Meanwhile on the college front...

....DS2 gets an email from his soon to be college saying they have received his criminal record check and everything looks good.

The only thing they have to wait for are his official high school transcripts after this semester, which will come in July.

But to hold his spot, he needs a deposit of $500, which will stay in his account and then be applied against his tuition come the end of August.

oh goodie. $500


so that had to be taken care of.

So at the dealer...

(sorry for the delay. It was report card week, and my colitis came back in full flare. sigh)

So at the dealer the total came to $2002.30.  The policy covered $1070.60.

I had to pay the balance of $929.70. That covered:

• the deductible of $250
• the taxes
• the struts (apparently it is hard to get a policy to cover struts)
• shop supplies

At least the car was done. and safe. with no more issues....

(mhm, you see where this is going)

So then Monday morning....

I called first thing to DS2's garage to see if they could send me an estimate of what was covered and what was not so I could see the breakdown. Neither DH nor DS could understand my need to see that separate breakdown.

In my head, I am wanting the policy to cover at least to the amount that I paid for it. Don't ever let me do that again, ok? It's been bugging me since I did it.

I asked for a fax to be sent over to my school and I waited (im)patiently for the fax,

Meanwhile, by early afternoon DS2 sends me a text with the total of his adventures down the icy hill. Including the tow, as well as the labour and parts, his bill was $320 USD .  He put it on his BMO US Credit card, which gave us a couple days to figure out the repayment allocation. I am working hard at teaching him to use it sparingly and only if it is something that can get paid off in full at the end of the month.

At 3:30 I made one last trip to the office to see if the fax had come through. It had not.

So off to the dealer I went....

And just as we got home....

....we get a phone call from DS1 in the States....

HIS alternator belt went. We  hadn't even told him that his brother's had gone so we can't even accuse him of being a copy cat.

His belt was completely gone. As in shredded. While he was driving in his little city, which resembles San Francisco, only the hills are glare ice. He managed to get things to stop and turned into a gas station at the base of the hill just before it gets to the freeway (and the river). By this time it's late.

Oh goodie. broken down vehicle. In a different country. In the dark. In 30 below weather.

Fantastic.

So I call CAA to find out how to access AAA where he is. They give me the right number to call down there so we text that to DS so he can get towed. DS would call the number. They would take his Canadian CAA number. Hang up. Call some center to verify his CAA is his and an active account, then call back to make arrangements to come get him.

Problem is the child never took his CAA card with him.  Without it being on his person they can't verify squat.

Super.

So we agree that at this time of night in these temps we have to suck up the cost. So he calls the tow truck. While he waits for them to arrive, we have to decide where to take it. Taking it to his dorm is silly because he will have to get it towed again when we need to take it to garage.

I tell him to call the handful of his teammates who are local to the city and find out what garage is good.  That's all we need is some unscrupulous business taking advantage of the car clueless Canadian.  Turns out that was a good idea I had. His Captain's gf's dad runs a garage in the city. Quick calls were made and the owner said 'yes bring it there right away"

He will drive down to open the big doors and they can put the car inside for the night. The team takes care of their own, he says.

Whew.

At least the car is safe, the kid is safe, and we will get the best deal we can.

So now all we had to do was wait for Monday, and the news from the US garage, and the Canadian one.

And, yes, it was $

After that...

.... DS2 calls after supper saying he believe his alternator belt was being wonky. He is just pulling into town so we head over to my dad's, where they have a heated garage, to take a peek.

It was the alt. A good read from DS. He remembers my last vehicle and how that belt kept freezing up every time when snow got underneath it and how we had to fix it. Dad happened to have a spare at the house. no clue why.

We were able to get that bad boy fixed without an extra cost, which was a good thing because....