What a day!

Wow. It has been a day. Things finally start to look as if they are going to settle and move in a positive direction when the car decides I don't have enough stress in my life.

On the way home today I started smelling something - off. I was sitting at the light to turn into my neighborhood & glanced down at the gauges. My display showed five bars on the temperature gauge. Normally there are only four. This got me a little concerned, but then as I drove down the street beside the stores at the front of the neighborhood the gauge went up to six bars. Now was nervous. Thankfully the house was two quick right turns away. I pulled in the driveway & cut off the car to a wave of steam pouring out from under the hood. - NOT GOOD.

I popped the hood and let the steam billow out & found not only was there steam, but the underside of the hood was dripping with water/anti-freeze. REALLY NOT GOOD.

I let the engine cool down a bit & went inside to tell the hubby and fix the kiddos some dinner.
The hubby stated that hopefully it was a hose. So, one I got dinner underway - out I went to check and see if I could find a leaking hose. With some suggestions from my brother - I found it. It wasn't a little leak it was a fully blown out hose. But thankfully just a hose.

Thinking I would have to make a trip to the local auto supply store, and not having a running vehicle, I called my dad to take me. While waiting I started to loosen the clamps on the hose - figured that it would be easier to replace if I had the original piece with me. My hubby came out to help me take it off & discovered that we already had a replacement hose in the shed.

About this time my dad showed up, and although no longer needed to take me to the auto parts store stayed around to oversee the hoses replacement. After a bit of sweat and frustration the hose went back on and was clamped in place. Added a bit of anti-freeze and water & started the car up & great joy - the temp never went above four bars - back to normal.

Frustrating, stressful, but thankfully all it ended up taking was a bit of time & elbow grease.