More insanity than usual!

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. It’s been totally nuts around here! More so than usual! I’ve been stuck in an elevator twice! And thought my van was burning up with me in it! Appointments every day between me and Mary, my nephews wedding, on Halloween no less! Never a dull moment! Where to start?…

Since my last posting on the 26th we spent the last few days before Halloween going to Dr. appointments and getting ready for our nephews wedding. They were wed on Halloween, which fell on a Saturday. Ok, The church that they held it at even has an elevator. We explained our situation to them ahead of time as far as needing a spot to park where I could let my ramp down to get out of my van and they said no problem, they would save me a spot. They wanted us to DJ for the reception so they set everything up the night before and when we did sound checks, only half the sound system was working! We spent several hours sorting that out that night and the day of the wedding, but we got it! So, we arrived for the wedding and sure enough, the spot they had reserved for us worked out beautifully! We’re thinking we’ve got it made! They’ve got an elevator, what could possibly go wrong, right? Does my luck ever run like this? NOT! Read on.

So they open the door to the elevator. It’s a tight fit but we make it. Ok, nothing unusual so far. The pastor, who I learned is the father of the bride is in there with me. Now picture this, my toes are mashed against the gate in front of me, we had to take the bag off the back of my chair to shut the gate behind me, which is tight against the back of my chair. The pastor is standing between my footplates, running the elevator. He puts the key in, presses the up button, and we’re off. So far, so good.

About ½ way up, the elevator just dies! nothing! He’s turning the key, pushing buttons, checking the gates, but nothing. After a couple minutes he says to me “we’re not over the weight limit are we 750 pounds?” I said “you’re not but I am.” as I picture us crashing into the basement. After several tense minuets he got it going again and we made it up!

The wedding was beautiful and then it was time for the ride down. Once again we just barely fit and once again the pastor stood between my feet. And once again it quit ½ way down! The pastor messed around with it as visions of crashing to the basement or having to call 911 and have them pry us out flashed in my head. Finally he got it going though and we exited at ground level. I was sure glad to be on the ground again!
After that we went to the reception and did the DJ thing until the wee hours. Needless to say we slept in Sunday. But we awoke to a cold house. Oh great! The furnace is out! On a Sunday! Several phone calls and $120 later we had it fixed and had heat! And just to keep life interesting, we had appointments every day for the next week.

Then there was my trip to Des Moines Saturday the 7th. I’m trying to get qualified for weight loss surgery. In order to do that the Dr. said I (along with all the other B.S. that I had to do) had to attend 1 of his support group meetings, But they only meet once a month, in West Des Moines, at 10 am. So I made arrangements to get up at 5:30 so I’d be ready to go out the door by 7:00am. At 7am. We got in the van, (Mary’s having to use the tie downs to hold my new chair in as they haven’t got me in to put the ezlock on it yet) and drove the 95 miles to the place they were having it in West Des Moines. I could have left the house at maybe 7:30 and still been ok for time, but as I’d never been there, I allowed myself some extra time.

At any rate, just as I exited the freeway I smelled oil burning. I’ve spent enough time around cars that I know that smell! I commented to my wife that it smelled like someone around us was burning oil. Not thinking too much about it, we made our left turn and drove down the street a ways. Now the smell had changed. It smelled like wiring burning. I told Mary “I sure hope that isn’t us!” as we rolled up to the stoplight. Just as we stopped, I saw a poof of white smoke come out from under the hood! Oh S#!% that IS us!” So here I am, tied into a van, that’s possibly on fire, 90 some miles from home, in the middle of Des Moines! Wonderful! Thankfully the place we were going was only a couple blocks from there. We whipped into the first space available. Mary released my tie downs and we proceeded to look for the cause and assess the damage. When we opened the hood… Everything looked fine! No burnt wiring, no oil leaks, no signs of any damage at all! When we checked the oil, it was full. So, we proceeded inside to sit through the support group. When we came outside on break, we noticed that someone had parked in the striped no parking area beside my van. And naturally they were the last people to leave, which meant we got to hang around for nearly an hour after the “support group” was over, in a strange town, where we knew no one, 90+ miles from home, with a van that might not get us there! What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon! Yea!

Long story short we got home without further incident. We spoke with our local repair shop Monday. Their best guess was the air conditioner clutch. On some vehicles the air conditioner runs with the defroster to take moisture out of the air. We still don’t know. At least if that’s the case we won’t have to worry about it till spring.

What’s next? Little Jacob’s baby shower was the following day. A good time was had by all. Little Jacob got some nice gifts, Grandpa (me) got to spend some time with some of the other grandkids! We had a blast!

And it’s appointments every day this week as well. Allergy testing, Dr. appointments, and an appointment to get my ezlock on my new chair! Finally!