On Friday I turned into a teenager again...

... and not in a good way!

When I was growing up we had a succession of rubbish cars. I got to be quite good at ignoring stares and hoots while I helped my Dad with yet another jump-start. For a time in my high school years we had a car with a fan belt that sounded like a wailing banshee, and as a real kicker the springs in the driver's seat had gone, so when my Mum was driving you couldn't actually see her above the steering wheel. My friends would wait at the school gate to see the sight as we drove in most mornings.

On Friday, on the way to school, the car started making a funny noise. On the way home from school, it started losing which gear it was in. Then when I stopped at a red light it wouldn't start again - and I stopped at every single light on the four miles between school and home. It would wait about five seconds and then shoot forward with mighty internal grindings. By this time I was beginning to realise that things were not good. By the time I was half way home I had pulled into two sub-divisions and parked and seriously contemplated walking the two and a half miles home with Ellie.

The thought of that persuaded me to keep going, which may or may not have been a good idea. By the time I was within a mile of home I couldn't get it to go above 10 miles an hour, and it required frequent stops, parkings, and turnings on again to keep going. Imagine me pootling along one of the main roads through town during morning rush hour at 10mph. Not fun. I felt like a teenager again, covered in shame that I was once again the one in the crappy car.

We did actually make it home (prayers are answered! Especially the truly desperate prayers!). Half way into the garage, although I was in drive, the car started going backwards. At which point I realised that whatever 'it' was, was really, really bad. Cars shouldn't do that!

I'm quite proud of myself for getting it home at all and not falling apart. Maybe I learned more as a teenager dealing with crappy cars than I had previously realised. And I'm grateful that it happened on the day that Jeff was coming home so he could take it off my hands and deal with it!

On a lighter note, it was great to have Jeff back for the weekend. He'll miss Halloween with the kids this year, but we went to Trunk and Treat at church on Saturday, so here's a picture of St George and the Dragon and their favourite heart surgeon.