fabric

Something for your reading pleasure.

I pick up the 8 month old son from daycare. He had been runninng a low-grade fever in the morning and for most of the day, so I double check when I get home. It's 103F! Call the doctor's office, they say fine to give him some infant's tylenol. Only problem, turns out it's all gone. Wife is working late and won't get out soon, so I have to take the 928 out. It's like 10F out and I haven't driven it since the weekend, and it's covered in snow and the child seat isn't ready to go, but the kid was really wailing so I want to get this stuff. Car barely starts, but it gets going, and I turn the lights on, and they make kinda a crunking noise and don't go all the way up. Oh sh*t, I just put a hole through my radiator! I'm thinking. Something broke because it was cold or ice was jamming it, somethinng. I put the lights back to off, and they go down, and I'm thinking, well, that's a good sign, if the arm dislodged into the radiator,they wouldn't move. So I just put them in park, and use the foglights.

Walgreens is out of infants tylenol. Go to grocery store, and I think I get the right stuff, but it's child's tylenol, and I'm not about to try to guess the right doses, so I'm off to another Walgreens, they have what I need. I'm mildly pissed because I'm thinking the wife shoudl have noticed we were out of tylenol the last time she used it. I finally get home, after having brought an extra set of keys so I could just leave the car running since I wasn't really driving all that far, and after I get the boy inside, I decide I'll just double check the radiator. Holy sh*t, I did put a hole in my radiator! Theres liquid that squirted out and I can see the metal piece jammed in there. I close the hood and storm back into the house. Now I"m pissed, wife still isn't home so I call her cell and blow my top, I've just thrown out $1K because she couldn't let me know we were out and the poor kid has been miserable because I've had to go to 3 stores. I"m pretty steamed.

For whatever reason, I decide I'll go back out and do a closer survey of the damage. Well, there's really no liquid on the radiator. I look closer. I was just looking at the drivers side metal support that's built into the radiator. The connecting arm for the headlights is fine, both c clips are there, the liquid was just water that had been frozen after snow melted at the front of the hood and had a bit of melted water on the surface to make it look wet. Since I saw this thing that appeared to be in the radiator, I just didn't even bother too look that close. THe car is outside and I just have a flashlight, and I was just a little insane from what I thought I saw.

So I call the wife, apologize profusely, and sigh a huge sigh of relief. IN hindsight I probably should have checked the lights immediately after I thought I hosed myself, but I wanted to get the tylenol and did figure they wouldn't work at all if the arm is disconnected.

Anyway, that was my evening.

auzivision

Wow, rough evening. I find myself going from zero to 100 back to zero more often and that's not from driving a 928. I think it comes with age. Now that you know that everything is okay... take a peek at your wife, kids, and car and reminisce about how good life has really been to you.

Bill Ball

How's your son doing?

heinrich

btdt

fabric

He's doing good, thanks for asking! For about the last hour he's been much happier, cooler to the touch, and actually babbling and playing with a paper plate while in his swing. I actually just had him plopped in my lap for a few minutes and he banged out several "sentences," but he must not have liked what he wrote because he closed the browser before I could submit the post for posterity.

All things considered, he wasn't in terribly bad shape, but it was just one of those evenings where everything was conspiring against, well, both of us, I guess. But in the end everything worked out. It's tough watching your kid when he's unhappy and you can't really tell him he'll be fine, and then it's frustrating when what should be a simple task ends up taking you a lot longer while you have your sick kid looking helplessly at you.

edit- I forgot to mention that I did in fact give him the tylenol just as soon as I got into the car after leaving the store, and didn't drive home and check out my car before taking care of him. I did leave that bit out, don't need you all wondering if perhaps I'm a derelict dad.