Birthday Day... For Me.

 Yesterday was my birthday.  And I skipped blogging altogether.  Probably because I have exhausted all of the jokes about age in a previous post.   I would not want to repeat myself... Year after year... With the same jokes again and again.

We did all the usual "Birthday Stuff":  Cake, ice cream, fish and chips. A few presents and cards in the mail.   Things that I can always use...

There is a threat of rain this week.   Everyday...  Today was supposed to be thunderstorms.   It is currently hot and humid and sunny... but no rain.   It Did say 78% chance.. I guess we got the 22% miss roll.  Lucky us. There is rain and stormed predicted Thursday... again!  But I decided that maybe I would take the chance and chalk anyway.  I mostly stayed near the buildings and eaves.  In case it actually does rain, they will be somewhat sheltered. 

And lastly, the Subie is in the shop with a minor issue.  Turns out the "funny sound" that I thought was the fan belt turned out to be the harmonic crankshaft pulley was coming apart. It made it to the Saturday Farmers market but began to squeal on the way home.   Thankfully Wellman is only 7 miles from Kalona, and we no sooner arrived in our driveway when both of the belts slipped off the pulleys! 

Slightly misaligned. 

I had the old belts still. so I was about to put them on when I discovered that even if I put them on, they would just slip off again.  the Crankshaft and the alternator, AC and Power steering pulleys were misaligned.  Lacking a 22 mm socket, and the special tool required to get the pulley off, I figured I would leave it for the Pro's downtown.   The Pulley has to come off anyway when they replace the water pump and timing belt.   I figured I gave them a head start by removing all external belts ahead of time. 

The down side is that we are stuck at home now until next Thursday.  Not this Thursday... NEXT Thursday.  They said they might be able to get us a loaner car to allow us to head to the city if we need to.  There is also the chance that he could replace just the pulley and get us on the road, saving the timing belt for later.   We have all the parts.( they came today in the mail) but he simply requires the time.  And since he is the only game in town, and within walking distance, the ball is in his court. 

But looking at the positives:  This mechanical failure could have stranded us miles away from home.  It didn't.   It could have cost us an expensive towing bill, it did not.  It could have failed and permanently damaged the engine.  It did not.  And I was going to have the operation done anyway, so all of this inconvenience is really just slightly earlier than expected.  In fact, the failure happened in our Driveway!  And I found both of the new belts and they appear to have no damage.  It could have sliced, shredded, melted, or lost the belts that we just purchased.  But I found the power steering belt in Don's yard and the AC belt slipped into the engine but we stopped just before any friction occurred. Bottom line: It could have been much worse. 

So,  Looks like I will have plenty of time to chalk in the park.   Provided it does not rain or melt me from the heat.  There are only a few places that are shaded, and most of those areas lack good concrete for chalking. But, we shall see how things play out.   We still want to be able to go to the Thursday Market in Washington.   Hopefully,  the Loaner car will be available. Or better yet!  Subie will be miraculously healed.  Fingers crossed.