overseas. So far, we've had to fork out a ton of money to register both cars, we've had to buy four new tires for the Honda, which cost more than double what they would cost in the States, we've had to buy two new tires for the Saab, due to two flat tires, are now having to replace the side rearview mirror in the Honda, have fixed one window and will have to now fix a second window in the Saab, and last but not least (at least for today), we will look forward to spending hundreds of dollars on body work for the Honda when we return home, due to all of the body damage to the car as a result of bumping into various and sundry things in this crazy town (like walls, other cars, sidewalks, etc).

Enough complaining for the day, I suppose. It's snowing outside -- very beautiful, and makes for a cozy Saturday afternoon at home. Hope all of you are well!

Erin