The entire town of Thurmont has been without power today so far since 6:53am.
Allegheny power outages map/reports app online does not report anything, however a quick drive around town confirms that nobody has power.
Thurmont police are stationed at the town’s two traffic lights directing vehicles.
As of now, no word yet on when power is to be restored.

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NOTE: the time, location and people have been changed to protect myself. While I really don’t care what others think about my parenting; I do wish to not make waves in the actual environment in which this event occurred.

SO…

You’re at the daycare picking up your kid after a hard day’s work. As you walk up to greet your child, another mother is coming by to pick up their kid also.

Your child walks up and gives you a hug, and you’re ready to start walking out the building when something happens that is an inevitable event for any parent. The other mother’s kid starts crying (fake, as your parental 6th sense can tell) to their mother: “she said I couldn’t play with her and it hurt my feelings, waaaaahhh, sniffle, cry, blah blah blah”

Ooooohh shit, there goes the neighborhood.

Instantly, without a moment of hesitation the other mother whips her head around to your kid just as you’re both turning around to leave the premesis and says “Aren’t you going to tell her to say she’s sorry?” Note that the child crying and making a ruckus is 7 years old, the accused is 5.

What would you do?

1. Make your kid say they’re sorry even though you don’t know the story?
2. Try to find out the story and guide the child(ren) appropriately
3. Walk out and pretend you didn’t hear the mother
4. Confront the mother, explain that nobody knows what happened and this situation would never be remedied as you can’t tell which kid would be the one telling the truth (ie. “what! you’re implying my kid would lie?”)
5. Tell the 7 year old to GROW UP and be a big girl about it

Now I’m all for watching out for your kids but seriously? What right does another parent have to tell another what to do with their children? How could that mother tell me to make my kid say she’s sorry when nobody knows whether or not the accuser is lying?

If I had made my daughter say she was sorry for something she potentially didn’t do, then I would be teaching her that its ok to take blame for something that you are not responsible for. She would learn that the feelings of someone else are more important than standing up for the truth. On the same token, if my child did in fact say that she didn’t want to play with the other girl then really, how could I make her say she was sorry for that either? What if she really didn’t feel like playing with the girl??? Is that not ok?

This reminds me of some of those charitable organizations that hassle you outside of wal-mart entrances. I’m in no way obliged to pay attention to them, so don’t accost me just because I choose to not see what you’re all about.

If my daughter didn’t want to play with the girl then so what? That girl should suck it up, get over it and go do something else. Not everybody everywhere wants to be your friend and the sooner this girl learns it the better. If I had made my daughter say she’s sorry for not wanting to play with the girl, then it would be teaching her that what she wants isn’t important and that she should oblige the other girl because she’s so desperate for friendship. Ya know what? sometimes some people just need to be left alone, and if my daughter didn’t want to play with yours then big deal… go teach your kid that sometimes you can’t be friends with everybody.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Oh, by the way; the correct answer is 3. We turned around and walked away without saying a word. I’m sure both my wife, myself, and my kid all looked like big asses but you know what? A 7 year old that cries because a 5 year old that looks like she’s 3 is busy doing something else instead of playing with them has bigger problems to contend with. Maybe the parents need to let their kid grow some wings, or balls, or something.

They most certainly WILL NOT get away with getting myself of my wife to do ANYTHING to appease them.

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After fighting this for a few months, trying painfully to figure out where water was leaking in and standing in the rear of our van in the trunk area – I finally found it and can get this thing repaired!

Shopping List:

• CarGo QuikSteel
• Rust-Oleum 248656 Undercoating
• Wire brush or abrasive grinder bit for your drill
• Razor utility knife
• Garbage bags or some sort of plastic to catch paint over-spray
• Putty knife
• Wet-Dry Shop Vacuum

In the rear of our Honda Odyssey, the ‘grocery getter’ area is a nice sized tub at the rear of the van where when the 3rd seat is flipped up, you have a very nice cargo area, and it also doubles as a place to house the 3rd seat when it is folded down giving you a flat cargo area instead. Over the past few months, this has been filling with water and emitting the most horrendous mold smell. We didn’t notice it until it started seeping up through the carpet, onto the folded down 3rd seat. One day we opened up the seat and found tons of mold, YIKES!

Since the rear carpet was going bad anyway due to years of stainage and multiple kids from multiple families spilling multiple drinks, we bought a new rear carpet from Honda (#83302-S0X-A00ZC), but before putting that in I had to figure out where the water was coming from.

After cutting the carpet out of the back cargo area, we found standing water UNDER the carpet. Somehow it managed to get in ONLY when the van was driving in the rain. Water did NOT enter when it was just sitting there. Apparantly, the tub is only tack welded in, and then sealed with some sort of rubberized bonding goo that hardens very nicely. Over time the areas of the tub where there were no welds have managed to bulge out a bit, breaking the bonding goo as shown in the picture below (after I had alreaded ground it away to make clean metal for my fixes)

Just believe me when I say, before I ground this down, the hole was just as big with a small amount of rust trickling down; revealing the problem pretty obviously.

Below are a few other areas I targeted for fixes as well, grinding metal down around them so that they can be covered with undercoating later.

Procedure:

• After ripping, cutting, tearing out the carpet, and cleaning up the water with a wet-dry vac, Use your putty knife to beat up & scrape most of the existing undercoating from the bottom of the tub.
• Using the wire brush or abrasive drill grinder, start grinding down all the areas and welds you see that have holes in them or are bent up pretty bad. Grind down to the metal
• Using your quiksteel putty, mash it up as per the instructions and jam it in the cracks as shown below:

* Note on picture: I also used another quickweld-type product in addition to the CarGo quiksteel

• Now wait for your quiksteel to set and harden, it requires 1 hour to be workable.
• Once your fixes are done, drape your plastic over the interior to catch overspray and use your spray undercoating to coat the entire tub area into a nice brand new cleaned up cargo space!

I shot some undercoating on the bottom of the van directly under the left & right drain plugs as well just to seal it up, your choice. Once the undercoating dries, WAIT. Go through a few rainstorms first as well as let the van sit when it’s raining bad outside JUST to make sure that you’ve gotten it all.

After a few storms, if you’re still dry then go ahead and have a drink… now you can replace your carpet (if you actually have a 2000 model I’d suggest you probably need a new carpet from Honda anyway, the rear carpet is only ~$280 or so).

Enjoy the rest of your day, you’re done!

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