Car Issues

Happy Friday. Today it was cute watching Wes playing dinosaur with Peter, aww...

There was no school yesterday or today for the elementary kids and Wes because of fall break, so Sophi spent the day at Lagoon with her bff Kelsy.

They had a lot of fun!

Sophi didn't go with Wes, Abi, and Natalie a week ago (thing #4), so that works out fairly, and Lily is going on Oct 30th with her friend Isa, so it all works out, everyone got a turn. Well, except for the little boys, but we just won't let them know that they got gypped. 

Funny story - Like I said, it is fall break in Canyon's school district, so there was no school at Brighton this yesterday and today, so Wesley thought it would be fun to go to Skyline and do homework in the seminary building there and see old friends during lunch. So I took him early yesterday when I took Lily to jazz band. And he said he'd try to find a ride home, but he was not successful. As I was preparing to go get him, I thought I'd text Amy, who was picking up today, and tell her that I could pick up carpool, since I was headed out there anyway. She enthusiastically responded that that would be great! and "thanks!" so I headed out. I get Peter dressed in a jacket and we went to the garage. The sliding car door on the van opens but was a little erratic. I put P in his seat, and THEN I pushed close, but it just beeped at me. I tried again with the handle, and it beeped at me again. Try again - beep beep beep... try again, beep beep beep. Okaaaay... It appears that this door is not going to close. I went to the drivers seat to try that button. Nothing. I looked to see if anything was in the way, nothing. I pushed different buttons, nothing. It appears that this automatic door is not going to close. I couldn't do it manually either. I thought "Well, I cannot drive this car if the door is not closed." Hmm. When I was heading to the garage, I was leaving early. After 10 minutes of trying to fix it, I was now late. Peter was yelling at me for being a dork and not just closing the door "MOM!! Stop goofing around and LET'S GO!!" So I texted Amy, to whom I had offered to pick up for, and told her my dilemma. She replied back right away when I offered to pick up, but didn't see the messages this time. So after a few minutes, as I continued to try to close the door, I called her and let her know my situation. She said she could just go get them, but also said her son was not in carpool and I thought that was dumb for her to have to go pick up when her kid is not in carpool. I said I thought a neighbor Katie might not be in carpool - as her mom had just texted me that Katie was exposed to someone who tested positive for covid and might need to be quarantined. So maybe I will have room? Amy said to let her know and I prepared to go. I got Peter out of his carseat and took him back inside. I turned on a movie. I left Natalie in charge at home, and went in the small fiesta to go pick up Wes AND carpool. So I knew Amy's kid didn't need a ride, and had hopes that another one or two would be missing. When I got there, they all needed a ride, plus one kid that I forgot was in carpool, Amy's other kid! Oh yeah, sorry I forgot about you. Shoot...  so I was one passenger over the little Fiesta's car capacity. And now we also had to go pick up Wes... shoot. We picked up Wes, and he went in the trunk, which I realize is not legal, but I felt I was facing extenuating circumstances. And sure, it would probably be better to just have a few of them wait another 30 minutes and sacrifice another chunk of my time rather than put anyone's lives at risk, but I chose the latter and we took the slow non-freeway way home and the danger was over 15 minutes later. So that was my unexpected adventure curtesy of my van door being stupid and refusing to close.

Today, after taking morning carpool in Corey's car, I drove my van down to Burt Brothers with the side door wide open. It was windy and cold inside the vehicle. I got a dozen concerned stares and eyes following me as I passed by intersections, but I made it to the service shop without incident and didn't bother locking my car as I went inside. Corey followed me on my way there and said to let him know what they said and that he could take me home if I needed. I sent him a few voice messages - one saying that they said they'd need some time and that they'd let me know when they knew anything, and that I was just going to walk home. It's just a 3 mile walk. I haven't been on a walk in a long time (since I discovered the fun and speed of biking) so it might be good to get reacquainted with walking. But then I realized it was quite cold, and messaged him that I'd be ok if he wanted to pick me up. He didn't see either of those messages, so after walking a mile I deleted the messages and just kept walking home. I saw the sun rise over the mountain which was beautiful and it took me 44 minutes. Then I took Wes back to Skyline. 

Oh, so I took Wes in to Skyline again today, but when he got there at 7:30, the seminary building was locked and it looked like the school was closed. Hmm. If it was a day off of school, it seems like Churchill would be out of school too? So that was confusing and he decided to come back home, but first we took the bucket of vanilla ice cream and tray and a half of brownies that had been left on the seminary door step. Some kind soul left it for them, not knowing, like we didn't know, that there was no school today (so we thought). We went back home and Wes and Daniel and Peter had some brownies for breakfast. Wesley texted a Skyline friend asking if there was school today. "Yeah, but it's late start, duh!" Well Wes didn't know that, cause he doesn't go to Skyline, haha, so then we took the rest of the brownies back and went by the store to get a new tub of ice cream to replace the anonymous to the Seminary teachers. Sorry, our bad for taking it! We just didn't want it to go to waste!

Heard back from Burt Brothers about the problem with the door - the gear on the motor of the door that opens and closes it is stripped. The gear is faulty and Honda has made a new motor for the door, since this has been a problem with many Honda Odysseys. It will be $1000 plus to fix. But the new motor that it needs is on backorder until December. Or we can get it fixed with the faulty motor from a junk yard, but that will only save us $200-ish bucks, and then it will probably have the same problem in another year or so... I asked if there is any way they can close the door so we can use the car without it getting fixed yet. The told me they'd see and call me back. I was glad that I had the Fiesta to use while the van was getting fixed. And also speaking of the Fiesta, I just wanted to give myself a pat on the back for recording boring things here on the blog, like which tire it was that had a bulge it in in April before Joseph and Hyrum left for Philadelphia. Cause I noticed a tire with a bulge in it again today, but wasn't sure if it was the same tire, but if it was I knew it would be covered for free. But yay for me, I recorded on April 26, 2021 that it was the front left tire! Which is the same one that has a bulge this time, so woop woop, good job me for recording minute details of the logistics of our life. Sure, Burt Brothers probably has it in their records too, but I like going in already knowing the answer. 

Heard back again an hour later - They were able to close it by just cutting the cable to the door. So yay it closes! And now we can open and close it manually, but it's just heavy. But yay, that works, and I guess we'll decide by December if we want to get it fixed or if we'll save the $1000 bucks and just live with a manual door. I don't mind manual. I rode down on my bike to pick up Van, drove home, and after I got home, I remembered that I needed to take in the Feista for the tire bulge, haha, so then I drove that down again and Corey picked me up on his way home from work. Date night at India House, cause I wanted the butter chicken. We got both medium spicy and it wasn't too hot for me. And with that we'll call it a day.