Well, then

[rebeccmeister]

Last night, very shortly before we got back to the house from an evening grocery trip, the "check engine" light came on. By the time I parked, a small wisp of smoke trailed up and out from underneath the car's hood. Not good, but there was only so much I could do while the car was still hot. So after verifying that nothing was actively on fire, I waited until this morning and then determined that the radiator blew out, and then the resulting heat probably blew out the section of pipe below:





...have I mentioned that combustion engines really aren't my thing?

I can't blame this car for having a radiator blow-out. It has been very hot and we drove all over yesterday. All things considered, it is FAR, FAR BETTER to have had this happen here and now vs. somewhere en route to Arizona or somewhere en route to California.

Long story short, the mechanic I would have tried to take the car to today apparently decided to take the day off*, so I'll try a second place first thing tomorrow morning. I also rented a car for Tuesday through Sunday.

I still never like being in the stage where you don't know how bad the situation is going to wind up being, or how long it's going to take to fix.

So then the undergrads and I had no other choice but to take the bus in to campus, which worked fine. I made them clean up and prepare ant farms today, and they were total champs about it. We just have to keep rolling with the punches.



*I rode the loaner bike over there to find out why they weren't answering their phones.

Comments

[thisnewday]

If you have a preference for the first mechanic you tried--based on proximity, recommendation, whatever--isn't it likely that he'd be available on Monday as well?

In any case, I hope you find someone you're comfortable working with as you try to sort this out. And glad for you that it happened when/where it did...

[ivy]

Sympathy, and I'm glad you didn't get stranded somewhere too inconvenient. Best of luck with the repairs!

[rebeccmeister]

Thank you! This morning after I dropped the car off at the shop (just 2 miles away and one that friends are familiar with!!) I was so relieved that I could just drop it off at the shop instead of having to have it towed somewhere with ____????? mechanics.

[graydon]

I hope this is going well!

Cycling over to find out why the car mechanic is closed is an extremely something event.