Eventful Sunday

So some back story....

My Acura broke down, the tranny went out in it. And I will forever be convinced that the car dealarship did it. So Acura is broken and the cost to get it fixed would be 1700.00 min. And we will still need to put tires on it for $700-$800. Yeah, we don't have that money anywhere. Enter Jeff. He brings down his little red Cavalier to Mom's. It also breaks down on the way home. The transmission is also out of it. It gets towed to our house. Matt starts making some calls.

We end up buying that card for the junkyard price plus family discount (thanks Jeff) and a transmission. This fix is less then $500.00. Go us. Sadly it is cheaper to fix this car and drive it and still make payments on my Acura then it is to sell the red car to fix and drive the Acura.

So Matt pulls an all nighter and drops the transmission and puts one in. It wouldn't start. I ask him if the battery is dead. He tells me know and tries all sorts of things to get it to start. Finally tests the battery and it was dead. Yay! We have a working car. We drive it up and down the ally a few times and when we go to park it, Matt kills it. It won't start....again.... See a pattern? Well, you will.

I go to Mom's house to help sort through Dad's things and to take my turn at picking. It was two really long and emotional days. I am so glad it is over. Never want to do that again.

We decide to go to the gravesite on Sunday as a family. Matt reports to me that the Cavelier is now fixed. We decide to take it up with us. The drive is beautiful. Then Matt mentions he is hearing a funny sound. I didn't hear much, but am not an expert. He said he didn't know what it was and we kept going. We were slowing down for a gas station outside of Swan Valley (not the one with square ice cream, way before that) when he decided to wait for the good one and spead up.

We hear a noise. I thought it sounded like a rock had been kicked up. We keep going. A few miles later we hear another noise. I tell him that it was definitely a car part. We pull over. The front passenger tire was bent in. After investigating we find that one of the two bolts that keep the tire and suspension together was missing. The 'rock' we had heard was the nut, and the other louder noise was the bolt. Matt had forgotten to tighten the bolts....

We start searching for the bolt and when we couldn't find it, my genius husband starts looking for something else that he can shove in the hole to get us to a service station. We finally decide that we will try our luck with the vacation homes we see accross the road and start heading that way to jump a fence, when a lady pulls up in her truck.

We talk for a little and Matt shows her the bolt we are looking for (he had pulled the second bolt out) and she asks if it was a bolt like the one in the road. She had stopped right next to the bolt we had been looking for. Yep fortune smiled on us. We still needed a nut.

Long story short (for part 2) at the third house we find a guy that has a bolt and a nut. No nuts for the bolt we had so we made do. Matt felt sure we would be able to make it up to the gravesite and then home. We checked the bolt a few times and it seemed ok. Well coming back from the grave, just a couple miles from where the bolt was lost before, we hear the nut go clinkety clankety. We pull over.

Of course we can't find the nut. so we decide to try out luck with the house down this lane. We ignored all the signs that said 'keep out,' and 'beware of dog.' We met a nice-enough man, that had a different bolt and nut. And this nut was special, somehow it would bite into the bolt so you'd have to pry it off.

We made it home and Matt has changed out the the bolt for the one that goes in the car. My point is the pattern. Me + in red car = bad things happening. The curse is still there and real people.