Car Troubles, part 2

So, I spent independence weekend with the family in Massena. I arrived Thursday night and decided that I was going to leave Sunday at around four p.m.. "Going to," is the key phrase here; and I will explain why.

On Sunday at around three p.m. I was ready to go. I had gassed up my car, gotten a nice snack, purchased a couple of caffeinated beverages, and took off with listening to NPR with the air conditioner on full blast. As I passed from Potsdam to Canton I decided that I was going to top off my tank so that I wouldn't have to worry about running out of gas. As I glided through an intersection I began to slow down so that I could pull into the station, but something was wrong. No, I take it back; something was terribly wrong. The brake began to resist me, and the wheel would barely budge. I remember thinking "Am I imagining this?" So, I pumped the brake to make sure. I recieved my answer shortly after. No, this was no dream. I had no power steering and barely any brakes. I manually turned my two ton Concord into the station as I turned with force. I slid into one of the spots and stopped short of hitting the wall of the station.

After some time, that was filled with reading the owner's manual and calling for my father to come out, we discovered that on a 90 degree day I had been driving with almost no radiator fluid, low oil, and to top it off the air conditioner on full blast. The engine had overheated and cooked one of the thermostats that regulated the flow of coolant to the engine.

We got it home, but I followed in the Buick, with my mother, as my dad had to stop every other mile to let the car cool down. An agonizing hour later we made it home, and I called work to let them know I wouldn't be in today.

Well, lets fast forward to this morning.

I awoke at seven fifteen and saw my parents off to deliver my mother to her job. After that, my father called the dealership and set up an appointment for nine a.m.; which I just got back from. It took the mechanic an hour and one hundred and thirty dollars, but he is reasonably sure the problem is fixed. Just to be sure he drove the car around a bit and the temperature gauge never rose much above the .25 percent mark. I called work and everything is worked out with them, they were surprisingly understanding. Other than that I am going to do another test drive and leave at about four p.m. as was scheduled the day before. It goes without saying that I will be watching the temperature gauge like a hawk and driving in the slow lane with no air conditioning, a small price to pay I assure you.

If I make it home alright you will be sure to hear about it in a blog, and if there are any problems then you will definitely hear about it in this blog. I am mostly reassured though, because I have a cell phone with me and my tom tom GPS navigation device will direct me to many local mechanics based on my current location. Until then, I will leave you with my best regards and I hope you all had a wonderful independence weekend full of fun and excitement.

I certainly have had my fill of the ladder.