Keeping Our Fingers Crossed...and some quilting

Yesterday we waited not so patiently for a tow truck to take our van. Late Sunday afternoon, our daughter's friends came back to take another look. The verdict? Not the worst, but not good either. As one said "The good news is, it's the flywheel. The bad news is, it's the flywheel." He was able to hand crank the engine so we know it hadn't seized, which was the biggest worry.

My husband asked them if he could have it towed somewhere to make it easier for them to work on, and one of them has a heated, well-lit garage they use for working on cars so they were glad to have him do that.

While riding to the mall on Monday, we heard from one of them. He said it would be good if the van could be delivered between 4:30 and 5:00 on Tuesday. My husband called to make the arrangements, but afterward thought he made a mistake and said 3:30 to 4:00 to the towing company. No matter. By the time they arrived and got it hooked up, it would probably be close to 4:30 anyway, and our oldest son was going along to help push it into the garage. If the homeowner wasn't there yet, he could officially "take delivery" of the van at the other end.

4:00 came and went. No tow truck. I assumed that my husband gave them the correct time after all. 5:00 came and went. No tow truck. I texted my husband, who called the towing company. Apparently they lost the order or just forgot but someone would be out in 10 minutes. 20 minutes came and went. No tow truck. My husband had gotten a staticky message on his cell phone that he couldn't understand from the towing company so called me to see if they'd come yet. They hadn't. He called them, agitated by this time, then called me back. They said the tow truck got a flat tire, but it was fixed and they were on their way, they'd be here in 10 minutes.

My husband told me he gave them our home phone in case they got another flat tire, LOL, which did make me laugh, which made him laugh which was a good thing, he was pretty irritated by this time.

20 minutes later the tow truck arrived, and the rest of it went without incident.

Our driveway is completely empty at the moment, a rarity here. We've told the young men to take their time, we've been without it for this long, a few more weeks won't matter. We know the plan is to get it running this weekend, whether or not that happens remains to be seen. Then the brakes need replacing, which they've also agreed to do.

We are hoping the parts don't amount to too terribly much. While the total will be vastly smaller than if we had to take it somewhere, it will still be a pricy fix.

We're still not out of the woods, yet, but they felt pretty certain they can now solve the problems.

And now quilting! I've been reading some this last week so that eats into my quilting time, but I have 3 more toppers ready to applique and have started one of them. I will probably work on that mostly today, though will also try to fit in some hand quilting on the purple flower quilt. I'm getting anxious to get that one finished.

Since my machine is running again, I was anxious to use it and I finished the album quilt for my parents. This will be the next top to be quilted, hence the push to finish the flower quilt. I'm hoping to get batting for this tomorrow and will see if I have anything big enough for backing. I might have to wait until next week for that, but the flower quilt won't be done before then anyway.

The leaf block pieces are almost all basted, I have enough done to start doing some of the blocks, so I'll be working on that soon as well. I need to do a check again to see what projects are in the works and what the next steps are and I have a few other patterns marked in books and magazines that I may start doing prepwork on if I have fabric that will work.

It's a dreary day here, perfect for finishing up a few chores, then curling up with some handwork, which is exactly what I plan to do!
Happy Quilting!
Sue