What an interesting last few days my family has had! I just thought I would share.
Background: Wife and I have 3 kids. My wife’s van has been in and out of the shop (mostly in) for about 10 days. It will stall out intermittently - a hard problem to diagnose. It was driving the mechanic crazy. Of course the problem would never happen when he drove it, but everytime my wife picked it up it would stall out within 30 minutes. The procedure was: drop van at shop, arrange other transport for wife and kids, wait 2 days, pick up van, return other transportation, van dies almost immediately, lather, rinse, repeat. Three times so far.
Saturday - Played in a golf tournament (best ball) against 5 other teams. I was the long hitter for my team, nobody else can drive more than 170 yards. Their job was chipping, putting and staying in the fairway. Knew it was going to be a bad day when my first drive was blasted down the right side of the fairway, probably 280 yards, and was never seen again. We saw it hit in the short grass and bounce over a knoll. Apparently at that point it hopped a westbound freight to Albuquerque. A small thing for sure, but a portent of things to come. Instead of a 50 yard chip and putt we had 150 yard approach, 2-putted and parred the hole. We finished dead last in the tourney.
Sunday - My mechanic, who attends the same church as I, tells me the van can be picked up Monday. Cool.
Monday - I catch a ride to work. Wife takes the kids to school in dad’s truck then picks up my dad and they go get the van. Dad takes his truck, my wife takes the van. She goes back to the kid’s school where she works part time. Van dies in the parking lot. When school let out she bummed a ride home and called me at work. After work I hook up with my dad and we go to get the van. Van starts fine and gets me all the way to the mechanic’s where it dies in the parking lot. Dad drives me to a friend’s who has graciously allowed us to borrow a car so we don’t have to call my dad everytime we need additional tansportation.
Tuesday - My 40th birthday. Mechanic has diagnosed a bad distributor, $250.00. This time he’s 100% sure. Uh, huh. We should have the van back by Wednesday. Wife calls me at work to see if I would be home on time. She has fixed steak, baked potato, salad and biscuits for my birthday dinner. On real china, with the good crystal, candles and everything! Yum! The girls both have their 1st softball practice at 7:30 but we should have time for a nice family dinner. I call her when I’m leaving work for the 15 minute ride home. 5 minutes later my cell phone rings. It’s my wife. The little league baseball commisioner wanted to know if I planned to attend the draft (I coach my son’s team). But, says I, the draft is tomorrow at 7:00. No, she says, they moved it to tonight at 6:00. Nobody told me. It’s 6:15 now. Attendance is mandatory and there’s no way I can get my other coach there in time. I tell her and the kids to enjoy my birthday dinner.
The draft goes pretty well, then I attend my oldest daughter’s pracctice while my wife attends the youngest’s. Finally arrive at home about 9:00. We eat the birthday cake first since everyone else has eaten. The kids play “waiter/waitress” and serve my reheated dinner. It was still good.
Wednesday - My oldest daughter got ready for school a few minutes early and got in the borrowed car to listen to the radio. She then got out of the car to get something she had forgotten. She locked the doors. With the keys inside. And the radio on. My wife fell apart. The proverbial last straw had been laid upon her back and the crash was a sight to behold. I told her to take my car and called my dad to take me to work.
I see the whole experience as an exercize in flexibility. Bemused is a good word to describe my state of mind. It has proven the value of having an extensive network of friends and family when things go awry. My wife, on the other hand, has had about enough. Please pray that the distributor fixes the van. Otherwise my hometown may be short one mechanic and my wife may be on the 6:00 news.