Fixing broken things

This afternoon I got a worried call from Emily telling me the steering was really getting tough on our Isuzu Rodeo. She thought the tires were flat, but none seemed any flatter than another. She was picking up Bryan and Bradley from school, and had our nieces Rachael and Becky in the car too. She had one of the teachers look at it and it turns our our power steering belt was holding on by a thread!

Fortunately we have AAA so we had it towed up to Goodyear and they had it fixed in no time for only $58. Dealing with all of that took Emily all afternoon.

On a different note, I stopped to help a young man with an overheating problem on the way home today. A fitting had cracked off his engine block and he was losing all his coolant. All he had was a tire repair kit which wasn't helping much. I had some duct tape, so we used it to bind up the hole as best we could and refilled his radiator. We were next to Waikele, and he just had to get to Mililani, but that meant driving in... the gulch! (Music: Dum Dum dum...a misty fog rises from the ground, eerily lit from below)

(Read slowly:) Yes, the Gulch of Doom, the Canyon of Never Ending Darkness, The Black Hole... It is in a depression (difficult cell coverage), it has no shoulder or sidewalks (no place to pull over out of the road), it has blind turns and no street lights when it gets dark. It is The Pass That Time Forgot!

OK, OK, enough of that. (Rich waves hand dissipating misty fog). We got rolling, and I followed him into the gulch. A little trail of water was being left by his car. Not good. We got past the worst possible place to stall, but then he pulled over in the only place that had a little bit of room for both of us. He hopped out and started refilling his radiator. I mostly kept an eye on traffic. After a long second refill, we were off again and soon out of the gulch. We shared a wave and a shaka as we parted ways. I hope he can get that fixed tonight. He needs it to drive to work tomorrow.

When I finally got home, Bradley was having a meltdown about his spelling. After arriving home late, and then having to deal with Bradley and his relationship with everyone else in the house (he had gotten everyone angry with him), it was clear we were not gonna make it to our Bible study, Wananada Wednesdays. Even though we missed small group, we did have a good time at home of reconciliation and forgiveness,...and then study. Tomorrow is the kids' last day before Spring Break, so they each have 5 or 6 tests to take. We studied spelling and Mayan history for nearly 2 hours until we were all so, so tired.

Peace, Love and Repairs,

Rich