The Tale of the Bad Car Karma

Sigh… it all started on Saturday, September 10. The kids and I were due down at the Kenmore Live Studios for them to shoot a promo video for the new line of Kenmore kids products called My First Kenmore. The video was going to air during my BlogaDelicious event on Friday, September 16th. We live just about 40 miles from the studio. We made it about 4 miles from the place and my van started smoking! I was close to an exit so I pulled off the expressway, turned the car off, and looked under the hood. I could not immediately see what the problem was, but we were not in the best area. Since we were so close, I made the decision to get back on the road and make it to Kenmore because we would be in an area that I know, and I would be able to hang out for a bit if we needed to wait for a ride. And, I did not want my kids to miss the shoot. We got there without much incident.

I called T to come and meet us. The smoking was very dramatic, but the actual problem was not quite that dramatic. He was able to assess right away that my car was spewing coolant which is what we suspected. I did not notice when I looked because it only happened when the car was running. There was like a razor slit in the top of the heater bypass hose (we had to look up the name). Coolant was spraying out on everything under the hood. So, when it hit the engine and other hot parts it would heat up and burn off, which was what was causing the smoke. As long as we could keep the coolant in in some way, we were good. But to passersby it was bad. I was getting the “OMG your car is on fire!!!!” look.

We can skip all the other things that occurred, in short it involved duct tape and sealant, etc. just to be able to get the car to… let’s fast forward to Thursday. I had an appointment to get the car fixed. $305 dollars later… it was good. Or, so I thought. Fast Forward to Friday, the day of my event. It all went OK. But remember that video that my kids made which was going to be super cute??? Well.. it did not air due to technical difficulties!! They did not get their 15 minutes of fame. AT.ALL. Ugh! More on that event later…

Move on to the next day, Saturday, September 17. I was scheduled to speak on a panel at the Microsoft Store with 3 other ladies for the Bump Club & Beyond Event for moms and moms-to-be. I was very excited! MS had sent me a bunch of gadgets to test out. I had my speech ready, and I was set to go! The kids and I got dressed. We were actually going to be early!!!!

I hit the expressway, and before I made it to the next exit my car pings at H (high) and starts beeping wildly at me. I am thinking “oh no.. what the hell??” Luckily, the next exit is where my dealer is located. So, I decided to keep going and make it there. It was no more than 1.5 miles. I pull in and explained the issue. I tell them that I am in a hurry because I have to be in Oak Brook (approx 40 miles away) very soon! Well, it was Saturday, so they were very busy. They did get me in fast, and they fixed the issue which was a clamp that was not seated correctly which caused all of the coolant to leak out of the bottom of the car thereby overheating the engine. Ugh! But, I missed my panel! I was SOOOO bummed. I am working on a post on what I WAS going to say, which I will post soon. We did go out anyway (I was trying to make it!)

After leaving there we headed to Whole Foods which was fairly incident free. Then we hit Aldi close to home for a few more items. Kristopher asked if he could hold the milk when we were checking out. I said “sure” because this is usually not a problem. Well this time??? HE DROPPED IT!! On the floor in front of the store. It busted all over. Sigh…

We get out of there, and we make it home. Jayden comes to me and says “Mommy, the fish is floating upside down!” They have said this before and it was usually the fish just swimming around crazy. But this time? One of our gold fish was indeed dead! No clue why. And yes, I know it was a gold fish. But, they seemed to be doing very well. We have had them for quite a while. So following that was the fish funeral (think Cosby Show) in the bathroom.

And that night? Well… I will just say that it did not go as expected either!

On Sunday I refused to leave my house!!!! LOL!

Whew…