Not ten minutes after I published my last post (http://kidneedsakidney.blogspot.com/2012/12/night-off.html) I got a call from Hubby.
"I'm in the rest area. And Rhonda is dead."
Less than one week ago our mechanic put a SECOND new alternator in. We had no problem on the four-hundred-mile round trip to my Dad's, or on the week's worth of running around since then. Hubby didn't notice any problems, but Babygirl needed a potty break. And just as he pulled off the highway, electrical stuff started fading out. Radio. Heat flow. Lights. Turn signal. All symptoms he's now familiar with because I've described them to him. Twice.
He managed to get Rhonda to a legal parking place, and was unable to get her restarted.
I was still at work when he called. I had to announce the problem, set people to rescheduling today's patients, finish all the paperwork I could and run. Somewhere along the way I realized I needed to find someone to care for the dog. One of my best friends, along with Babygirl's best friend and our usual dog-watcher, had just that day packed up and moved away to Florida. JuJuBee has no phone, so that left Curlygirl, who, bless her, packed up Squeaker, herself, and all her laundry and climbed into the big Green Goose van and came to spend the night.
From the time of Hubby's call to my departure from home: Ninety minutes. No time available for the good cry I truly, truly needed.
We left the Honda at the rest stop, and traveled on to my Sis-in-law's house, discussing options all the way. We got Babygirl to the doctor this morning (kidney is doing well, liver is not at all happy with the amount of Tylenol she's been using for the headaches, no new suggestions for what to do about them except to use LESS Tylenol) and returned to our home base (through the worst traffic we've dealt with in Philly so far EVER) to see what we could do about the car.
My plan was elegantly simple. I called uHaul and asked if we could rent a towing system, so the Goose could pull Rhonda home. The simple answer is "yes, we have that equipment for $50." The complicated answer was that they wouldn't rent it to US because the Goose is not powerful enough (per their standard rules) to tow Rhonda without risk to our transmission. Renting one of their trucks plus the towing system was over $250. Having Rhonda towed home was $480. Towing her somewhere local for repair was $80.
By the time we met up with the tow truck it was nearly four o'clock. We were ninety miles from home and had to get to the pharmacy by six without fail to pick up new medications. And Babygirl had a headache so bad she wanted to throw up.
We're home. We had KFC for dinner, again, and Hubby is taking Curlygirl, Squeaker, and her 683 pounds of clean laundry home. I'm not actually sure where Rhonda is, what's wrong with her, how much it'll cost to fix her, how we'll get her home when she's repaired or whether or not we'll keep her when she's fixed.
The only good part of this story is that I got to have a drink last night with my best friend and my Hubby. But as my sister-in-law so eloquently said while we were having our drinks, "I'm SICK of making lemonade."
Yup. Enough with the freakin' lemons.
DeeDee
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