Our van, filled with two babies and a toddler, broke down on the freeway on the way home today. The transmission went nuts and the engine started overheating. We had to get off in American Fork and take refuge from the 102 degree heat in an Office Max. We were the only "customers" in the store, and they kept asking us if we were finding everything okay. I quit explaining we were actually just loitering after the second salesperson, and we kind of hid out in the office section on the comfy chairs. I bought a Dasani so we wouldn't be complete freeloaders.
So here's my concern: our plan of rescue. I called my mom and asked her to trade her car with my dad's van (luckily, he was just pulling up to the house) and come load it with all three car seats and all the boxes of crap we were transporting from their house (which we had just left) to our apartment. When she arrived, Zach would see if he could get the van back to his dad's auto shop in Sandy for a free diagnostic, at which point he would get a ride home from his mom. We utilized four parents to get out of that pickle- the exact number of parents that we don't have living in Ohio. Where we plan to move in exactly 25 days. 1,735 miles away.
So what? you say. You would have just called a tow truck, a mechanic, and a taxi. But a mechanic, and tow truck or taxi driver wouldn't have hunkered down on the floor of Office Max and helped me wrangle Mia and change her poopy diaper, simultaneously keeping hungry Bree's binki in her mouth, while Zach transferred our crap from the broken van to the good one. And the tow truck and taxi driver wouldn't have stayed with me when I got home to help feed all three kids (an hour late) and put them to bed while Zach took the car to the shop.
Without all four parents, today would have been messy. Not to mention the fact that we'd be hundreds of dollars in the hole.
Independence Day is going to be a month later for us this year. August 1st. I have a feeling August isn't going to be nearly as... convenient... as was July.
