This Week's Adventures

I can't believe almost a week has gone by since I was last here!  Sorry about that.

I thought about it yesterday in the car, on our way back from Chicago.  I'm going to make up for it by posting something every single day next week.  Even if it's only a picture or a quote.  Every day there will be something new out here.

So yes, we just returned from a trip to see Dr. Berry Kravis at RUSH for the STX209 trial extension.  Getting ready to go on this trip required a bit more prep than the others did - and it had nothing to do with the trial or the boys.  It was the car.

My van has 151-something thousand miles on it and I intend to bring it to 300.  It's been a real trooper, taking us to Grandma & Grandpa's house dozens of times through the years, to Madison to visit the Waisman Center a couple of times, and to Chicago (825 miles or so, round trip) five times in the past six months.

So lately, once in awhile, my old, trusty van gets close to overheating, without actually overheating.  The gage goes up, very close to the H, and then goes back down to normal.

A few days before our trip, however, it ventured all the way up to the H and lit up, and gently dinged.  A very polite warning that the engine is way too warm and the car might blow up or something.

Luckily I had an oil change appointment on Tuesday and I told Joe, our faithful car fixer guy, about the red H and the overheating.  He looked very worried.  He knew we were due to drive to Chicago this week.

Sure enough, he came back into the waiting room after hoisting the van up to check out it's underparts and said it was bad, very very bad.  He used other car-part terms and motor fixer-mumbo jumbo words I can't recall.  What I remember is the way he looked sad, and shook his head, and said I should talk to Mark about whether it's even worth fixing.

Sheesh.

I should mention that we love Joe and we trust him completely.

Of course we're going to fix my van.  But first things first - how were we going to get to Chicago?  Mark's car is quite a bit older and has quite a few more miles on it than mine does - we didn't feel comfortable piling the kids in it and driving across a couple of states.

So, as it turns out, my parents are at their winter place in Galveston at the moment.  And my dad's car is waiting patiently in their garage for someone to come drive it.

I'm just that driver.

It just required a trip to my parents' house to get the car - a 180 mile round trip - and luckily my father in law came to the rescue earlier this week, and drove me there.  Thank God for close and supportive family!

So the five of us drove 825 miles to Chicago and back this week, in my dad's considerably-smaller-than-a-minivan but functional-and-trustworthy car.  It was a cozy, tight trip but we got through it with no bigger trouble than a few cramped, sore legs.

More on the trial and how things are going with the boys (great, by the way), later.  Have to get ready to go have coffee with some Fragile X parent friends!