So that's why the battery died

I just knew you needed the follow up to our week of things going wrong. Well after the craziness on Monday and Tuesday the rest of week seemed to be getting back to normal, then Friday came. It was a busy day with morning playgroup and then going to church to drop off our donations to the sale and assess what had been dropped off so far and fielding several phone calls about the sale. Because we were having friends over for dinner I finally had to end my fun with the church sale to get some food and get home to do at least a little cleaning before they arrived. As I was walking into Whole Foods around 3:30 my cell rings (I had it with me, yeah me). It is John. Just wanted to let me know that on his way to pick up a couch from someone for the sale, on the other side of town, his work van caught on fire. No need to worry. He put the fire out with a cup of Mountain Dew and then the fire department came and shook a bottle of Aquafina on it to make sure he didn't miss anything. Now he was on the side of the freeway trying to figure out who could give him a tow and just wanted to keep me in the loop. Well I told him I would buy some food and call him when I was done to see how that was going. The rest of you might have just called a tow company but my husband is cheap and knows people and felt he could get a friend to help him. Well it turns out his friends are at work at 3:30 in the afternoon and the police didn't want his van there more than an hour. Finally, worrying more about my dinner with friends than anything else, I told him to suck it up and get a tow. He made it home an hour before our guests arrived and the dinner party was saved.

Apparently the alternator in his van was going bad and finally decided to go out in a literal blaze of glory. For those of you who aren't the expert that I am with all my experience watching John work on cars, an alternator's purpose is to continually recharge the battery. Thus why John's battery died, not getting properly recharged. Once he got it out he discovered that during its long slow death march it was impeding his air conditioners ability to spin and therefore work and is optimistic that he will actually have cool air this summer making all our lives so much better.

Thought you needed a picture of it all tuned up and ready for another work week. It rocks, I know. You all wish you owned a $500 1990 GMC Vandura.

The fun thing is that Jake decided to help him with the repair. This has been something that has saddened me over the years, I haven't felt John has taken Jake under his wing for car repair. Yet John will remind me that Jake has not wanted to be taken under his wing and he doesn't find joy in forcing him to sit out there and work on the car. So you can imagine my thrill to go out there and see my son under the vehicle putting in the new spark plugs and John giving him direction. There is hope for those men yet.

So cell phone firmly in hand, work van running like never before, this is sure to be a smooth and carefree week.