End of an Era, or Not! and Sad News

Dad gave us the blue van awhile back. Touching. Mike gets the Camry, I get the Blue Van. What does that tell ya? Well, don't think about it too hard. Anyway, we asked to borrow it one time and it ended up parked in my side yard.

Dad finally got the title issues worked out, and now the title is in my name. Which means I'm free to sell it. So I have my neighbor take a look at it, he puts transmission fluid in it, and it runs fine! I have a couple guys look at it, they all say it's in great shape, etc. So I post it. Interest in it is on again, off again. "Tire Kickers" as my neighbor calls them.

Finally I find a couple who absolutely loves it. They're pregnant with their fourth, have to get a bigger van, need something that tows, and he's handy with vehicles that have "issues". They really want it, but their tax money is coming in Friday. No wait, it didn't get filed, make that Tuesday. Whatever. They want it, and they'll give me $100 extra to hold it for them. Fine.

So today they're supposed to pick it up. I go to start it to make sure it runs ok. Battery's dead, of course (stupid dome light comes on even after you think it's off and drains the battery). So I jump it. No luck! Peter tries. Gabe tries. It won't start. OF COURSE!!! Just my luck that the perfectly (well, maybe not perfectly) working van dies the very day the buyers are coming to pick it up.

In the mean time I have a friend who is a mechanic and drives around and comes to you! Brilliant! So he's trying to help me. I guess so anyway. He looked at it earlier, and said he'd be over here at 5 PM to fix it. It's 6:40 he's still not here and now it's raining. Oh well. He says it's a simple problem. Relay is out. Now he just has to go look at schematics to figure out where the heck the wire is located! It's obviously not next to the two working, accessible relays. It's buried somewhere and he can't find it. Simple fix. HA! Nothing's ever simple. Oh well. I'm not bitter. Or frustrated. No, not me!

I was going to get $800 off of this thing. Now I'm going to have to deduct the cost of the repairs from that.

In the mean time, Peter's brother-in-law died this morning. Gigi's husband. He had a stroke and a heart attack about a month and a half ago and has been in and out of consciousness. Gigi is obviously absolutely devastated. So I've got to sell this van quickly to get the money to buy a ticket for Peter to fly out to New Jersey for the funeral on Sunday. He'll leave Friday and be back Monday. So I hope this sells tomorrow, and I hope I get enough to cover the plane ticket ($680!!! Can you believe that!).

Too many problems. Can't anything just work without being too complicated? I guess not.