A new alternator for Christmas

I got back from Raleigh late last night after quite an interesting journey home, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Julie and I haven't seen each other since September which is entirely too long, so it was great to see her, even if only for a short time.

I got there Friday afternoon and entertained myself for a while because she and Frank were doing the walk through in their new house. Did I tell you that Julie and Frank are buying a house? No? Well, I just did.

We went to eat a Ted Turner's restaurant that night. I don't remember the name of it, all I know is that it's owned by Ted Turner, they had paper straws, and they don't stock cream cheese so I couldn't have a cream cheese burger. Instead I had a bison burger which was quite satisfying. I would recommend it to anyone who isn't a vegan or vegetarian, for obvious reasons.

Julie and I participated in a craft show on Saturday morning; I don't remember if I told you that either, so now you know. Friday night we made cookies for the booth the next morning. Julie said they were too messy and she won't make them again, but she isn't a baker so she has a skewed concept of messy. All-in-all the craft show was a bust. I don't think it was advertised very well and most of the twenty people that showed up were from Julie's church and just there to show support. But time spent together is never time wasted, so we made the best of the situation.

These are the cookies we made
We cut them in fourths to have enoughWaiting on people to show upJulie and I at the craft fair
(Whenever I do a self portrait I always look sleepy)

Saturday afternoon we spent some time shopping and touring the new house before I headed home. It was hard to leave. I cried, but only because someone said she didn't want me to go. I'm looking at you Julieanna.

The new houseJulie opening the front doorJulie and I in the house
(I made my eyes bigger this time
so I look surprised instead of sleepy)

Here's where the alternator comes in. Most of the trip was smooth sailing, but about the time I started to drive up our big mountain I noticed my lights getting dimmer. I thought maybe I was just tired and my eyes were playing tricks on me. Ten more miles down the road my tachometer and speedometer stopped working and registered zero. Danger Will Robinson! At the same time my headlights became as good as non-existent. So I made it to the nearest stopping point (a grocery store parking lot), and turned the car off. I thought maybe I was having an electrical glitch and the car just needed to reset. Of course it wouldn't restart. I called my hero to come and rescue me and thirty minutes later there he was. Naturally the car started as soon as he opened the hood and looked inside; my car likes to do that to me, we have a love-hate relationship.

Andy explained to me what was going on. My alternator was dead and my battery was dying slowly because there wasn't anything to give it more juice. Did you know the alternator creates the electricity to feed to the battery? I didn't until last night.

So up the road we went. My speedometer still didn't work so I followed Andy and trusted that he wasn't going to get me a speeding ticket. I was starving and by that point so we stopped at Wendy's and my battery was done. Andy had brought the battery out of his Jeep (sometimes having 3 cars comes in handy) so he did a quick switch and we headed home.

Did I mention that there was a snow storm during all this? Yeah, there was, and not the big, soft, pretty snowflakes. Oh no, the wind was blowing like mad and with every gust you got smacked in the face with tiny little frozen bits that felt like they were cutting your skin. It was fabulous. Though I shouldn't complain. Andy had it worse than I did because he was the one doing the work, bless him.

We did make it home in one piece with both cars. Currently mine is resting from it's long journey. It's going to stay there until Friday when the new alternator gets here. I'm car less and it sucks a big fat one. I know that I could just drive one of the other two cars that we have, but Andy uses the truck all the time and the Jeep isn't exactly road worthy at the moment.

It's only for a few more days. Right?