The Results of Jesse's Car Work

Jesse had previously agreed to work on our van this past Saturday.  The weather would be nice, the van really needed it, and who wouldn't prefer to work on a car with beautiful sunny weather instead of chilly autumn rain?  Still, it took Jesse a long time to get up the motivation on Saturday.  I can't say I blame him.  I wouldn't choose to spend my free time working on a car, either.

But eventually, he did go out and get started.  He made a quick trip out to Sears to get a few things he needed, then came back home and fixed the thermostat in the van.  It was definitely the cause of our loss of heat - it was very obviously broken.  I love it when Jesse shows me the bad parts he removes from our vehicles!  I was also happy to hear that it was such a cheap part - only about $3.00!!  And easy to access, right at the top under the hood.  In fact, the thing that took him the most time was just trying to remove the thermostat - it was stuck pretty tight to another piece, and we couldn't find our sandpaper.  He eventually went at it with a knife.  It worked.  And then putting in the new thermostat took just a couple minutes.

He came inside, cleaned up, and looked like he was finished.  I asked him, "Did you already do the spark plugs, too?"  (Translation:  Hey hon, I'm so glad you fixed the heat in my car on this beautiful 70-degree day, but wasn't it the car dying repeatedly that was our main cause for concern, here?  Why does it look like you're not going to work on that today?)  He didn't, he admitted.  I reminded him that the spark plugs were the whole point of working on the car, and he hemmed and hawed about it.  Technically, according to lease terms, he's not supposed to do car work in the parking lot (ridiculous rules, oh how I hate them!).  So he was feeling like he didn't know what to do - he could take the van over to his work parking lot and work on it there, and also have access to extra tools at work, but then, he said, he'd have to wait for the engine to cool down first.  I told him he ought to just work in our parking lot, since I very much doubted that anyone would actually tell Jesse to stop working on the car that day.  But finally, he groaned and went to it, deciding to just go over to work.

And when he got there, he gave me a call.  Once he arrived at work and was about to grab some tools, he noticed a broken window in his boss's office.  He ended up having to call the police, wait for them to arrive, give a report, and then wait for one of the head honchos at work to arrive and help him board up the broken window.  (Apparently, Jesse's boss left his laptop on his desk in clear view of the window, and then didn't even close the blinds before he left - so someone walking by could see an easy target.  Yikes.)  So, despite Jesse's intentions, the spark plugs still weren't taken care of this weekend.

But the heat works, and very nicely, I might add!  It warmed up my feet quite well on our way to church on Sunday. 

Jesse says he'll try and work on those spark plugs ASAP.  We have a great forecast ahead of us, with nothing but gorgeous weather for October.  Sorry to make some of you jealous... but, just have a look!!! 

This is for this week!!  Mid-October!!!  Yup, definitely prime time to work on a car.  Only, I do have to gripe just a little bit.  Without a frost, autumn colors disappoint just a little bit.  There are a few trees here and there with really vibrant, gorgeous colors, but the majority of trees are still green and just starting to loose leaves a little bit at a time, going just a dull brown before they fall.  I would really like to see a good frost so all the trees can change at once, and autumn can be really spectacular.  Warm weather just doesn't make for really awesome autumn scenery.  Still... it is awfully nice to put off the warm jackets and constant bundling up for a little while longer.