Saturday, January 29, 2011

Vehicular disappointment

This afternoon, while Meatball and Musical Daddy napped and Grandma and The Boy were out getting haircuts, I cleaned out our van. It was in desperate need of some big time crap removal. I then decided to play around with the seating arrangements in the car.

If you are familiar with the basic model of the Chrysler/Dodge minivan, you know that it has two rows of seats in the back--one that seats 2 and one that seats 3. We have the boys in the middle row, right next to each other, and I was wondering if perhaps they'd be a little happier with the larger seat in the front, giving them more room. Meatball has a habit of pestering The Boy at the most inopportune times, like when he is in a lousy mood, or when he is sleeping. A little distance between them, even though they can still see each other and talk to each other, might be just the thing. Even if just for a little while.

I removed both rows of seating, vacuumed the seats to remove random crumbs and things that seem to get stuck in there, and I put the larger row of seats in the second row. Great. Worked fine. I installed the carseats and found that while there was a little bit more room, probably enough so that Meatball is unable to reach The Boy, the seats themselves are so wide on the the top that it is impossible to seat a third person in the row, which was something that I was hoping to be able to do in addition. So that if Grandma rides in the car with us, she doesn't have to climb in the back. Because, you know, she's 61 years old. If you know my mother, you can hear her saying this, complaining while proudly declaring her age.

I then tried to put the smaller row of seats in the back, and it just doesn't fit. Just can't figure out how to make it work. Maybe if I remove the arm rest...but I don't see how that is possible.

Rather than take the whole thing apart and start over (which I'll have to do later anyway), I did leave the seats in place, and the extra row of seats is sitting in the garage.

I'm glad to have cleaned out the car, and I'm also glad to have chili cooking on the stove and clothing in the washing machine and dryer.

Not sure yet what is on tap for the rest of the weekend. The Boy is going with Grandpa and Daddy to a baseball event. Definitely NOT for Meatball. Perhaps he and I will call a friend or go play somewhere.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

I so need to clean out our car. We just don't have the energy to do it in the winter. Too cold and we're just too lazy. It has like, 5 months of junk piled in the inside parts of the doors. Maybe someday.