MANIC MOMMIES
My darling wife is a web superstar!
She is a big fan of the Manic Mommies podcast and called to tell them so. They played the call on the most recent episode which can be heard here. She appears about 40 seconds in. This is the first time she's appeared on a radio-like show since 1988 when she called in a radio show and won Bon Jovi tickets!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
THE LAKE GEORGE ODYSSEY
part three: Wednesday
Another fitful night; the raccoons were chewing up the garbage cans right outside our room. But we got up and went to the mechanic to see if they actually got our van and left us with a loaner. The lot was full of cars and trucks, but there was a Subaru Outback right out in front and were very happy. It looked nice and big and in great condition. We went in to talk to the guy and he told us the Outback was his. Oh. Our car was around the corner. It was a 1989 Pontaic 6000. It's a four-door with a trunk and an engine that seems to work, so I shouldn't complain, but we are. It's a crummy little car, it's filthy and it smells. It's got A/C and a radio, so that's good. It's just that we feel so screwed over that we deserve a decent car. We were told three times that the transmission was done and totally fine and then we break down up in the mountains with no cell service and have to load our family into a stranger's car to get to any civilization. The least they can do is give us a station wagon from the 90's.
part three: Wednesday
Another fitful night; the raccoons were chewing up the garbage cans right outside our room. But we got up and went to the mechanic to see if they actually got our van and left us with a loaner. The lot was full of cars and trucks, but there was a Subaru Outback right out in front and were very happy. It looked nice and big and in great condition. We went in to talk to the guy and he told us the Outback was his. Oh. Our car was around the corner. It was a 1989 Pontaic 6000. It's a four-door with a trunk and an engine that seems to work, so I shouldn't complain, but we are. It's a crummy little car, it's filthy and it smells. It's got A/C and a radio, so that's good. It's just that we feel so screwed over that we deserve a decent car. We were told three times that the transmission was done and totally fine and then we break down up in the mountains with no cell service and have to load our family into a stranger's car to get to any civilization. The least they can do is give us a station wagon from the 90's.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
THE LAKE GEORGE ODYSSEY
part two: Tuesday
We slept poorly and woke early. We got the kids out to camp and borrowed a car to drive out to the mechanic’s place. We told him who we were and what was up. He explained that he was booked until next Tuesday and he doesn’t deal with transmissions anyway. We asked him what we should do. He said the folks who worked on our transmission have to come and get it and supply us with a rental car. Unfortunately, it is racing season and he did not know if we would be able to rent a car at all. So we drove 20 miles to Ticonderoga, the nearest place with reliable cell phone service, and all the rental places we called up here require the car to be returned up here, which does us no good. Then we called the mechanic back home and told them what happened. They apologized up and down and said they’d arrange for a tow truck to drive up to Lake George from Long Island, with a loaner car on the back. We got a message that the truck was on its way and would be up at the mechanic’s sometime tonight. They’d drop off the loaner and bring the van back home and have it fixed by the beginning of next week. The amazing mechanic up here is so nice; he is not charging us any storage fees and has agreed to let the tow truck guy call him at home when he arrives this evening and he will go meet the truck at his shop to arrange the trade. He even offered us a ride into town with his wife if we needed it. This all, of course, took place over multiple hours, through multiple messages and return calls, which were made with Kat’s head leaning against a flagpole, in the blazing hot sun, in the only place on campus where Verizon cell phone service works.
If we’re lucky, we’ll wake up tomorrow, drive to the mechanic and pick up our shiny new rental car to use for the rest of the trip. And since things always go our way, I have full confidence.
part two: Tuesday
We slept poorly and woke early. We got the kids out to camp and borrowed a car to drive out to the mechanic’s place. We told him who we were and what was up. He explained that he was booked until next Tuesday and he doesn’t deal with transmissions anyway. We asked him what we should do. He said the folks who worked on our transmission have to come and get it and supply us with a rental car. Unfortunately, it is racing season and he did not know if we would be able to rent a car at all. So we drove 20 miles to Ticonderoga, the nearest place with reliable cell phone service, and all the rental places we called up here require the car to be returned up here, which does us no good. Then we called the mechanic back home and told them what happened. They apologized up and down and said they’d arrange for a tow truck to drive up to Lake George from Long Island, with a loaner car on the back. We got a message that the truck was on its way and would be up at the mechanic’s sometime tonight. They’d drop off the loaner and bring the van back home and have it fixed by the beginning of next week. The amazing mechanic up here is so nice; he is not charging us any storage fees and has agreed to let the tow truck guy call him at home when he arrives this evening and he will go meet the truck at his shop to arrange the trade. He even offered us a ride into town with his wife if we needed it. This all, of course, took place over multiple hours, through multiple messages and return calls, which were made with Kat’s head leaning against a flagpole, in the blazing hot sun, in the only place on campus where Verizon cell phone service works.
If we’re lucky, we’ll wake up tomorrow, drive to the mechanic and pick up our shiny new rental car to use for the rest of the trip. And since things always go our way, I have full confidence.
THE LAKE GEORGE ODYSSEY
part one: Monday
Our Honda Odyssey has a rich and colorful history, of which I have previously blogged. Recently, the transmission died and basically had to be replaced. It cost a lot and our van has 120,000 miles on it. Ever optimistic, we got the work done. A few days after we got the car back, it started showing signs of transmission problems. We brought it back to the shop and it was repaired again, whatever that means. A few weeks after THAT, we brought the van in for an oil change. While the car was in the shop, we mentioned that there was still something wrong with the transmission. It was making weird noises and shifting very hard. The shop assured us that new transmissions sometimes do that and not to worry. We told them we were about to embark on a trip upstate, somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 miles each way. He assured us again not to worry. (See where this is going yet?)
Monday morning, we loaded up the van with food, luggage and family and headed north. We were still a little cautious with the transmission and tried to be nice to it by keeping the RPMs down and ignoring all the weird whining noises and hard shifts. That plan worked perfectly until about six hours into the trip, 4:30pm. We had just gotten off the Northway when we decided to switch drivers. I pulled over and the car stalled out. It restarted right away but it got us very nervous. There is NO cell phone service up where we were, nor where we were headed. There’s not much of anything, really. We continued driving. About five minutes later the gas pedal refused to do anything but rev the engine. It was like the car was in neutral when it wasn’t. Freaking out, we pulled over and shut the car off. We started it up again and immediately the engine light came on. The accelerator continued to refuse to live up to its name. I looked up the engine light in the manual and it mentioned several times in different fonts and sizes that continuing to drive the car when the light was on could cause serious damage. So we pulled over and looked at each other. “What do we do now?” we each said to the other. Then we each said it again. We were on the side of the road on 9N, about to drive up the twisty, turny road up the mountain, through the dense forest. As I mentioned, there is no cell phone service up there. Luckily the car was jammed with food, just in case we had to camp out there. But we had family waiting for us with no way to let them know what was happening, and we had no way to call a tow truck or AAA or anyone.
We decided to flag down a car and try to get a ride up to the cottage where we were to stay for the week and where our family was waiting. We waved down a wonderful man named Paul who offered to take us all up to our destination. We piled in and he drove us the 8 miles to the cottage, wished us luck and went off to visit his brother in Ticonderoga to drop off the fishing lures his brother had ordered and which came in early, apparently to Paul’s house, not Paul’s brother’s house, and would he be surprised! Because Paul hadn’t told his brother he was coming, Hopefully they’d be able to get some fishing in that day!
Anyway, we drove to a neighbor’s house one town over, who had a land line. It was 5:30pm. I called AAA and was told a tow truck would be there in 30 minutes; 6:00pm. My father in law and I drove down to the van to wait. 6:00 came and went. At 6:30pm, we decided one of us should go back and call AAA again. As we were about to do this, the neighbor who had let us use the phone drove up and said AAA called and it’s gonna be awhile. We had no idea how long a while was, so my father in law loaded up his car with all our food, clothing and games and whatnot and brought them back to the cottage. He came back a little while later and we continued to wait. Every time we heard a car coming around the corner, we'd crane our necks and sink back down when a car drove past us. Every once in a while we'd hear a low rumble and become convinced it was the truck, only to find a motorcycle gang. This happened over and over again in between stretches of silence. It is really, really quiet up in the mountains. Sometimes I just sat in the sun, listening to the noisy silence of the bugs buzzing around. Sometimes I pawed through the CDs in the car to find something to read. Finally I remembered the car has a radio and found a station to listen to. Around 7:30pm, a flat bed tow truck came screaming around the bend, passed me, and slammed on the brakes. He backed up until we were face-to-face.
“Just passin’ through, or are you the guy I called for?” I asked.
“Just passing through. What’s the problem?”
I told him the whole story and he said, “Well, as long as you called somebody already…” and drove away.
The sun started to go down and it began to get cold. I began to worry. Just then the real tow guy came along. It was close to 8:00pm. He loaded up the van and took it to a little place just a few miles north of where we were staying. I left a note and we went back to the cottage just in time to pick at the scraps from the dinner we had missed. I shouldn’t say that. There was plenty of food and it was all very good. Tomorrow we find out what we can do and how we're getting home.
part one: Monday
Our Honda Odyssey has a rich and colorful history, of which I have previously blogged. Recently, the transmission died and basically had to be replaced. It cost a lot and our van has 120,000 miles on it. Ever optimistic, we got the work done. A few days after we got the car back, it started showing signs of transmission problems. We brought it back to the shop and it was repaired again, whatever that means. A few weeks after THAT, we brought the van in for an oil change. While the car was in the shop, we mentioned that there was still something wrong with the transmission. It was making weird noises and shifting very hard. The shop assured us that new transmissions sometimes do that and not to worry. We told them we were about to embark on a trip upstate, somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 miles each way. He assured us again not to worry. (See where this is going yet?)
Monday morning, we loaded up the van with food, luggage and family and headed north. We were still a little cautious with the transmission and tried to be nice to it by keeping the RPMs down and ignoring all the weird whining noises and hard shifts. That plan worked perfectly until about six hours into the trip, 4:30pm. We had just gotten off the Northway when we decided to switch drivers. I pulled over and the car stalled out. It restarted right away but it got us very nervous. There is NO cell phone service up where we were, nor where we were headed. There’s not much of anything, really. We continued driving. About five minutes later the gas pedal refused to do anything but rev the engine. It was like the car was in neutral when it wasn’t. Freaking out, we pulled over and shut the car off. We started it up again and immediately the engine light came on. The accelerator continued to refuse to live up to its name. I looked up the engine light in the manual and it mentioned several times in different fonts and sizes that continuing to drive the car when the light was on could cause serious damage. So we pulled over and looked at each other. “What do we do now?” we each said to the other. Then we each said it again. We were on the side of the road on 9N, about to drive up the twisty, turny road up the mountain, through the dense forest. As I mentioned, there is no cell phone service up there. Luckily the car was jammed with food, just in case we had to camp out there. But we had family waiting for us with no way to let them know what was happening, and we had no way to call a tow truck or AAA or anyone.
We decided to flag down a car and try to get a ride up to the cottage where we were to stay for the week and where our family was waiting. We waved down a wonderful man named Paul who offered to take us all up to our destination. We piled in and he drove us the 8 miles to the cottage, wished us luck and went off to visit his brother in Ticonderoga to drop off the fishing lures his brother had ordered and which came in early, apparently to Paul’s house, not Paul’s brother’s house, and would he be surprised! Because Paul hadn’t told his brother he was coming, Hopefully they’d be able to get some fishing in that day!
Anyway, we drove to a neighbor’s house one town over, who had a land line. It was 5:30pm. I called AAA and was told a tow truck would be there in 30 minutes; 6:00pm. My father in law and I drove down to the van to wait. 6:00 came and went. At 6:30pm, we decided one of us should go back and call AAA again. As we were about to do this, the neighbor who had let us use the phone drove up and said AAA called and it’s gonna be awhile. We had no idea how long a while was, so my father in law loaded up his car with all our food, clothing and games and whatnot and brought them back to the cottage. He came back a little while later and we continued to wait. Every time we heard a car coming around the corner, we'd crane our necks and sink back down when a car drove past us. Every once in a while we'd hear a low rumble and become convinced it was the truck, only to find a motorcycle gang. This happened over and over again in between stretches of silence. It is really, really quiet up in the mountains. Sometimes I just sat in the sun, listening to the noisy silence of the bugs buzzing around. Sometimes I pawed through the CDs in the car to find something to read. Finally I remembered the car has a radio and found a station to listen to. Around 7:30pm, a flat bed tow truck came screaming around the bend, passed me, and slammed on the brakes. He backed up until we were face-to-face.
“Just passin’ through, or are you the guy I called for?” I asked.
“Just passing through. What’s the problem?”
I told him the whole story and he said, “Well, as long as you called somebody already…” and drove away.
The sun started to go down and it began to get cold. I began to worry. Just then the real tow guy came along. It was close to 8:00pm. He loaded up the van and took it to a little place just a few miles north of where we were staying. I left a note and we went back to the cottage just in time to pick at the scraps from the dinner we had missed. I shouldn’t say that. There was plenty of food and it was all very good. Tomorrow we find out what we can do and how we're getting home.
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