What do we do while the boys are at their art lesson?

When the boys' private art lessons teacher popped out of the art class to the parking area, to quickly get something from her car, we were seated in our/my dad's car, pretty much just sitting there. The car window was down and we greeted. The art teacher remarked that we were funny - referring to that we just sat there in the car waiting an hour and a half, for the boys to finsh their art lesson. We just laughed it off, and didn't go into detail as she was in a hurry to get back to class - and we also didn't want to keep her from teaching the boys!

What we do while waiting for the boys on Friday afternoons is:

Save petrol instead of driving around all over the place in the area;

Save petrol by not coming home to do some work on the computers quickly, which, to us, makes sense, as that would be about R25 petrol spent, and just 20 minutes max on the computers.

We do sometimes go to the shop very close by, or to the garage (also very close by) to put some petrol in the tank, or get some air for the tires.

We read free local newspapers we picked up at the shop, and do the crossword.

We take notes in a notebook for when we do get back to our work at the computers.

We relax, and sometimes almost fall asleep - and why not? - we very often work until after midnight, even when we have to be up at 5.40am the next morning, to get the boys sorted for school.

Although we don't like being away from work for as long as we wait for the boys at their art class (plus we get there about 45 minutes early after picking the boys up from school) I think we're also glad we don't yet have a laptop, as we need some time off from work (we work many hours on weekends too.)

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

Ever tried to unlock somebody else's car by mistake?

It was a good few years ago that my mother and I came out of Vincent Park Shopping Centre (in East London) after doing some grocery shopping there together, and we found the car, unlocked the boot, and started to pack the first packet or two into the boot, when we suddenly realised "Gee, the car looks really clean and tidy inside - howcome?"

Feeling confused, we looked around, and noticed that my mom's real car was parked just a few cars away - also a navy blue mazda 323!

There were some people about that looked at us funny when we burst out laughing, and if one of those people was the owner of the car that wasn't my mom's - now years later is too late I guess, but we apologise for almost getting in your car instead of ours (maybe the keys would have fit the door and ignition too?) and suggest, that if you still have the car, you change the locks - oh and wow, congrats on a nice clean car! :)

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

Oh how I would love to win a jeep!

There's just something about a Jeep. I've liked cars over the years, including the fancy Lotus, Magnum's red Ferrari (or was that Higgins' ferrari?), but have never had a fancy car, and had never made up my mind as to which vehicle I like best, until recently.

It's Jeep, all the way. There's a car sales place in East London that has all five different Jeeps displayed, with some of the wheels on rough boulders. Gee, but a Jeep looks good!



The problem arises though, when deciding on what colour I'd like my dream Jeep to be, and which one. I need to win a Jeep, then it wouldn't be such a problem! Although, funds as they are now, I know I would have to sell a Jeep, if I won one as a prize in a competition. That sucks.

Of course, if I could win millions in another competition, I wouldn't have to worry about entering a contest to win a Jeep, because then I could just buy all five types, and would then only have to worry about what colour they'd be!

But if I could buy just one, which one would I choose? Ai, decisions!

Hm, the Jeep Wrangler is really cute, and the least expensive too. Not too big, and perhaps more suited to a female driver than a male driver, but there's four others just jumping out at me too (over rough terrain - isn't that a cool image?) messing up my mind! Which to choose? Which to choose?

The Wrangler Unlimited Jeep is bigger than the Jeep Wrangler, but perhaps not as cute. I find it's shape almost a little odd, yet there's still something about it...

That Patriot looks good - a nice family car - and in stone white, looks rather impressive.

Then there's the Cherokee Jeep - just the regular (but not so "just regular" of course) Cherokee, and then the mother (or father) of them all, the Grand Cherokee.

Gee, but they're nice. Just all so nice.

© article copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

What is it with women letting their dress or skirt hang out the car door?

I don't get it. If I was sitting in a car seat or driver's seat and a third of my skirt was hanging out the car door, that means I'm mighty uncomfortable, with my skirt all swished to one side and bundled up or squished up a tad under half of me. Way too uncomfortable.

When I get in the car, and I do happen to be wearing a skirt and dress - which is not that often actually as I'm a jeans and tshirt kinda girl - I make sure that I'm comfortable. I don't want to catch somebody giving me funny glances at red traffic lights later when I'm fiddling beneath me trying to yank my skirt right.

I think the only time I might not care how uncomfortable I was, sitting on a squished up skirt with some of it hanging our the car door, might be if I'm flying to hospital, through red robots, with my lights flashing, or something, with an injured or very ill kid in the car.

Now, most times I notice other women's skirts hanging out the car door is when we're all parked at traffic lights - and they're not dashing anywhere - they're just sitting uncomfortably on part of their skirt - or, maybe not too uncomfortably if the skirt or skirt of a dress is all pulled off nicely to the side underneath (and out the door) (but, surely, then, it feels tight and uncomfortable up against the leg that's toward the inside of the car?) with the rest dragging on the road. I don't get it.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

What time is the right time?

The school bell is the right time, even if it's not. The digital clock in the car is set to the same time as the school bell. (I say "the" car and not "my" car, because it's my dad's, even though it has cost me nearly R15 000 - Hey, we're trying here, and will make it one day, we swear! - a car or two of our own, a lovely home of our own, with the boys no longer sharing a room, a successful business, a great future for the boys, and fulfill a desire to help other South Africans also earn an income working from home, or running their own small business - these are things we want, and will get, through determination and hard work, and with the help of God.)

Yesterday evening while waiting outside doctors' rooms for my mom's sister who has an ear infection of sorts, we got to looking at litter in the streets, and thinking about time. How long was my aunt going to be? Was the doctor running late?

A bit of chatting, taking photographs of litter, and more thinking about time. Noticed the time on my cellphone was different from the time on the digital clock in the car. 7 minutes behind the time on the car clock! No good. All time must be the same as the school bell's time!

Some frustrated fiddling later, we gave up. We couldn't find the time settings on my phone. This is sad, when we can design websites, and handle a lot on Photoshop, but can't set the time on my cellphone! So, now what? Set the wake up alarm (on my phone that sleeps next to my side of the bed along with the panic button hanging there - this is South Africa) - or carry on as normal with the mad rush to school in the mornings?

Well, I guess I have a bit more time to think about it, as we didn't have to get up too early this morning (for the school rush) as the boys spent last night at their dad.

Perhaps I could somehow sort out with the school that the school bell be changed to the time on my cellphone?

Update: (15 May): We found it! Lol, yeah, just a day later, we relaxed, had another look on the cellphone, and found where to change the time. Was right there all along, in initial set up, I think, lol, it was a few days ago, and I guess I should note exactly where we found it in case we need to set the time again. So, no talking to the school about changing the time of the school bell's morning ring. Cool.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

I think I enjoy rushing when driving the kids to school in the mornings?

I mean, I must, or else, to avoid the mad rush, I would get up earlier, right? Hm, I should think about this more. The rush (no speeding though) freaks me out at times, but there's another kind of rush that comes with it all.

When navigating through the traffic, and then along the highway, then the roads closer to the school, I'm so alert. Super alert. And it feels good. It feels good to feel so alive and awake.

And then there's the hopping back into the car after helping the boys get their bags out the boot of the car and hugging them goodbye with last-minute "love you's" ringing in the air. Tony and I plop down in the car seats, and people probably two cars away in the parking lot can probably hear our sighs - and with those sighs, comes utter relaxation, a sort of sitting and contemplating, for a minute or two sometimes, of "Wow, what a rush to get here, it was stressful but somehow exciting, and hey, the boys made it to school before the school bell today!"

Then it's slowly put seatbelts on again, lift hands to the steering wheel, and we "start" our day. Although very alert while driving to school, it's often not until this point, that we feel we have really woken up.

I think part of not being able to easily get up earlier in the mornings must be due to the fact that we often go to bed as late as 1 am (due to work, or marketing our work, on the computers) - then we get up at 5.40 am to get the kids out of bed for their shower and to get ready for school. We come through to our little home office, have coffee, and try wake up. We usually check emails, check Google Adsense earnings accumulated through the night (if any), and, now lately, often also try and check what's happening on two blog aggregators we've recently joined - Afrigator, and MyScoop

Then it's off to dress, prepare the boys' school lunches, decide if Gilly our jack russell is coming with for a walk around the school fields (if weather is fine, we feel we need some exercise, and we're not meeting a client on the way home), and then off to school.

Could get up earlier. Could skip the checking of emails etc. But then we'd probably miss that mad rush to school, which, dare I say it, seems to wake us up more than a cup of coffee. And it feels good.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

Why drive with car lights on during the day?

Well, I think that here in South Africa, anyway, it is illegal for motorcyclists to ride their motocyles without their lights (light?) on. This makes sense - they're much smaller on the roads than cars, and being more visible on motorbikes is safer for both motorcylists and drivers of cars.

Drivers of cars, on the other hand, don't have to drive with their lights on, unless they really need to because they simply can't see well enough due to it being dark (because it's night or there's heavy rainfall) or due to there being a lot of fog or mist, or dust flying about on a dry dirt road.

Many cars do have their lights on, though, even on sunny days. This makes them more visible to other motorists, and what with the rate of car accidents in South Africa obviously needing to be reduced, why not? When you're in a crazy rush, but still trying to drive carefully, you may still be stressed enough not to notice that car speeding up because it's a similar colour to the road, or the sun might be in your eyes.

The above was pretty much explained by me to my 12 year old son the other morning in the car (I was driving) on the way to school. Along the highway, he asked: "Mom, it's sunny so why do just about all those cars have their lights on?" (the cars that were approaching us, travelling in the opposite direction, on the other side of the highway.)

I answered, while squinting against the very bright sunlight in my face, "Well, the sun is in my eyes right now, and it's bugging me, so I'm trying to concentrate on only the road directly in front of me. Now should one of those other cars on the other side of the highway have some kind of an accident and come careening towards us, there's a chance I might not notice, against this glare, and we'll have a bad accident. However, if their lights are on, even though the sun is also shining in my eyes, I am more likely to notice this sudden approach of lights coming at us from the other side of the road, and possibly have time to react."

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010