Plan C

I am starting to feel like my trip to CA and summer plans are going to exhaust the alphabet. Craziness in Las Vegas, but not in the typical Vegas fashion. Last week, Adam was getting ready for his trip to TX for the 2 weeks of training and taking care of deployment stuff, (more on THAT later). I had hoped to get over to the Honda dealer and get the oil changed while he was still here, to spare taking the kids and chasing Rowan around the dealership. That didn't happen, so I took it in on Tuesday of this week with Adelle & kids in tow. I thought at least Adelle and I could take turns chasing Rowan, which we did. I noticed something was leaking from the car recently, but thought it was water from the A/C. WRONG! It was the transmission fluid and apparently a lot of it. Ummm, we are supposed to leave the following day to go to CA. The mechanic said he didn't even feel comfortable if I drove the car back to my house. Uh oh. They kept the car, (all still under warranty), to repair or possibly replace it. I left with a rental car that Hertz promised to be a minivan, but ended up being a Camry, which barely fits the 3 kids in the back. I was getting ready to refuse the rental car and just have the shuttle take us home, but the kids were hungry, grumpy, and tired, as we had already been there for nearly 3 hours and would have to wait for the shuttle to return; you see how this is going. I took the free crappy Hertz rental and went home.

Fortunately, (sort of any way), Adam is out of town, so his car is available to us. We can squish more comfortably in the 4Runner than a Camry. Then I had to transfer all the car seats, again, parked the rental in the driveway and will use it to take myself back to Honda to pick up the van. So, the crappy rental will prove itself useful in the end, but it didn't seem that way when I got it. And I was livid to even have wasted my time on the damn thing. Honda was very embarrassed, but what can they do? They just pay for the rental and I certainly appreciated the gesture.

Back to the van. They ordered some parts for it, hoping to get lucky and fix the seals, as nothing looked wrong with the actual transmission. With any luck, it would be fixed today, (Wednesday), and we would be back in business to drive to CA in the van on Thursday. Do you hear those screeching brakes again? Oh yeah, that's right, Aimee & the gang no go to CA on Thursday. The transmission is still leaking like new breastfeeding boobies, (my description, not Honda's!!), with all the seals replaced. That means the van is getting a new transmission. This apparently is ordered and hopefully will be shipped overnight so the mechanic can put it in first thing Thursday and hopefully be ready with no leaking to drive on Friday to CA to be there for the party on Saturday.

Now I have to think, what if the transmission doesn't get there overnight? Do I leave on Saturday? At that point, Adam will be home in five days, do I even go at all? As Jess pointed out yesterday while I was complaining/venting, are all signs pointing to not going to CA? I am not sure.

In the meantime, I have no food in the house; we've been eating out or picking up milk and bread here and there. Adelle is here and only packed a few outfits b/c she didn't need much more. I know, she can do laundry, fortunately we are not out of detergent! And tomorrow our house in FL will be inspected b/c the old tenants are out, so at least I'll be here and can speak to the agent if she calls with bad news. What I am really hoping is that all the bad news stays here in Vegas and that the FL house will be in great, move in ready condition for our new tenants. Holy cow, if something is wrong there I might just need a new transmission, (well maybe liver), myself. I am not sure how much more bad news I can take! Maybe Plan C should be a beach in Hawaii and a great spa???? Now that is a plan I could get on board with!