Patience

Patience - a word I repeat often to Emma. Today I had to practice what I preach. I made what I thought would be a quick stop at Costco to have my tires rotated. That quick stop turned in an aggravating 90+ minutes with the end result being the need for FOUR NEW tires, UGH! Happy Mother's Day to me!!
One of my tires had a nail in the sidewall which is not repairable, and since my car is an AWD vehicle, all four tires must be changed at the same time to not risk the AWD system integrity (sounds like a back room agreement between car and tire companies!).

To make matters worse (and since I had already wasted my morning and needed to get home) I had to drive home on my spare tire knowing I had to return to Costco this evening. Additionally, I had to drive slowly which is far from my favorite thing to do.

Then, to make our short-daddy-has-a-meeting-tonight even shorter, the moment Joel walked through the door, I took off for Costco to get four new tires. Again, the "about an hour" wait turned into two hours. Flat out annoying. $290 later (tire with nail in it was comped for some reason), I was out the door and on my way home so that Joel could sprint to his meeting.

On principle, I specifically resisted meandering through the store during both visits...which I'm sure they intend you to do. I took a good book and didn't buy a thing (except for tires).

Wasting this much time (and $$$) on car issues really bugs me. Though, I suppose I should be grateful we have two cars, are able to buy tires, that this happened before and not during a trip, that I actually had the time to take care of this today, etc.

There is always a brighter side, isn't there! The power of positive thinking and realizing your blessings :)