SUMMER DAY 18, Tues June 16

Samuel went to day 2 of his basketball day camp today at 8:00 this morning. I dropped him off & then ran back home to quickly finish getting ready for work before the girls & I left about 8:35. Tomorrow morning will be a little different, however. You'll see...keep reading.

In the past few days, I've had a little bit of a struggle with the key fitting into the ignition in my van. It's the same key as always but when I go to start the car, it's like the ignition is stopped up or something. I can't get the key in but about 1/2 way. I've had to pull it in & out over and over and wiggle it back & forth to get it all the way in. And then everything's fine. It kind of feels the same way as the door locks on some of the older cars we've had where the lock gets "sticky" and you have to squirt some graphite powder into the lock to loosen things up again. I had forgotten to tell Larry about it until this morning. After getting the key to go into the ignition (finally!), I called him while I drove to work. He promised that he'd look at it this afternoon when he got home.

However, my van had other plans. When I got into the van after work, I had to do the key gymnastics to get the key into the ignition again, but this time the key wouldn't turn at all. It was like I had put the wrong key into the ignition & was trying to use it to start the car. I twisted & turned the key but was getting scared that I'd break the key off if I twisted any harder on it! I called my dad (our favorite mechanic!) to see if he had any idea of what to do. He gave me a few suggestions but nothing worked. We decided that I'd just have to call a tow truck. Before calling them, I tried to call Larry but got his voice mail. I called the lady who was babysitting Samuel & she offered to come get us & take us home. Considering that it was about 100 degrees outside, I took her up on the offer!

After I got home, Larry called me back. He was in town today so he would be free about an hour later so he said not to do anything until he could go look at the van himself. He got done about 4:30 & went to my school to check it out. After some serious jiggling & banging on the key (& probably a little praying, too!), he was able to get it cranked. He drove it home, picked me up & we went back so we could bring his truck home. During his drive to pick me up, he went ahead & called the dealership to see if they could replace the ignition switch/key part thingy tomorrow. They agreed to do it at 12:00. When we got back to the school, I asked him to turn off the key & take it out and show me what he'd done to make it work. Mr. Magic's trick didn't work the 2nd time around. Apparently he just got lucky the first go-round. And so, we finally gave up & called the dealership back, reported what had happened & asked for a tow truck recommendation.

We came home & Larry went back an hour or so later when the tow truck could come get the van. Joy oh joy. The tow truck folks gave us a reduced price b/c they contract w/ the dealership and they discount anyone who tows a vehicle to them to fix. Hopefully they'll get it fixed tomorrow & I'll have my van back!

But until then...we'll be hoofing it to Samuel's basketball camp. Thankfully our neighbhorhood is RIGHT BESIDE the parking lot to the school where the camp is held. It's less than a mile to the school so I'll just walk him over in the morning & then go back and get him a few hours later.

Silver lining? Built in exercise tomorrow!