Of vans and tents and boys and rain....

Just some of the latest junk that typically occurs around my house....

So we're heading out to Lake Harding (for you Valley folks, The Backwaters) to hang out with my parents at their place. I usually like to go in the truck because, frankly, after last year's fiasco with the 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan (here and here), I just don't trust it for anything more than tooling around town. There is more room in the van, though, so we load everything up and head out. We don't even get out of the neighborhood when we do the typical "we forgot something and have to go back." I head on back and pull down into the driveway...

...to digress... Kelly, had noted to me a few months ago the van was doing something weird when sitting and idling. It would just bog down and at times would "pop" into gear as she left the intersection...

..back to the story... Kelly goes in an grabs whatever-it-was, and hops back in the van. I throw it in reverse and start backing up the driveway. All of a sudden, the engine starts to rev up like I am grinding it out, yet the van is slowly rolling back down the driveway. I think, "Man, did I accidentally pop it into Neutral?" I check. Nope. Still in Drive. Uh oh. As a typical I'm-a-guy-so-we-just-hit-stuff-to-fix-it, I just rev the accelerator up more, and eventually it "pops" into gear and we start backing up the driveway. And when I say pop, I mean pop. Almost got whiplash from the jerk of it. So anyway, we back on out, but then when I put it into Drive, it just sputters and jerks and pops the 100 yards to the end of our street. That's it. I "pop" in back in reverse (which actually works this time) and back it down into the driveway. Unload everything. Load the truck up. Head out. But God always provides. We get down to my parents and are telling the story. My grandmother has been living in an assisted living home for the last year or so, and has a 1992 Corsica - with only 20,000 miles on it! She has been saying she needs someone to keep it up and drive it "until she needs it again," (Um, yeah.) So Kelly now at least has reliable transportation until we can get rid of the van for something else.

Now on to yesterday...

So we have been having some conflicts with Luke's friend across the street lately - he tends to try and rule the roost with the boys and can say some mean things at times - the latest was a series of name calling that started between him and Connor that ended up with pine cones being thrown at Connor and a switch from a bush being whipped across Connor's leg. It kind of came to a head yesterday when his mom stopped by and Kelly could not hold it in anymore. Nothing was really resolved, but at least Kelly had the chance to let his mom know more what has been going on. Of course she defended her son, but began to question him about these things and see inconsistencies in his report. Hopefully things will start to get better. Anyway, all this to say how surprised I was when I get a call from Kelly saying we are having a neighborhood camp out in our backyard last night. Connor, Luke, and three other boys (one of whom is the one I just talked about). So I get home, get the tent out of the attic, set it all up, and Kelly starts grilling hot dogs. Things start to go downhill. Connor, who doesn't know how to do anything gently or carefully, is having trouble with the tent zipper. And RIPS the zipper completely in half. First I thought he just separated the zipper mechanism from the zipper. I get out there... LIVID, MIND YOU... with my screwdriver and pliers trying to re-attach it. And the cheap metal of the zipper mechanism just shatters. Gone. Five pieces. Then we look closer and see that not only did he separate to mechanism from the zipper, he literally ripped the zipper IN HALF... Yes, the TEETH. Ripped in half. NOT the material. THE ZIPPER. I lost it at this point, and must censor my behavior description. I didn't kill anyone or curse like a sailor, though my mind was fantasizing about all kinds of terrible torture and creating my own language. (After that, every little thing set me of for the night. But that is another story altogether...) So they continue to play, and eventually it starts to get dark and they start with the smores....Then then rumble. Then the flash of light in the distance. Camping in the rain is one thing. Camping in a thunderstorm is something completely different. SO we quickly grab everything from the tent and bring it inside. While Kelly is getting them set up in the house, I run back out to zip up all the windows in the tent. It is already getting wet inside because it is raining so hard. I get everything zipped up... except the busted zipper at the bottom of the tent door. And just my luck, that door is at the top of the incline of our yard..... and water is literally streaming inside like a creek. I am sure I have a pool in my tent this morning.... and we still have to figure out how to get it fixed.... before we go camping in two weeks.

Oh, and Connor? He's still alive. But not allowed to ever touch a zipper again. Ever.