When It Rains...

My mechanic called me late this afternoon. He replaced the water pump without a problem, and also the oil pan drain plug. (He says it looks like Jiffy Lube didn't replace the plug, despite charging me for doing so; the plug he replaced looked pretty beat-up to him.) But he found a more serious problem. The van was running a bit hot -- I've noticed this, but hadn't been able to figure it out. He investigated and found that the bottom third or so of the radiator is all gummed up. Well, it has been there for over 200K miles (assuming the previous owner never replaced it). So he's ordered a replacement that will be here by Thursday morning, and I've got to hope my management won't be too put out at my working from home three days in one week just before going off to Oregon to work from there for a week. But it is fairly important to have a working radiator, particularly when you're about to head off on a long trip as I am on Friday.

The van has been okay for short-to-medium trips, so he said to come on by and pick it up if I need it for tomorrow (which I do). He even told me that I can just pay for everything all at once on Thursday after he replaces the radiator.

I think my van must sense when I get raises or bonuses, because my semi-annual Incentive Compensation Payment arrived a couple of weeks ago.