Alternator Plans

For the first time in my life, I took the car and kids and drove towards Montreal. My brother lives in the outskirts and, although he bought a new house over a year ago, I had yet to set eyes on it. Normally, I am with J on any road trips. He likes driving. I like being a passenger. This particular morning, however, was different. J quit smoking. Well...this was his quit date. He had gone out after work the night before and, in a ritualistic manner incomprehensible to me, decided to say good bye to his vice by over doing it and indulging in excess. When I woke up in the morning, he was lying on the couch. Fetid fumes I once thought only existed in cartoons actually rose up from his non-Apollo like form. Staying home was not looking like a fun plan. I got the kids dressed. I packed up some pita bread and carrots. We jumped in the car and took off.

I haven't had much experience driving on heavy traffic highways. I've been doing more lately. Now that we live close to an on-ramp, it doesn't make much sense to avoid this route. It wasn't so bad. The kids travelled well. We made good time. Just as we arrived at my brother's exit, however, the check gauges light turned on on the dash. Hmmmm. This wasn't the first time this had happened so I wasn't too concerned. The last time it occured, I was informed by our mechanics that we should plan to bring the jeep in for a check up within a couple weeks but, not to worry too much unless the light started to flash.

Seeing my brother was nice. He's a bachelor. His house is a bachelor's house. Kids don't really fit in with the decor but, we managed the visit without anything getting broken. I decided that we would go out for lunch. Seemed safer. Driving to the restaurant, the gauge light would come on periodically and then go out again. It wasn't flashing tho' so we carried on. Driving away from the restaurant, I remembered that I had put the leftover pizza on top of the car. I stopped and had a look. No luck. I was seriously thinking of going back and looking for it. If I was with J, we would have. J's not known for pizza wasting. One look at my brother's face however was enough to dissuade me. We dropped him off and got on the highway again ready for home. A couple kilometers on the highway, I realized that we had left the kids hats in the restaurant. Oh well, I thought. No use going back.

As we were driving, I started to notice some disturbing things about the car. Was it my imagination or, were the windshield wipers disrupting the radio signal? I turned both off. Then, the dashboard lights began to fade. Oh crap. I had a sneaky feeling that if I stopped the car, it wouldn't start again. Ok. We were only 50km away from home. If I increased the speed, turned off all electrical extras and prayed, we should make it. I was beginning to feel a bit like Star Buck. Just then, my son, who was sitting directly behind me, began to choke. He and S had been munching on the carrots. Panic started to rise in me and then, just as quickly, the situation was somewhat resolved as A puked all over himself and the car seat. "I need a cloth!" he yelled. I told him that we were almost home and that I would clean him up then. He was a real trooper.

We managed to get into the city and, we were only had a couple exits left. We were going to make it! I turned off our exit and headed down the ramp. Oh No! There was a red light. No, it was ok, it just turned green. Thing is, the cars in front of us were slow to get started. I was forced to break just as I got down the ramp. The car then died. Kaput.

A couple of women stopped to ask us if we needed help. I met some more nice neighbours. One of them offered up her son's house in case it started raining. Very very nice. My son told her that he loved her. J came and we pushed the car to the curb and then walked home. I was a bit shaky buy, considering that we could have had the car die in the middle of the highway, we did quite well. I came back later and managed to get the car going enough to bring it home. I guess it had a bit of juice left in the battery after all.

Turns out it is the alternator. I hope that's it anyway. J is going out to buy one and hopefully will be able to swap it out this afternoon. At least, if J can stay a non smoker, we can afford break downs like this eh?