Grateful

Today I am very grateful for my van.

 It had a breakdown today while I was out and about taking Max to one of the specialists he sees. And it wasn't a little "Ooo what's that odd sound, maybe I should take it in." No, it was a full on grinding clunk of a noise as I hit the accelerator to go through the green light. Shocked by the horrific din I pulled my foot off the gas and threw it into neutral. The engine sounded fine. I tried putting it into drive and the second I took my foot off the brake the din returned.

Nuts.

I coasted back down the incline I was on, snugged the car against the curb, and hit the flashers. The van was clearly dead in the water. It is nine years old with 186,000 miles, so I am not completely shocked that something has gone wrong. I called up Allstate for a tow and was able to garner Max a ride back to school with Meryl. The tow was promised to arrive at noon and I just had to sit and wait.

Now why am I grateful?

The van decided to break on the one nice day we have had so far, it wasn't raining, sleeting, nor snowing.
I did not make it out of the quiet side street and onto the extremely busy road that was, due to road work, narrowed from four lanes down to two.
It broke after Max's appointment while I was leaving to take Max to school.
The whole mess happened during normal business hours.
The tow guy was able to pick me up at 11:30 am.
And the best part, it wasn't the transmission. Just the the cv axle, a far cheaper part to replace.

I was back on the road in a few hours. Thank you trusty van for taking care of us.