I am finally beginning to warm up – well, the temps are going down again, so I do have chill bumps, but that will just take a sweater to get rid of those. 😉
The Big Chill occurred Wednesday. Hubby had a doctor’s appointment to see his diabetes specialist in Anchorage – so we drove up mid-morning. We stopped at Knitting Grounds to pick up the Big Sock for its return to Kenai and then had a bite for lunch and went to the appointment . . .
. . . . where it took much longer than the 30-45 minutes they promise. Of course it did! I knew it would, but it still bites to have to head back to Kenai in the dark. However, that is life in Alaska, so we just went with the flow and headed for home.
We decided to stop at wally’s to pick up munchies for the road – to stave off the sleepies – and just before the driveway – the heater quit. Just quit! The fan no longer was blowing and we looked at each other and said uh-oh!
Hubby said – pop the hood and I’ll check the fuses. I suggested he call the car dealership before they closed at 5 to see if anyone was available to talk him through it (3 separate fuse box areas to look – I was trying to cut down on the guessing if possible). He reached them, nobody in the service bays (day before Thanksgiving – they all left a bit before 5) but a service desk dude talked with him to find the fuse.
In the meantime I went into the store and grabbed a couple of sweaters and some gloves because it was looking like a long cold ride back to Kenai.
Came out – found hubby huddled in the car – car running – no heater. It was NOT the fuse – they think it was either the fan malfunctioning OR the wiring is melted. Oy!
We had no choice but to head out of town – try to keep warm and get home because the next day was Thanksgiving and we had family coming for dinner. Good thing we had told them that we’d be sleeping in and dinner would be in the late afternoon, huh?
We got stuck in a line of at least 50 cars heading out of Anchorage towards Girdwood. Mt. Alyeska Ski Resort opened that day, so we hoped that most of the cars would peel off there. We stopped to use the facilities and warm up a bit and then headed back out onto the road.
With at least 25 other cars! Good grief! “We got us a convoy!”
Fresh snow was falling – and that helped brighten the sides of the road a bit – but I had some cretin behind me who was playing with his headlights – high beams, low beams, high beams, low beams. Ack! He followed me for about 40 miles doing that and then . . . he did a fast left and was gone – just like that. The car behind him kept going, but I noticed that the traffic behind him slowed way down. I think he lost control on the glare ice and ended up in the ditch. There was no way for me to know for sure or to stop safely so I kept going. Haven’t heard anything on the news, so I have to assume that he is fine – got out of the ditch and continued on.
He was a cretin, but nobody deserves to be hurt over something stupid, so I’m hoping for the best. And, a check of the troopers logs shows nothing for that area on that day, so phew!
Anyway . . . hubby and I made it home safely – albeit COLDLY! We didn’t even unload the Big Sock box, but locked it up in the car. We just trudged into the house and covered up in blankets until we could feel our toes again. It was 22 degrees – brrrrrrrrrrr.
We made some calls Friday and have an appointment with an auto repairman Monday morning. Hubby will pick me up there and drive me to work and then pick me up from work. I don’t know how long the car will be out of commission, but hopefully they will have it fixed Monday.
Fingers crossed.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Stay warm, everyone. (sure don’t realize how much you depend on heat until you don’t have it, huh?)