WARNING: I posted the rat picture. So do not scroll down too far if you don’t want to see it.
So on Friday night I noticed our car was making a funny sound. It sounded like tin cans rattling under the hood. On Saturday we looked but didn’t notice anything hanging under the car and it looked like all our belts were there. Saturday evening it was sounding worse, at the stake activity so we asked around who knew about cars and found someone to listen to our car. They thought it was the ball bearings for the belts and advised us not to go too fast. All day Sunday I was so paranoid and going slower we could hear the noise more. On Monday, while we were taking Gwynneth to preschool, I was calling the auto shop to see when we could come in. They asked what noise it was making, so I tried to hold the phone out the window. When Matt came to the stop sign he revved the engine which ended up making the car stall. After a couple tries, it still wouldn’t start. The auto shop gave me the number for a towing company. I was stressed out, pissed off and super frustrated. I suggested we say a prayer, but I was too mad to say it so I let Matt do it. After he said the pray, the car started up. I asked Gwynneth to say a thank you prayer and she just said, “Thank you!” I ended up saying one too. I had planned on taking the car in after preschool but we decided to drop Gwynneth off at preschool and then go straight to the auto shop. On the way to the shop we were trying to accelerate and go up a hill and the car felt kind of laggy like it was going to stall. I was so nervous. The check engine light came on just before we got to the auto shop. I was going to run in and have them hear the sound but the engine had burnt smell so I told Matt to shut it off right away. They were nice enough to drop Matt off at work and Erik and I hung out there. They had plenty of toy cars for Erik to play with and they even put on Handy Mandy, so Erik was happy.
After a bit they came out and told me that the sensor for the check engine had come loose and was rattling and then knocking into the belts. I asked him if we had done something to cause the sensor to come loose or if that just happens. He said “Well we found a dead rat so it could have crawled up there and knocked it loose.” I said, “Oh I’m so glad you told me. That makes so much more sense.” I had been smelling a decaying/rotting smell in the garage but hadn’t been able to find the source. I would notice it right when I opened the door from the house to garage but once I opened the garage the smell would be gone. We checked around the garage, looked in the ducts and hadn’t found anything. I had found some maggots off to one side of the garage but no dead animal. Super gross. The mechanic told me he would get a new sensor, and replace the belts. We had replaced them recently but they were worn with bits of metal and stuff from the sensor knocking into it. One of the belts had slipped a little bit. Thankfully it didn’t cause damage to the engine. I think that must have just happened on a way to the shop when it had stalled and was getting laggy. For $500ish bucks our car is up and running again. Hooray. We don’t have good luck with cars. Oh and I forgot to mention that they found a second dead rat later on. Ahhhhh.
Update: So Matt picked up the car, and they showed him one of the dead rats. He emailed me a picture. I’m not sure I should post it though. Apparently it is the better looking one. Makes me nervous to think what the first one looked like. Ewww.
Here’s the picture. Matt sent it in an email with the caption: “Jenner, you can’t kill Nicodemus!”
