Blogger let me login yesterday but I couldn't access my blog to post anything. Computer problems two days in a row, wow. At least it wasn't my computer.

Today was quite a day. The Eurovan got worked on and it didn't like it. I drove Irma to work, came home and pulled the van up on the ramps. The coolant leak is now too bad to drive. The leak is coming from the oil cooler at the rear of the engine. According to the manual all the parts can be replaced without removing the engine. How nice! I pulled off the filter to get a look, barely. From the bottom it is way up beyond a maze of crossbars, the right axle, and power steering rack. I found the reason for the oil leak, the oil cooler nut was loose and oil was getting past the o-ring. Two coolant hoses enter the cooler and that is where the coolant leak is. I drained the coolant and sqeezed my hand up there to take off the hose clamps. It took about half an hour to get the hoses off the cooler.

In the mean time James is playing in the driveway and I'm trying to keep an eye on him at the same time. He was behaving and having fun with his tricycle and playing with his truck. When I drained the coolant he became immediately fascinated with the coolant flowing into the bucket and tried to move it. He threw some sticks and rocks into the bucket and I finally got him to move on to something else. Thank you James.

After I got the hoses off I took off the nut and removed the cooler and found the problem. The part that the hose connects to was corroded badly so I need an oil cooler and two hoses to fix the problem. Both problems, oil and coolant leak. The oil cooler I ordered on the internet because VW prices are outrageous. If there is a stronger word than outrageous then insert that word. The hoses can only be ordered from the dealer. Problem is, they won't order them unless I come up there and pay for them first. Thank you Volkswagen.

Before I went in the house I tried to remove the hoses to get the part numbers. James was still playing close by. I can see the end of the hose and the clamp or I can touch the hose and clamp, not both. I got my arm up there with the plyers but couldn't get hold of the clamp. I played the game of moving into position to see what I was doing to moving to actually do it for another half hour before James figured out I wasn't paying as much attention to him and he started wondering farther and farther. About the time I decided to give up and needed a different tool I see James going down by the drainage ditch (now empty) and knew he'd end up in the road if I didn't stop him. I crawled out and ran down just as he had crossed the road into the neighbors yard and the woman sees him and comes out with her little boy to watch him. (We live on a deadend and cars don't come by very often, and when they do James gets far away from the road to watch them go by. Still, I realize the danger.) Now, I am filthy from oil and anti-freeze and it was just embarrassing to go over there to get James and say hello and I think she just thought I was kind of strange (probably true). James was put in time out in the car seat until I finished cleaning up. I never did get the hoses off.

After we cleaned up and took a nap we picked up Joshua from school and drove the 25 or so miles to Classic VW in Orlando to order the hoses. James wanted to drive all the new cars! Then we drove back to Kissimmee to pick up Irma. On a side note, when we got about a block away from her work, driving a different direction than usual, and her building not yet in sight, James points in the direction of her job and says "Mommy's work." We had to wait about 20 minutes for Irma so the kids watched cartoons in the waiting room (mostly). On the way home James took off his seatbelt and I told him to put it back on. He wouldn't. I told him I would stop the car and he would be in big trouble. No. I tried to put it on but he was fighting me, so I pulled into a parking lot, stopped, got out and walked around, opened the door and he was sitting like a little angel with the seatbelt all buckled up like nothing had happened. I had to hide my face cause I couldn't stop laughing. It's been a long time since he tried to do that, I don't know why he did it today.

Today was a busy day and I'll have to drive Irma to work at least the rest of the week. I just hope James will take a nap every day.

I want to add this link because I think it's important, I hope you'll read it. The Anti-Zionists.