Of Mice and Men

Here is a little Halloween tale for you. Like the good parents we are, we had every intention of taking Ethan trick or treating. By the time Tiffany got home from work Ethan had eaten, we loaded up the car and decided we needed to eat as well. We made a quick stop at Betty Rose's for some barbecue before heading to our first stop. With Ethan dressed in his little skeleton outfit, we drove to my Aunt Vicki's house. We got out and went to the door. We went inside to visit for about 15 minutes before we headed for our next stop. We loaded back into the car, turned the key, and nothing. Not a creature was stirring. Uncle Carl went to get the battery charger to try and give us some juice. After a few minutes and the battery still showing no signs of life, we made a new plan. By the way, this was all going on sometime after dark. I borrowed Vicki's car, drove to Wal-Mart, and bought a new battery. Carl and I spent the next half hour or so changing the thing out. New cars are not like old cars. The clever people at General Motors have devised a plan that makes it almost impossible to do things yourself so they can charge some ridiculous fee. There's this crazy protective case around the battery with a giant metal bar holding the whole thing down. There are five bolts of varying sizes uniquely positioned around the battery with enough space around them that Ethan could probably almost get his hands into when he was first born. Did I mention that is was dark outside? We did get it done though. At that point, Ethan was hungry, Tiffany was tired, and I was filthy. The good news is that we have another costume. Tiffany is determined to use it, so we may just show up at your house looking for candy on another day.