Ok, so on Friday I was running errands with Katya and Tommy (side note: Katya, for whom the English language is still a bit mystifying said, "How many errands are we running from?" which gave me a mental picture of running down the street with an angry mob of errands behind us). So, we were down at Gilbert and 202 when the car started to make a weird noise when I was turning. Then I discovered that my power steering was gone. The fact that we used to have cars back in the old days that didn't have power steering is mind boggling after how tired I was driving without it! So I called Sam and told him and we arranged to meet at the mechanic at University and McClintock. I started driving up 101 and was about at Elliot when something told me to check the temperature gauge. So I did. Yikes. It was above the normal line. Not good. So I called Sam to see if I should pull over and while I was talking to him the temp kept creeping up so I pulled over on my own initiative. Sam said to turn the heater on and I should be ok to keep driving. When I started back up it was still above normal but below the H. As I came up to 60 it very quickly moved toward the H and by Broadway it was pegged I was getting off at University and while I was still on the off ramp the car DIED. Now I have no power anything--including power power. Praise God there were no cars on the frontage road and I was able to coast and turn on to University where Praise God once again there was an AM/PM mini mart right there and I was able to coast--and turn with all of the strength in my body while simultaneously applying both feet to the not-power brakes and praying that no one comes in front of my path. Or to the side. Or anywhere near me whatsoever. I came to a nice stop along the curb and completely out of the way of any other drivers and put it in park while smoke rose from the hood. At this point I heard Katya and Tommy say, "uh oh" which was there first words in quite a while since they very wisely decided not to add to the stress of the moment by asking questions like "what's wrong with the car?" or "why are you gritting your teeth and grunting while you are driving Mom?" They were left to ponder those mysteries in the silence of their own minds. So at this point I called Sam to tell him the good news--we were at a mini mart and they had Diet Coke and Icees. We spent the next few minutes recalling God's graces in this whole ordeal: we didn't die on the highway (the car or us), we were able to get into the am/pm's lot, the am/pm had icees and diet coke (I got the one with vitamins making it a health drink), we were only a few miles from Sam's office, we have towing/labor on our insurance policy and they set up the tow truck for us, we got to see what smoke coming from the engine looks like. The list is endless really. Sam got there and took us to McDonald's to hang out and have some dinner while he went back and waited for the tow truck. What a great husband. We had been to the library earlier so I sat and read one of Emily's library books while the kids read and played with their Happy Meal toys.
The good news was that the problem didn't cost thousands of dollars and I didn't damage the engine beyond repair. It turned out to be...the water pump. Now I know you are wondering, like I was, why the power steering was the first thing to go when the water pump went bad. Apparently when it seized up it shifted or something and threw off the belt that runs the power steering pump. Not that I understand that, it's just what I was told. It was fixed by Monday afternoon and I am back in business running from more errands.
The weekend was interesting though since we only had Sam's car that barely holds 5 people. Quick math: 7 people in our family-5 seats= 2 people on the roof. Actually this providentially happened while Emily is in Chicago visiting her grandparents. 6 people/5 seats. Once again God had things all figured out for us and Katya had a sleepover Saturday night and so she was able to stay there until after we got home from church. We got our numbers down to the proper people to seat ratio for church and spent the rest of the time at home.
As Pa Ingalls always said, "Alls well that ends well." Now if I could just shake those angry errands.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
