We've had very cold temperatures here lately, at least they are cold to us anyway! Some days it doesn't get above freezing, and we have been hoping for some wintry precipitation. Today we saw just a few tiny flakes, but all the action has missed us and gone further south through Mississippi and Alabama. Oh well, maybe we'll get some snow yet this year.
As some of you have heard, we lost a member of our family about three weeks ago. Our old green van died. I stopped to get some gas, and had just finished filling up the tank (of course), when I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. Now, I wasn't really sure what to do, so I stood there trying to gather my thoughts and come up with some plan of action. By this time, the bit of gray smoke had turned to a bunch of black smoke. I went into the gas station to tell them, and one girl was already on the phone calling the fire department. The other girl employee suddenly had the thought that we should push it away from the pump, so we went out and pushed it against the curb, and I noticed small bits of burning matter that were left on the ground. By this time, several people were coming to help, including a couple of men who grabbed fire extinguishers and sprayed them under the edge of the hood. An off-duty fire fighter had some heavy gloves and reached under the edge of the hood to pull the lever to open it. By this time, everything under the hood was all burned and melted. The fire department came and doused it really good, being sure that the fire was all out. I called Lee and he came and picked me up, and then we went to the school to pick up the kids. A tow truck towed it to our house, but we knew it had to be totaled, since it was a 1998 and had some 180,000 miles on it.
As we looked back at what happened, we realize just how much God had his hand in it. We were just getting ready to put a new transmission in it, and it had several other irritating problems. I was in the ideal place for it to happen. At home, I would not have been able to put the fire out, but would have waited for the fire department to get there to do it, and who knows what would have happened in the meantime. I could have been out in the middle of the road, in heavy traffic, or in the middle of nowhere. The gas station had fire extinguishers, lots of people to help, and a phone. (My cell phone was dead--not an unusual occurrence.)
So the next day, we went car shopping--something that has never been a pleasant experience for either of us. We went to the Dodge place to see about perhaps getting a basic new Caravan with a warranty and everything, and they happened to have a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country that was loaded for a good price. We drove it to Adam's basketball game and back, and decided that this was the van for us. I love it! It has push-button power doors and seats that fold down into the floor. I haven't taken a picture of it, but it looks just like this one:
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