Monday 24 December 2007

| No Comments | No TrackBacks

Awake: 8:05am Temp? sleep 8+45 partly sunny overnight @ Indiana, PA.

After our breakfast in the hotel, I add ½ quart of transmission fluid to the Ford van’s transmission; without the customary warm-up that Kevin cautioned us about, we pull away from the Super 8 Motel & notice that even though the engine is running strong, the van is not moving @ the speed it should be. Soon, I must check the transmission dip stick to visually confirm the fluid level.

Last year for our Christmas holiday rendezvous, the main activity was focused strongly on “Brio” train track building & playing; this all took place on the 1st floor in the small play room. Guess what? This yr the main activity is: more “Brio” train track building with even more tracks, train cars, bridges, supports, etc, etc, on the 3rd floor in a newly designated playroom; a more suitable place for the architects to achieve their goals.

The configuration seems to continue as last year: build a different layout, take a few minutes to push the train & cars around the optional routes & then, tear it all up & start over again with different ideas that may be more challenging than the last. The (3) tier track layout was recognized as the best & most challenging of all that the master builders had displayed thus far. One has to be quick to take photos of each super-duper layout however as Matthew wastes no time in the demolition process, ready to eagerly build another.

Dinner by Kevin: (4) different pizzas: pepperoni & cheese, (3) different cheeses with pepperoni, Mexican, & ham & pineapple. Kevin is fine tuning his pizza making abilities each year & we are the delighted tasters.

After dinner, Kathy disappears to wrap some small presents for the boys.

I didn’t let the van idle enough to warm up the transmission fluid before leaving the Foote house tonight & sure enough, we pulled out on 6th Street & the van literally stopped with the engine revved up but not moving. A strange feeling….especially when (2) cars moving in opposite directions approached; one had to stop while the other went around us. After what seemed to be forever, I shifted into 2nd gear, then back to park, then again in drive gear & that seemed to get that fluid running into the right circuit to turn the wheels.
It happened again en route when stopped for a stop sign thru the IUP campus; no traffic but those (2) incidences convinced me to definitely get serious with the dip stick check.


Lights out: 12:20am

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://blogs.kirsch.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2338

Leave a comment

Categories

Monthly Archives

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by George Monte Kirsch published on January 5, 2008 10:57 PM.

Sunday 23 December 2007 was the previous entry in this blog.

Tuesday 25 December 2007 is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.