Life's Twists and Turns

Saturday I went into Litchfield to run errands, attend a bridal shower for Yukiko, visit my father and take my sister shopping and then I waited until another sister got a nap in before taking her to work. Yeah, it was a busy day.
In the early morning, when I left for Litchfield ,the roads were very slick and so I drove on the shoulder where the new fallen snow had not been packed down. Even then I drove 45 mph to prevent losing traction. By the time I got into Litchfield, my one sister was so angry that I finally told her that I didn't want to take her to the shower. She hit me then threw the gift at me as she rattled off some rather nasty language and slammed the car door behind her. I picked up the next sister and we went to the bridal shower. We had a wonderful time! Yukiko is a sweet heart and will be a wonderful addition to the family. Congratulations Garrett and Yukiko.
I dropped Ce off at her house so she could grab a nap before going to work and while I waited for her I went over to visit with my dad. He had had a very rough night and was very sleepy so I stayed with him to help him eat lunch. After lunch he woke up a bit and we talked. He has been terribly concerned for the people in Japan and for those in this country whom have been victims of the earthquake and tsunami. He asked me if we could be hit by the tsunami. He asked me what is going to become of this world. Thank Heaven for the Gospel! I had answers for him. After we taled he felt comforted and was ready for a nap. It worked out great because I needed to go pick up Ce and take her to work.
When I got to Ce's house I discoverd that the car was steaming like crazy. I knew it was coolant and I knew that it was likely that I had lost a hose with that much steam coming out. I lifted up the hood and started looking for the culprit. It was a plastic "T" in the heater hose line that had broke so I disconnected it from all three lines and went in to call Brian. I told him that we needed to get Ce to work right away so he came without delay. When he arrived I showed him the part and so after dropping Ce off at work we went to get the replacement part. Boy! Was I ever glad to see that they actually had one of those pups in stock. That car is getting old enough that not all parts are in stock any more. We replaced the part, filled the radiator with more coolant and Brian followed me home. When I got home I pulled the car into the shop to see if it was still leaking from anywhere and sure enough it was. I popped the hood open and discovered something very disheartening. The radiator that I replaced not to many years back was leaking from the seem under the outlet hose. We've seen this happen before- it might be that I have lost a head gasket and that the build up in pressure in the cooling system is what blew the plastic piece apart in the first place. A Test drive into Darwin this morning will help to confirm whether we drive that car home or whether we drive it to the junk yard. We have known for some time that the engine was on its way out in that car and it might have just completed its life span.

So yesterday we drove Brian's car to church. It is a cold ride and so we covered up in blankets.
About three quarters of the way home we eard this loud bang in the rear of his car. Looking back i saw what the problem was. The left rear strut broke loose from the frame and shot through the wheel well into the car. When we got home we examined it closer and discovered that both strut mounts had rusted out and were now on the inside of the car. Dad is holding out hope that he can fix it but I know that that car has a one way ticket to the junk yard. The frame is almost gone.

So here we sit on the farm without reliable transportation, other than the public transit, which will come out and pick us up for a price. But at least we can still get around, although we are very limited in where we can go. It is great to be straned with Melinda home though. I/ we get to enjoy her company that much more. I feel confident that we will be able to get her a ride back to the cities to catch her bus on Friday though.

I'm not feeling stressed about the lack of transportation at this point but Dad is very stressed out because he has no way of getting to a job interview should he get one. I'm going into Litchfield on the bus today and will see which way life will turn this week.

Until next time
Have a great week!