Lesson Learned

It ain't over til it's over.  Yesterday was a roller coaster ride.  I spent the better part of the afternoon with my father in law learning how to do some basic car maintenance.  No, I didn't know how to change my own oil.  Or do much beyond put gas in the car and drive.  My dad has always been staunchly in the camp of "pay an expert to do it, cause you might get yourself killed."  But considering the hour plus drive I have each way to work every day, the miles and oil changes have added up pretty quick.

Luckily my f-i-l is well versed in car...things.  And it was some nice bonding time with a guy who is a man of very, very few words.  I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself, as we pulled out of my inlaws driveway and headed home to catch the Steeler game.  That is until about 5 miles down the road the electrical in the car suddenly shorted out.  While driving.  Luckily I was able to safely get off the road, restart the car, and nervously get back to the inlaws to diagnose the problem.

We cleaned some gunk (technical term) off of the battery terminals, and it looks like one of the connections wasn't tightened all the way.  Oops.

We had missed our window, so decided to stick around there to watch the game.  My nerves settled down just enough over the car scare to get ramped back up over the playoff game about to start.

But boy did that exceed my expectations.

As someone who enjoys the occasional bloodbath, I really enjoyed watching the whole game.  Kate and I made the drive home at halftime, successfully this time.  But as the lead was slipping away in the 4th quarter, I angrily turned the tv off after AJ Green's touchdown.  With a backup qb and time ticking away, I wasn't feeling too confident.  I checked ESPN, and saw that the last play had been a Landry Jones interception, sealing the loss under quite literally any logical scenario.

But who needs logic.  While the Steelers were improbably winning the game through the craziest of circumstances, I sulked off to bed.

Lesson learned.  Always check.

I was pretty shocked to open up facebook on the iPad in bed this morning, seeing gleeful statuses from my friends last night.  I was perplexed to say the least.  And then I opened up ESPN, screamed loud enough to get elbowed in the side by Kate, and learned the good news.

So the Steelers survive another week, and I have another good reason to wear my Kordell Stewart jersey.  And this time, I'll watch the whole game.