Weekend Stories

This last weekend was great! Cara had the weekend off, so she stayed here. Friday night we cooked and then went to watch the sunset at my new favorite overlook at Feuerbach. But Auntie Anne and her crazy winds came to visit just as it started to sink behind the mountains. A tree fell- some stinkin strong wind.

Saturday morning I got to work at the BFA car clinic. I got there an hour early and had some good reflection & prayer time just sitting by the creek. And then the car frenzy began. I think we had 18 vehicles come through in 3 hours to get full body safety inspections, fluids filled and tires changed. I remembered how much I love cars and how ridiculous men can be. It was my job to keep the cars flowing smoothly in and out of the tire changing area, laying out the tires by where they should go, pulling hubcaps, and breaking lugs. All very simple prep jobs. But apparently more than some men could handle (mainly just the ones who referred to breaker bars as "thingys," consistently put lugs on backwards and tried to run lugs back on with only the torque gun). What was funny though is, for some reason, I couldn't seem to keep my balance when pulling off a hubcap. So I did something like this probably about 30 times: squat, pull off hubcap, hold for brief second, the PLOP...fall on butt.

After my hands no longer looked caucasian, Cara and I loaded up my car and headed to Denton's in Lausanne, CH. It should've been a two hour drive...

Gas is significantly cheaper in Switzerland than Germany, so I thought it would be no big deal to stop at the station right on the autobahn just across the border. But I was imagining a different autobahn in my mind, and the one we were on didn't have a station on the road. If life were a movie I would've called this bad foreshadowing number 1 from Cara: "Wouldn't it be funny if our car broke down in the French speaking part of Switzerland?" (Since neither of us speak French). So, Nuvi (my friendly but often schizophrenic GPS) directed us to the closest station- 7km off the autobahn. We were on a terrible sounding road, and this bad foreshadowing number 2 from me: "What is that sound? I guess it's the road but it sounds like a flat."

We got to the gas station and didn't check the tires. I hop out and put a 50 in the machine. Everything was automated- no one working. It ate my money and didn't turn the pump on!! (This really is smart except for when it eats your money. I wonder when the States will be this efficient).

We drove to another station; it didn't take my American or German cards, and also did not accept Euros. I had stuck my only 50 CHF in the other place. And Cara just had a 20. So she reluctantly put it in the cousin of the devil machine and had better fortune. Going to a third gas station, we finally found one that would accept Euros, so I filled her up, and we got back on the road.

Not much longer later, but long enough for us to cross into the French part of Switzerland, a woman in a convertible pulled up next to us and was mouthing and doing funny looking hand motions that we finally figured out meant "you have a flat tire, idiot."

We pulled into a parking area, and sure enough the back right was a goner. Stupid foreshadowing. Good thing I'd had plenty of practice changing tires that morning. Problem was that the lugs were on waaaay to tight, and even my JUMPING on the lug wrench only broke 2 of them. I'd broken the seal on about 200 lugs that morning without too much strain. But these things were ridiculous. Some French man helped us. I felt like a stupid, incapable American woman, haha. Poor guy broke a serious sweat, and I didn't even have anything to offer him to clean his hands with.

Moral of the story: keep a pipe in your car just in case you get a flat with tight lugs and there are no Frenchmen around.

We finally made it to D's, and he thoroughly spoiled us for the rest of the weekend. We wandered around Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), ate some great steaks & crepes, had some good wine, got to attend his always encouraging church, C3 Lausanne... just relaxed. So nice.

The trip back did just take 2 hours. I thought to myself "I hope I don't get a speeding ticket." Hopefully this wasn't bad foreshadowing number 3, but I won't know for a few weeks. Tickets here are sent by mail.

Cara & one of her girls came back to my apartment to watch football drafts, and I went to Maug to see some of my guys. A good time away and the weekend concluded with the students we love- Cara watching sports with her girls and me baking cookies for and watching a movie with the boys.

...will post pictures once I get them from Cara. I don't like taking pictures because they don't turn out like I imagine them to. I didn't get Dad & Jenny's knack for photography.