Back to work

After spending a nice Friday with my aunt and uncle and cousin, we got all packed up and were ready to leave Saturday morning. In fact, we were in the van, waving goodbye, and backing out of the driveway when my uncle noticed a large puddle of fresh oil. For some reason, our van had developed a bad oil leak. It didn't leak too badly when the van was off, but when the engine turned on, it was like opening a faucet.

Saturday of a holiday weekend is not the easiest time to find a mechanic, especially out in the boonies. We did find a Pep Boys in Albuquerque that had a mechanic on duty until 8 pm. The next step was getting the van towed there. It took a couple of hours, but finally we had the van at Pep Boys getting looked at.

Uncle Doug and I waited around till they did the oil leak diagnostic. There were 3 leaks, and all 3 required special order parts. Then came the big blow: they couldn't get the parts until Monday. I called Cristina and discussed it, but we really had no choice. We would have to stay in Tijeras until Monday and hopefully get back to Phoenix late Monday night (actually, early Tuesday morning). I'd miss at least one day of work, the kids would have to miss school, and Cristina would miss her first day of work at a toy store (that's another story...stay tuned).

Uncle Doug and I got back to their house in time for the second half of the UF-FSU game, which Aunt Lynn was recording on DVD for me. I didn't really miss that much because the previous game, Tennessee vs. Kentucky, went into 4 overtimes. They weren't even airing the Florida game till that was over. I'll have to download the game to catch the first half.

After the game, Uncle Doug had an idea. They were already planning to go to Tucson in a few days. He said we could drive one of their vehicles to Phoenix on Sunday. They would pick up our van on Monday and drive it to Tucson. Then, at some point later in the week, we could arrange to meet halfway between Phoenix and Tucson to swap cars. It was an incredibly generous offer which we decided to take him up on.

So here I am at work now. Monday morning (well, it's actually 12:30). Pep Boys should have the parts by now and be working on our van. I hope it all goes smoothly for my aunt and uncle to pick it up this afternoon (or evening).

It was a fun trip and I'm having a hard time getting my head back into teaching. But that usually happens the day or two after a holiday break.