My last day of freedom before full-time work begins.
I had plans.
I was going to drive PH to work so I could have the car. Then I was going to swing by the daycare, drop Babby off for an hour or two so I could test the waters there. Then I was going to pick up some groceries and get in touch with my friends, one of whom is home with her three month old, and the other of whom is on vacation this week.
We could have fun times, possibly after I had picked up Babby, and if for some reason they couldn’t hang out, I was going to come home and CLEAN the Babby-free house, and then maybe take Babby for a fun day out in the park and cherish ever moment.
I woke up this morning.
It was pissing rain.
Summer arrived in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago, after an unusually cold and drizzly season. I know everyone thinks Vancouver rains all the time, but it actually DOESN’T, in summer. All the rain comes in the winter. Summer is fire-hazard time.
Not this summer. But the last two weeks have been hot and sunny, and yesterday was the hottest and sunniest. And now it’s pissing rain. Not so much with the fun times in the park, today.
Anyway,
Halfway to PH’s work the engine overheating light started to blink. We were on a bridge.
Great.
There is a Midas near PH’s work, so we got off the highway and drove slowly with our four-ways on, switching to neutral at red lights. Two minutes away from Midas, the check engine light went on. As we pulled in, the battery light went on.
Bad bad bad!
So I ended up calling my friend The Farm Fairy and begging her to load her baby into the car and come rescue me. Babby crawled around the floor at Midas and turned his knees positively black while I watched the news about Jack Layton‘s death.
My sainted friend showed up forty five minutes later and drove me home. Then, after a couple more phone calls and a booba top up for both babies, she drove me to the daycare so I could talk to the lady about Babby’s personality, diet, how to use his diapers etc and get the requisite forms to fill out. I didn’t leave him there, because honestly, there’s only so much chauffeuring one can ask of a friend in a day.
Then she drove me to her house and we hung out with our vacationing friend for a bit. But then Farm Fairy’s mother called needing a ride (it was chaffeur day for her, clearly) so vacationing friend drove me home again.
Babby is now down for a nap, it’s still raining, the house is still dirty.
And PH says that apparently it’s going to take 1,000 bucks to fix the car.
I guess we know where my next couple of paychecks will be going, eh?
If By Yes 
Well, ugh. I declare that you have now achieved your shit quotient for the day. (Hear me, universe?)
The universe decided to reward me with Babby SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!
😦
I didn’t know who Jack Layton was before today (being an ignorant American who now lives far from Canada) but thanks to linking to his letter – it seemed like the epitome of grace in politics.
And sorry you had such an ugh day!
Well, at least I got to see my friends!
For future reference, if your car ever starts to over-heat, apparently the best way to keep it going is to turn the heater on full blast and open the windows. The car takes heat from the engine and uses it to heat the inside of your car, so if your radiator isn’t working, this helps. We had an interesting drive to my husband’s band gig last week that involved a broken radiator, many jugs of water and the heater on full blast on a hot day.
Interesting! It turned out that our water pump exploded.
That sucks. I know because our radiator was once punctured by a random piece of highway debris once, and the damage was 1,500 dollars. We had had plans for our tax rebate that we had just gotten, unfortunately it all went into the stupid car whose radiator was apparently made out of paper mache.
Damn you, society that requires cars!
Ugh, what a day. I feel your pain. Our van broke down on my first day back at work after being off for the summer. Luckily I had already picked up the baby, and some kind folks let me hang out on their porch while I waited for my husband to come with the other kids and rescue me. But it was $450 for a new fuel pump. That was not a fun day. At least it wasn’t raining!
I hope the transition back to work smooths out soon.
I have a memory of being a small child and we were stranded on the highway because the coolant had sprung a leak. A nice trucker ended up giving my mum a jug of coolant and we made it to a car repair shop.