Day 21: Watching And Waiting

MONDAY. 12:30 PM. No car today. The shop sent the Caravan to a transmission shop this morning. Now the transmission guys have to drive the car around to replicate the problem. No word yet, and it's afternoon. Keep driving, boys. We'd like to rent a car, but can't until the problem is diagnosed and approved by the warranty company. If we rent one before the repair is approved, the rental isn't covered. So here we sit, watching and waiting. Watching Murphy sleep, watching the wind blow dust outside our room, watching a banana turn brown, watching our funds dwindle...waiting for news about the car, waiting for housekeeping to give us clean towels, waiting for email, waiting for Godot.

They say it may take a week for the transmission work to be completed.

5 PM. The car was returned to us mid-afternoon after United Transmission was unable to find anything wrong. They took it out for two test drives and found nothing. Zip. Nada. Reluctantly we picked up the car, tried to figure out our next move, and decided to speak once more with the friendly folks at United Transmission. They suggested the problem we described was not the transmission, but the CV joint. After running a few essential banking and shopping errands, we returned the car to Arrow Automotive with a mandate to check the CV joint.

Less than an hour later Jim called with news of a broken motor mount, which can be easily fixed tomorrow, and for a very reasonable price. They said this is what caused the erratic clunking. It makes perfect sense.

We're hoping they find nothing more, but it would be nice to get a new blower motor for the A/C so we don't have to drive 2200 miles with an annoying squeal. The squeal, like everything else in this car, is intermittent, so I sincerely hope the fan misbehaves and sings loudly for them when they troubleshoot the A/C.

Enough car drama for one day. I wish there were more to report and apologize for a boring blog entry. Things like this try my patience, but in the end everything always works out. I'm releasing expectations and embracing the moment as we drift from today into tomorrow, which will surely be a wonderful day.

7:30 PM. This is what happens in Albuquerque during monsoon season in the late afternoon/early evening. The wind is blowing at 40-50 mph, there's thunder from the east, the sky looks like the end of the world, and if you're lucky you feel 6 drops of rain. But that's it. At least it's breaking up the monotony of several days in this hotel room.


7:45 PM. Eureka! It's raining! Real hard rain! I vowed that I would make it while I was here. I guess that dance paid off. I made it rain! I made it rain!

8:30 PM. Rain's stopped, but the wind is still blowing around 45 mph. An amazing rainbow appeared over the Sandias, and this is what it looked like to the west.