Okay, so this past two weeks I’ve been using a borrowed car because my car (Gemma)’s alternator is on the fritz. We got a new battery and then found out it was the alternator. I cling to the fact that the battery was at least four years old, so needed trading out anyway…but STILL more than a little annoying.
D’s car was in the shop since last Friday, because we needed it looked at because we thought the brake line and the a/c were out. Turns out the battery acid in the Hulk had eaten through the a/c hose, and that was going to be between $300 and $500 to fix, depending on if John (our mechanic) had to take apart the condensor or not to fix it. So, we told him to hold off on that ’cause hubbie doesn’t use his car that much, and provided we got the alternator fixed my car would service fine, and that should be much less, because D and his Dad were pretty sure they could fix the alternator if we could just buy a new one.

So, this morning we pick up Hulk from John’s and I go get my car…which then proceeds to die not ten minutes down the road…I manage to coast into the parking lot of an auto parts store on the highway…oh, the IRONY, and then baby and I (joy) are trapped there for a while until hubbie and his Dad can come rescue us. The auto parts store people were kind of at a loss as to what to do with frantic mother and screaming baby, but thankfully understood me enough to hand over their phone so I could call and let hubbie know why we were not at his parents house when he got there. I have TWO cell phones right now because I can’t cancel Verizon until next week otherwise I will be charged $300 for the privilege, and I forgot BOTH of them at home.
The next round of amusement came when I realized that part of the reason Declan was so cranky was not just because he was overheated and therefore puked all over me, but he also needed changing and they, of course, had nowhere for me to do this.
When hubbie and his Dad arrived they were putting paper towels down on a cart they had to wheel parts around on, and letting me change him on there.
FIL took us home, and hubbie stayed to get the battery re-charged and buy the alternator.

D and his Dad tried for an hour and a half to change out the alternator, which on his old car was a twenty-thirty minute job…and now the car won’t even turn-over. This means tomorrow we’re getting it towed from the ILs house to John’s and we’ll pay him to put the alternator on.

So, then we had to drive home in hubbie’s car which has no a/c and at 5 p.m. in FL it is NOT COLD…it was ooh, about 90, and half the windows won’t roll down in the Hulk, so Declan was very, very hot, and very, very cranky when we got home. He’s just now settled down. I’m lucky I didn’t get puked all over again.