That Was Close

This morning as I was racing around the house in search of O’s coat and hat and my own shoes and purse, Tom went out and started my car so it could warm up before I bundled Olivia into it for a quick trip to my mom’s. Poor sweetums isn’t feeling well and didn’t go to school.

Anyway, he NEVER starts my car. But since he did this morning, we were all greeted by the smell of hot metal grating against itself and the shrieking sound of a belt giving way when we opened the door to the garage.

Tom shouted, “Turn it off, turn it off!”

I replied, “I’m trying!” And I finally managed to turn the car off and popped the hood.

He opened the hood and out came smoke and more stink.

Olivia and I went back into our warm house while Tom inspected the damage.

He came back in to tell me he was going to go get Sylvie (the silver Grand Prix.) I’d drive that one to take O to Gram’s and then go to work.

I called work to let them know I’d be about fifteen minutes late and Alyssa went about the morning business of watching for the bus.

Tom put coolant into Sylvie as well as air in the tires while I wrestled with O’s car seat, trying to get it out of Ruby (the red Grand Prix.) I finally gave up, that damned LATCH system is good at holding those car seats in, that’s for sure, and got the seat from Tom’s van, put it in Sylvie and off O and I went to Gram’s.

I was only ten minutes late to work, so really, I was early since I’d said I’d be fifteen minutes late. Go me.

Tom said he was going to call Jack, our local mechanic and see if he could get Ruby in today. He (Tom) was sure something had locked up and that running the car for even two minutes had ruined a belt.

I called him at 11:30 to confirm that he was still bringing a package that I would sent via UPS and he said that Jack was busy today and wouldn’t be able to look at Ruby.

I sighed and said, “So the girls and I won’t be going to Indianapolis on Sunday, will we?” We were invited to Julie’s Annual Christmas Tea Party. We are so excited because we all three got some pretty horrendous Christmas sweaters to wear to the event and Alyssa is always excited to get to see Riley. I was really dreading calling/emailing Julie and saying, “Yeah, car trouble. Won’t make it.” I hate sending messages like that. Sadly, I’ve sent more than my share of those messages. Ugh!

He told me not to make any calls yet cancelling our plans. He was going to see what he could do for Ruby.

He called mat 12:05 to say he was in the parking lot with the package. I opened the door and saw that he’d driven Ruby to town to drop off the package. I could tell he was so proud of himself. He said that when he’d called Jack and found out how busy he was, Tom decided to tinker around with the car himself. He spend $75 on parts and she’s good as new.

Indy, here we come.

My husband really is pretty awesome. He does so much for us, keeping Sylvie running even though she’s really on her last legs, fixing Ruby at a moment’s notice.

He told me that it was a good thing he’d started Ruby this morning because if he hadn’t, she’d have broken down on the road, probably between home and my mom’s, leaving me and Livie to call him to come rescue us.

The thing is, that’s just what he’d have done had we broken down. But we got lucky, we didn’t break down and now that the belt has been fixed, we can head to the tea party with confidence in our ugly sweaters and our yummy treats.

Thank heaven for handy, loving husbands.