Our van is severely disabled right now. I can't say "dead" because I can still drive it in second gear. That's right, I can go a whopping 30 miles an hour (and in second gear it starts to make a lot of noise at that speed!). Here's the story: almost a month ago, it started acting funny. Sometimes the power would surge, and sometimes it would almost cut out. The engine light would come on every once in a while. We checked on all the fluid levels and that sort of thing, found nothing. Chris' BIL came over and changed the fuel filter for us, and it was acting better again; we thought great, it only cost $10! But then the light came on again, and the surging/cutting power started again. It wasn't consistent, so we kept putting it off. I had too many things on the calendar to be without a van while it was in the shop. Last week, it started jerking when changing gears up, when it went to 3rd 4th or 5th. The boys have had swim lessons this week, so I've only been driving it 10 miles or less a day, but each day it got worse. On Wednesday I had to run to the store after swim lessons for groceries; on the way home just when the van should have jerked into 3rd gear, it just stalled. Right there in the middle of the road. Ugh. I put it in park and it started up again fine, so I tried again to get home. Once again, as it should have gone into 3rd gear, it just stalled. I managed to get into the parking lot of a hotel and park, so we went inside to call Chris at work. Of course I had to scrounge up fifty cents because the desk wouldn't let me make a local call. Ugh. I felt very lucky I had two quarters in my purse, because that was all I had! lol As we sat and waited for Chris to get there I thought about the van, and the idea came to me that if I kept the van in D2, I might be able to get home, though it would mean I would have to drive slowly. When Chris got there (and it didn't take him long at all, I sure love having him work so close to home!) I suggested it to him and he agreed it was worth trying. We drove back roads rather than the main road so we would annoy the fewest number of drivers lol but we did make it home, at 35 miles an hour top speed. Yesterday Chris came home from work for an hour just so I could take the boys to the pool in his car. Next week MIL is going to come over every morning and watch the 3 youngers so I can take the 3 olders to lessons. I have an appointment to take the van in Monday morning and have the garage look at it. I cringe at the thought, but it would seem that it is the transmission. Waaahhh that is going to be some major $. I also know there is an exhaust leak somewhere, and they are going to have to fix that too.
Oh, did I mention that starting Monday Chris is going to be working out of town? He will be commuting over an hour away each way plus working over time to do office work that he won't get done while he's on site. So I'm without a van and he won't even be around. Waaahhh.
Oh, did I also mention that the boys are all sick this week? It started over the weekend, with Samuel complaining of a sore throat. It took about 3 days and then he was better, but then Noah started complaining about a bad headache. On Wednesday he was crying about it in the pool. The next day he had a sore throat too. Today he finally says he feels a bit better. Meanwhile Micah came down with a high fever on Wednesday. I gave him some Tylenol and he slept it off. By 4 am (that's when he woke me up asking for something to eat lol) he was all better. Now today, Troyer has the sore throat. I sure hope his only lasts 3 days too so that by Monday I don't have to be worrying about how to get them to the doctor when I have no van. Samuel is right now lying on the floor with a bit of a fever and kind of listless. Ugh I hope he is not working on round two already.
Also just something odd, while Micah was sleeping on Wednesday, I noticed a red mark on his back, in the center of his left shoulder blade. I thought maybe it was the start of a rash, or maybe a bug bite. The next day when Chris and I looked at it, it looked like a big flat mole. I can tell you that this is new, he did NOT have it 2 weeks ago. It scares me; I know that moles that pop up out of nowhere are not good. We are keeping a close eye on it. It is pink and oval, and not smooth. The center looks like it is getting dried and scaly. It is less than a half inch diameter. I've taken a picture of it just to document what it looks like so we can compare later to see if it's getting worse. I sure hope it is just some sort of raised rash and not a mole. It worries me.
Here is what it looks like now:
1 comment:
We had the exact same thing happen to our van a few years ago, but I can't remember what ended up being wrong with it. Good luck with what sounds like a busy week!
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