Cars, a toothache and a thankful list

Something really weird happened yesterday. T was out of town so it was just the girls and I. After church, we got in the van, Flannery Vandango, and A started it and put it into drive and we heard this weird noise. It was a clanging sound and then the wubba, wubba, wubba of a large round piece of metal spinning on the ground before coming to a halt. We looked at each other and I told her to put it back in park. I rolled the window down to see if I could hear anything else and a couple that was nearby told us to turn it off. R's bf looked underneath and said something definitely fell out of the engine. The friend that told us to turn it off came over and we popped the hood. Turns out there is a large pulley thing attached to the water pump. It's supposed to be welded on and in the lines from "O, Brother, Where Art Thou" it said, "That's all I got," and fell off.

T had left his car, Elvis, there and we decided to take it home. I called him and asked him if he had his van key with him because we were taking Elvis. He said his van key was in Elvis. Then I told him what happened and had our friend talk to him and fill him in with the actual mechanical words. T thought we were pulling his leg. Poor guy. He had to get home from his trip and face changing the water pump in 90 degree heat in the church parking lot.

I'm happy to say that I drove Flannery Vandango to work this morning and all is well. T continues to amaze me with his mechanical, technical and problem solving skills.

I'm dealing with a toothache. It's been bugging me for 4-5 days now. I can't chew on that side and the other side is not very coordinated when it comes to chewing. Why is that? So far it's getting worse instead of better. Sigh...

Thankful list. I'm thankful that the water pump pulley decided to give up the ghost and hop off the van when it was sitting still. It didn't even tear up the belt. The one belt that runs everything. I'm thankful T was able to fix it. I'm thankful it was $40 in parts rather than $200. I'm thankful for a swimming pool. And I'm thankful for air conditioning.