A Sad Month

This month has been anything but pleasant. Throughout the course of the month my van has been exhibiting various ills and each one getting repaired diligently by one of my mechanically inclined friends. That is until Friday, Friday the van decided it really was a very tired machine and wanted to show me just how tired. While I was driving along with one of my daughters along the van started making really loud noises and then a very loud clunking sound and then it was done. There only recourse I had was to coast to the side of the highway and call for help on my cell. I was never so happy to own a cell phone as I was at that moment. While I was sitting there waiting for my friend to get there, a highway patrol stopped and asked if I needed help, I explained what happened and that I had called a friend. He put flares around my van (it was dark outside) and told me he would check on me in about 30 minutes if I was still there. Once my friend arrived and did a few cursory checks on the van's engine he told me and Steph to get into his car because mine was not going anywhere on its own power and he took me to a small shop where we got the phone numbers of towing services from the phone book. After calling a few and finding them busy we got one that would come collect the van and take it to my home. We went back to my stricken van and waited for the tow truck. Once it arrived I watched the driver expertly load my van on the flatbed. During the time it was being loaded the patrol went by, he waved at me and continued on. It was too dark and cold for anyone to look at the van so my friend went home and I tried to become less numb.
Saturday came and when the van was checked out the words I dreaded to hear came swiftly to my ears, "your van is dead, the pistons are welded shut and the engine seized, there is a crack in that is leaking oil onto your driveway, I am sorry to tell you but your van will never leave this driveway on its own power ever again." I admit it, I started to cry, I have had that van for 14 years I am its original owner and have put all the miles on it myself. It felt like losing a cherished pet.
Today another one of my friends agreed to help me get around so I can get my daughter to school and we can go to the grocery store and of course start car shopping. Some people might love the idea of looking for a car but I dread it. I have wonderful, helpful friends, which makes this less of a crisis and more of just another bump in the road life has tossed at me.

Also and even more important, though I can do nothing but pray for good results, my father is being operated on Tuesday of this week. The doctor is going to put stints in his arteries because they have found clogging and this is preventing him from having major surgery he needs for an
aortic aneurysm.