Bob has recovered from whatever bit him. The steroids made him hyperactive - even more so than he normally is. I put a note in Bob's folder for school letting them know what had happened so they would know why he was acting the way he was. I received a note from the teacher thanking me for telling her about it because he was easily frustrated and cried a lot in school - which is not his norm. Getting him to go to sleep was a challenge. He just could not wind down to get to sleep. I wound up sleeping with him on the floor in his room with one of my arms on top of him. It was the only way I could calm him down and help him relax. We were both exhausted.
After nine years, I had to say goodbye to the Explorer. It needed a lot of work - about $3000 in work total - so I took that $3000 and put it towards a downpayment on a Nissan Xterra S. It was a 2007 that had been on the lot for almost a year, so there were a lot of rebates and dealer incentives to get rid of it. It was only about 3-4 thousand dollars more than the program cars that were on the lot, and I was able to get a maintenance package that pays for all the routine maintenance until the car reaches 100,000 - it includes tire rotations, oil changes, air filter changes, windshield wipers, transmission fluid flushes, antifreeze flushes - the only things that are not included are tires, brakes, light bulbs, and batteries. I just take it to any Nissan dealer. It was a pretty good deal. Just the cost of oil changes for the 100,000 miles at today's prices more than covers the cost of the maintenance package. And the 2007 Xterra won several awards for lowest price of ownership and lowest cost of maintenance for vehicles in it's class. It seems to get good gas mileage. I have had it for almost two weeks and I still haven't filled it up yet. I won't know exact numbers until I actually fill the fuel tank - something I will probably do today or tomorrow as I am down to almost a quarter of a tank. The Explorer I pretty much filled up weekly.
The only extras the car has is curtain airbags and automatic transmission. Power windows and doorlocks are standard on the Xterra S.
I had my driver's license switched over to Arizona's license - so I am officially an Arizonan now. But my license does not expire until my birthday in 2038 (as in 31 years from now) - a good $25 investment. Jim also has an Arizona non-driver ID card. They suggested that we get Bob an Arizona ID - for a child the ID is only $12 and it only costs $3 to have the picture updated - something we could do every couple of years. It would make plane rides much easier - we wouldn't have to carry around a copy of his birth certificate. And if we drove to Mexico (which we don't plan on doing in the near future), we would have picture ID for Bob to get back in the country. And if we happen to still be in Arizona when it is time for Bob to get his driver's license, it would be a lot easier for him to get his license - he would already have ID.
As many of you know, my mother-in-law was evacuated from her San Diego home. She is now back home and her house and her neighborhood are safe. She was very fortunate. I have not found out how the firefighter that was injured is doing. I will ask her the next time I talk to her. What is frustrating was the person she was trying to rescue was told to evacuate and he didn't which cost him his life, and made the firefighters take risks they normally would not have made and probably will cost this firefighter her life.
Bob is having fun playing with airplanes, and hammering wooden golf tees into a piece of styrofoam with a wooden hammer. He keeps on bringing an airplane out to me, showing it to me, telling me that "this airplane is an aircraft" then hammering a golf tee into the styrofoam before bringing me another aircraft. Needless to say, he is a typical boy - into every thing that has wheels or flies.
I hope everyone is doing well. I will keep in touch.
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