(More than) Fourinarow.net

Did I say something really stupid last time?  Like, “It could be worse?”

Well, it’s worse.

As I headed to the mall yesterday  morning (still in St. Louis) with my cabin fevered kids, the Honda service guy called.  “Blah, blah, blah, FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, blah, blah THURSDAY.”

Somehow, I managed not to wreak my father-in-law’s car at hearing the news.

I called Dan at work. “Blah, blah, blah, FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, blah, blah at least THURSDAY.  Boohooohoooo.”

Breathe…

With that much money at stake, we needed time to think.  But, I also needed to get back to Chicago.  Dan had missed enough work playing Mommy, and Luke, Sam and I needed to be at home.

I abandoned my mall plans and headed back to my in-inlaws’ house.  Dan had already called them with the bad news, so they were ready with sympathetic faces and food.  God bless them, they lent us one of their vehicles so I could take the boys and get back home.  We’d figure the rest out later.

Five long hours later, we were HOME.  Still van-less and in a financial predicament, but all together again and at our own home.  The boys were thrilled to see their Dad again and Maria doled out the hugs as if we’d been gone for a month.  (I think Jack managed a “hi!” before getting back to whatever it was he was doing before our arrival.)

So.  The van.  Right now it sits in St. Louis in pieces.  Part at the dealership, part at the machine shop.

I don’t know much about cars, but apparently the timing belt that was put on the van last year was bad or went bad and f*cked up the engine, along with a bunch of other stuff.

To fix or not to fix.  That was the big question.

After a lot of conversations with several different people, we decided to fix it.  Dan called this morning and Honda was going to order the parts today.  (The parts are coming out of Iowa, which is in the midst of a snow storm at the moment.  Go figure.  Hopefully they won’t take too long to arrive, says the service rep.)

At this point, if all goes as planned (which it never seems to do in our case), the car will be ready by Saturday and Dan will drive his dad’s car back to St. Louis to retrieve it.  Then we’ll be back in business.

At least until the next disaster.

P.S.  There was a bit of a silver lining in all this…  The Little Boys got to spend more time with Grandma and Grandpa, and their cousins, while I got lots of sympathy and several great meals!

Sam and Joey