Friday, June 8

Today was adventure of another kind day. It all started out innoncently enough. . . Tim had the morning off, so we went to run a couple of errands that needed to be done together. First up, the bank, so we could have access to ATM and local checking. After leaving there, we were headed to MIT, but we only got a mile or so down the road when the car started to smell funny and I noticed that the heat reading was pegged. Yikes!!!
We pulled over and called AAA. Tim had to leave me and the kids there and go on to get to a meeting before his first class of the day. I assured him that we'd be fine. We all sat in the car and waited for the tow truck to come get us. While waiting, we played Rachel's favorite car game "guess the animal" - kind of like 20 questions - several rounds. Finally a nice fellow named Shawn showed up and said that he could tow the van but couldn't transport so many passengers (especially with car seat requirements). So he told me that he'd call us a cab. I asked if we were close enough to just walk. It turned out that we were less than 1 mi. from the service station. After securing directions, the kids and I set off while Shawn set about preparing to tow. It was a nice walk through a very nice Cambridge neighborhood- big houses with lovely gardens. We were also mostly in the shade. We got to the service station and were helped by Mickey (whose real name is Michael), who was a really nice guy. He suggested that we go to the grocery store just down the road to get a drink and wait while he took a look to see what was up with our poor van. {And we thought that we brought the GOOD car to MA!} We walked around a curve and the grocery store was the one that I had been to a couple of times (yea). We went in and got drinks and lunch from the deli counter and then went to sit on a bench outside the store for a little picnic. Jamie didn't like the wrap that he got, so I told him to try my chicken salad wrap. He did reluctantly, but his face quickly lit up and he said,"this is good." So I gave him half of my wrap, and we now know that Jamie likes chicken salad. After lunch, we walked back down to the service station and Mickey gave us the news that he wasn't absolutely sure what was causing it, but that the van was definitely running way hotter than it should be. He thinks that it's probably a bad thermostat. I told Mickey that I'd have to talk to my hubby and see what we wanted to do. He was fine with that and sent me on my way. Well, I thought I knew where I was going, but somehow I ended up turned around and in heavy traffic. With a car that was already beginning to overheat again. We had a very tense ride home, but we made it with the help of directions from the Tom Tom.
Then the kids and I just relaxed and watched a little PBS. I fell asleep on the couch with David in my lap - I guess the stress of the day wiped me out. Tim was through early at school, so we ate an early supper. Then we all went out to ride bikes. Rachel is getting pretty good on her two wheeler! Jamie and I rode up to his school. Not a bad ride at all! David and I went to the playground for a few minutes, while Jamie continued to ride around in the parking lot.
Tim went out to a gathering of the fellows at Diego's apartment (Diego is a real cutie from Argentina - I sat by him at the JFK Library dinner during orientation). The kids and I just chilled at home, glad to have this day behind us.