<p>The car is loaded. There is barely room for the new freshman let alone her younger brother. With 4 people, the fridge, clothes, boxes and literally 8 cinderblocks (to raise her bed) that are weighing down the car, our MPG is not going to be good…</p>
<p>I’ll have to wait to hear whether Mootmom’s S makes it across the continent with his car intact</p>
<p>marite, you’ll have to wait to hear whether they get the grease packed in the rest of the CV joints and actually get the thing RUNNING tonight, otherwise they’re sort of toast for an ETA of noon Saturday. Now, if their goal is <em>SOMETIME</em> Saturday, there’s still a chance…</p>
<p>Mootmom,</p>
<p>Update???</p>
<p>(maybe she’s in the garage with a wrench?)</p>
<p>Since there is a GF in the story, it’s more likely that he’s in the garage with a wench. Sorry, couldn’t resist. :)</p>
<p>I got up, like, at 4:00 a.m. to see what is up with the van lol. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, D called from campus yesterday - classes started this week at her school. I have been at our home in our home city for the past three weeks, but will return to our apartment in the college city next week. We were talking about our cat, and how much I miss having a pet running around.</p>
<p>Somehow we got to talking about how our cat meows. It was sort of like “no he sounds like this…” and “no, that’s only when he wants to be petted; when he want to play he sounds like this”…followed by our best imitations of how this cat sounds…</p>
<p>Then there was silence, sort of like how it sounds when a cell phone call drops. So I’m like “hello, hello…”.</p>
<p>D’s voice comes back, this time full of - chagrin? dismay? horror? - “mom, I’m walking around campus - meowing - very loudly - into a cell phone. And I just walked through a crowd of what has to be freshman parents, meowing…”</p>
<p>LMAO, Marite and LateToSchool! :)</p>
<p>Hee hee. :)</p>
<p>LTS: It’s priceless! I can just figure it in my mind. :)</p>
<p>You all - I literally have tears of laughter coming out of my eyes! This is the BEST THREAD EVER!! You guys are cracking me up.</p>
<p>Marite it’s even funnier when you know the pet in question. He’s silly, a rather constant source of entertainment, which is why three weeks away from him makes things sort of dull. :)</p>
<p>Hmmm…it’s not quite noon in California…wonder what’s up?</p>
<p>Actually it’s 3 hours time difference from you, so it’s about 10:30am & some kids are likley sleeping in while others are probably off & making the most of their weekend. I heard/read about some great outings to help kids buy more stuff & explore LA when we were dropping our son off at USoCal.</p>
<p>It’s a beautiful morning here in the Bay Area. Just the kind of weather for putting those final touches on a VW bus and filling up the water bottles. Oh Mootie…Oh Mootie? Weenie? Did’ya get out of the door, bags and all? Inquiring minds…</p>
<p>Progress report: the dynamic duo have just declared that they will be staying “one more night”. The clutch has been reattached, everything is bolted down, the CV joints are almost ready to be replaced, the shift mechanism is connected, and son has decided not to bother reattaching the heater “since it doesn’t work anyway”. (!! A beautiful afternoon in the Bay Area will warp your mind like that: let’s see what he says in January in Boston.) Most of the electrical is reattached, and all necessary filters and fluids are laid out on the driveway. The windows have been cleaned and Rain-X’d, and there is a spare pair of windshield wipers stashed under the back seat. The interior is COMPLETE (thank you, thank you, no need to applaud, just nod appreciatively) including the CO detector and all carpet remnants sturdily cemented onto the walls and ceiling, and they’ve begun some version of “packing” (she did a load of his laundry for him yesterday, and made a dozen “tea eggs” for morning protein). There is a small bit of camping gear in corner of the kitchen (small cooler, tent (which has not yet been assembled for practice), mats, sleeping bags, and propane heater) and they have maps, addresses and phone numbers, a wireless laptop with power inverter, a jug of water, and Trader Joe’s cranberry almond cashew trail mix. I’d say they’re ready, wouldn’t you?</p>
<p>They have modified their itinerary to skip an overnight in Yosemite and instead head further east tomorrow night. On the assumption the van will be running in a few hours, they’re planning to test-drive it into SF this evening to visit the Audium. </p>
<p>More to come… (and of COURSE I have been photo-documenting this the whole way, including the molybdenum grease all over the GF’s hands, as proof for her mom that she dove right in once she got here).</p>
<p>PS: I must note that while there is occasional cussing here rising from under a vehicle, I have yet to hear anyone walking by meowing! LOL!</p>
<p>I give your S credit–no one in this family would have the guts to take apart a car & expect to ever function again. We consider putting the fluids in our car & sometimes air in the tires to be a major thing around here. I’m very impressed that your S would take apart the vehicle. My hubby & son regularly disassemble computers, but somehow that seems to be much tamer to us. Hubby has only exploded one motherboard…so far.
Keep us posted–fascinating saga & the GF must be quite committed (or ready to be LOL).</p>
<p>mootmom:</p>
<p>You need to line up the photographing of the arrival in Cambridge!</p>
<p>Okay, I must ask… what in the world are “tea eggs?” (And good job on finishing the VW’s interior work ON TIME, Moot!)</p>
<p>Tea eggs, according to Wikipedia, “… are simply hard boiled eggs that have been further stewed in a salted tea liquid. Other flavourings such as soy sauce and Chinese five-spice powder are often added as well.” GF is from China and says they are good for breakfast; they don’t smell very good to me, but she’s not very interested in the sugary breakfast foods I grew up on, either!</p>
<p>They’re almost ready to put in the oil and try to crank the thing over! I think I’ll stand by to take a video of that exciting event…</p>
<p>That’s really cool Mootmom. I am totally amazed at your son. The GF sounds wonderful too.</p>
<p>Doesn’t he attend the college where students once disassembled a car, and reassembled it perfectly in someone’s dorm room, with the engine running, as a casual prank?</p>
<p>It’s a little too QUIET on this thread. 
<br>
:eek:
:mad:</p>
<p>I’m assuming that Weenie & Son are on their way to Denison, the packing having been done; and that Mootmom’s S and GF are tinkering with the car, prior to taking off some time today. If they are like my kids, however, they are still abed.</p>