An Ode to the Van

Yes, I hate to say this, but our van has hit the dust/kicked the bucket/gone its last mile, etc. We were driving home from the girls' music recital (blog post on that coming up, I promise!), and as we made a left turn, there was a horrible grating-clanking-breaking-crumbling-crunching-and-otherwise-horrible noise which emanated from the right rear tire. There were also sparks. I sit in the back seat, and this was alarming to me and my back seat buddy, Joanna. We all hollered for Daddy to pull over, and he did. Our friends and neighbors were just a minute behind us (which is rather miraculous, because they usually leave events before we do), and they pulled over and got out. Daddy had a conversation with them, which involved the words "transmission" and "towing" and "drive shaft." Not being mechanically minded, I'm not sure what all transpired. But the end result was that we were towed home. There was a disturbing scraping noise as whatever-it-was scraped against the road, and a disturbing (in a cool sort of a way) show of fireworks, as the scrapey thing scraped and created sparks on the road. I even got a video. Of course, once the thing fell off, our entertainment ceased.
(Video: The little orange things are the sparks, the big white light is the vehicle behind us, and the noise is the drive shaft dragging on the road.)

The next day, the van was once again towed to the vehicle shop, where we are, incidentally, well acquainted with the mechanics. Well acquainted, I repeat. And the next morning we got the sad call, that, whereas the van could indeed be fixed, it would be more profitable to get a new one. Actually, the driving shaft had, in fact, fallen off! This means, of course...well, okay, I don't really know what it means. But the name implies importance. So stay tuned for the conclusion of the Great Vehicle Saga!