No Gardens today

This morning Violet, the Super Grandparents and I headed out for the Chicago Botanic Gardens. We got about 8 miles from home when the Oil Pressure light came on and the car slowed down and stopped. Luckily I was able to pull into the parking lot (across 3 lanes of traffic) of a self-storage place. We checked the oil, the level was fine. We waited and try to start the car again. It almost turned over once, then nothing.

Sigh. Time to call AAA. Grab the cell phone. None of us had a cell phone. No problem, we have OnStar. Push the OnStar button. Nothing happens. Does OnStar need power to work? Head into the self-storage office to ask to use the phone. The lady was pretty skeptical at first, but grew quite sympathetic as the call went on.

Mr. Incredible had taken the car in to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and new oil and gas filters Sunday morning. As the car sat in the parking lot leaking gas, we suspected they did something wrong.

AAA helped me arrange for a tow truck. But since the tow truck could only carry at most 2 passengers and we had 4, they also helped me arrange a cab. There aren't many cab companies in our area, so that was unusual. The other choice was a rental car, I wasn't ready to commit to that just yet. I just wanted to get Violet and Super Grandma back home safely.

Super Grandpa rode in the cab with them back to our house where their car was parked. I figured Super Grandpa might have to come get me at the car place if need be, and if I could find a phone to use. I waited for the tow truck and watched him load it on the back of the truck, then we chatted on the way to their shop. (His wife is expecting their first baby any minute now so he jumped when his cell phone rang. Not her. That was good, I didn't want to be ditched just so she could go to the hospital! I mean really! LOL)

Back at the repair shop it took about 10 minutes to fix it. Jiffy Lube didn't reattach the fuel hose correctly. Sounds like I was lucky they didn't break it all the way off. The Good Guys put on their invoice that it was incorrectly attached by Jiffy Lube, Mr. Incredible will be making a trip over there when he gets home tonight. He's already called.

Course my fun wasn't completely over yet. My bill was $89 for an hour of service. I had some cash but no checkbook. They charge an additional $10 for credit card payments. I gave them the $60 I had, they kept a copy of my driver's license and let me get more money. I went to the bank rather than all the way home. Thought I'd get money with my ATM card. My ATM card had expired. Back home (about a 10 minute drive, I had had AAA find me a place near our house in case it involved more than just a quick fix). Super Grandpa rode with me and we paid off the bill. Now to figure out how to get a new ATM card.

Don't get me wrong. I've spent most of the day saying how it could have been so much worse. We might not have been safely off the road in a parking lot. We might have been much farther from home. It could have been raining (that didn't start until this afternoon). We could have had non-refundable tickets somewhere. The lady might not have let us use her phone (I called the business back after we were home, and got the answering machine and left a message thanking her. Had I been the one in the office I would have been curious if the people made it back or not. She might not have cared.)

Perhaps we'll go to the Gardens another day. Maybe not. We're thinking about an Arboretum in Rockford instead. Not sure we want to try this again any time soon.