The Beat Goes On...

Remember that song? Sonny and Cher. Anyway, that's random, not what I came on for.

My oldest daughter came home yesterday with the drive belt to her truck in her hand and said, "Look what happened Mom!" Geez! I'm very sorry to say that I never taught my oldest about anything mechanical. She heard a noise in her engine, the day before yesterday and then decided yesterday that she would maybe need oil in it. Two minutes before the belt blew off. Umm, yeah, oil. She had called me from her cell phone and asked me if we had oil. Well, not being the mechanical daughter, I'm thinking cooking oil. So, I went and looked in the cupboard and sure enough, we had oil. I told her we have a little olive oil left, but if she was doing something big, she might want to pick up some more. She just laughed at me. (What are mothers for anyway?) Then explained which oil she really wanted. Two, three minutes later, is when she walked in with the belt. So, I had her call the local parts people, and they had the belt we needed. We ran up and got one. Came home and between the daughter, her boyfriend and I managed to change that sucker out. BUT, we couldn't get the tensioner to work right. So, I went to work this morning, did what absolutely had to be done and then went to buy a new tensioner for it. That was not an easy thing to get put on with the belt in the right place. So, the boyfriend calls his dad, and the dad comes over, can't make it work, so he calls another friend who KNOWS what he's doing and we get the belt back on. YAY!!!! We started that baby up and OMG! what a racket it made. Something else isn't right. We studied it for a while (a long while). Turns out that the bearing had gone out in her alternator, making the belt do some funny stuff and in turn snapping, and breaking the tensioner. (The tensioner is a fragile part), So maybe tomorrow, I will pick up an alternator, and get her back on the road. I took her to work tonight, and will pick her up, but she has school in the morning for finals. I told her she'd have to get on the phone and make some arrangements or take the bus, because I can't afford another day off work!

I said the beat goes on, because, EVERY Christmas one of our cars breaks down. EVERY Christmas. So, we're on schedule people! It is the Holiday Season, and I have not been left out, nope not at all. It's all good. We have the money to fix it. Thanks to being gifted money from my dad. My daughter feels bad about that, but I said what the hay! You need your car, we have the money...It's all good! My resolution for next year is going to be...I am joining a Christmas Club at my bank, so when a car breaks down we have something other than Christmas gift money to fix it. I had plans for the money. The plan will still go into effect, it will just take longer. Who cares? I have way more time than money.