Sunday, while taking some stuff down to Grandma Darlene's to store, Brian noticed that the Explorer was making a strange squealing, screeching sound...not a good sign. Sunday afternoon was kind of crazy with Carrie and Ben here and the boys excited because Daddy was home again and homework, so the first I heard about this was a text message that Brian sent me Monday afternoon when he went to pick up Joshua after school. Tuesday morning a friend from the ward who is a mechanic of sorts came over and listened to it and told Brian that it didn't sound like a belt, but more like something in the motor/engine somewhere. That's what Brian had feared. So this morning we took it to Yreka and dropped it off at the Ford dealership. The girl that drove it around the back told Brian that it sounded like a belt to her. Well, it's a good thing they don't base decisions on her hearing. A few hours later they called Brian and told him that it wasn't a belt (geez, we knew that, thanks for charging $80 to tell us that), and that they needed to take apart the engine - which would take a couple of hours - and if the problem was what they thought it was, they'd have to order the part and it wouldn't be here until Thursday or Friday, but they'd have no time in their schedule to put it in the car until next Wednesday. Now, not only does Brian need to drive back to Davis for work tomorrow, but he's also got to return the trailer that he borrowed from someone in our old ward down there. And since he's not going down there to work next week (yay, Halloween), he'd have to make a special trip down there next week just to drop off the darn trailer. Well, Dad was home today because of a funeral, so he and Brian talked about it and then went to the Napa store in Fort Jones and got their Mountaineer hooked up for towing and he'll be driving that tomorrow and towing the empty trailer. And he'll be bringing back every last little bit of odds and ends from our house in Winters. Then we'll be truly moved.
On top of that craziness for the day, there was funeral that we (Dad, Nathaniel and I) went to this morning - right after getting back from picking up Brian in Yreka after dropping off the car. The grandfather of some friends of mine passed away last week at the age of 88. Their grandpa had always had a pocketful of peppermints that he'd handed out to us kids after Sacrament meeting. Since Brian had to study and Mom had to work, just Dad and I went. And Nathaniel. I didn't want to leave him home with Brian since he needed to study. So I figured that we'd hang out in the nursery and help with the little great-grandchildren that were there. Nathaniel had fun...there were half a dozen or so little kids, most around his age. All together I think there are over 50 great-grandchildren, but not all came. I think there were 27 grandkids. One family alone had 11 kids (several of which I grew up with or my sisters grew up with...and the oldest two even babysat us once upon a time). I saw a couple of friends that I haven't seen in YEARS! That will be a nice thing (not for funerals, of course, more for holidays) about living here...getting to catch up with friends I haven't seen in ages.
Fall is harvest time...even here in town. We finished the garden a few weeks ago. Last week & today, Brian has taken study breaks to pick apples from the apple tree in the front yard. And one moring last week, he, Nathaniel and I picked grapes. Brian fought the raspberries and picked the overhanging grapes from the neighbors vines (they didn't want them) and got a decent sized boxful (those still need to be juiced). Nathaniel "helped" me with the vines in our backyard that grow along the patio/deck. We almost filled a large box (Brian did climb up on the roof of the deck and get all the ones up there). On Saturday Mom juiced all of those and got 8 quarts of grape juice. She said that they've never gotten this many grapes off of their vines before.
Joshua has only one more soccer game to go - YAY!! He enjoys playing goalie and throwing the ball in from the sidelines when it goes out. But he gets tired out by the end of the game and doesn't really care who gets the ball. And for some reason, they're team has way less players than the other 3 teams that they play. This past Monday night two kids from his team were gone, so there were only 6 players...and the opposing team had 8 or 9. Usually they lend a kid to the team with less players or they rotate in, but not this past week. Joshua's poor team was run ragged. Their coach is nice, but only a senior in high school, and doesn't "coach" them that much, not like the other coaches do, by giving them pointers while they play. It was an experience - we'll see if we do it again next fall or not. I think he'll like Little League better. We're still waiting for the soccer pictures to come...not sure how long they take. School pictures should be coming pretty soon...retakes are in two weeks.
Well, this is the only chance I've had to go online on our computer since last Wednesday, so I'd better hurry and enjoy it before Brian gets home to do more homework and then packs up the connection thingie to go with him.
1 comment:
I totally understand the car thing. We spent another $200 yesterday on our little guy. Just maintainance stuff, but it made a huge difference in how he runs. Guess I probably should have done it sooner. Someday we will be able to afford a second, newer vehicle!!
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