Up In Smoke.. At least that is What I Thought

I was running to the store to pick up a few things for my brother and on the way the suburban was acting a little weird. Then I noticed that big ugly orange “Check Gauges” sign appeared so I did and my engine was overheating. At this point I did not panic because this happened two weeks ago and we had to have the water pump replaced. So I continued to drive to the store which was only two blocks away and I pulled in backwards incase it needed to be towed. This is a tiny little store in almost the middle of nowhere and that is why I choose there to park. You won’t believe what happened next. I turn off the car and all of a sudden there is smoke everywhere, coming out from under the hood and coming in threw the dashboard. I grabbed my purse and jumped out of the car. Then I just stared, I wasn’t sure what to do next. I didn’t know if it was steam or smoke or if it was going to explode. I called my brother and said I think the car is on fire and he said “isn’t the fire department across the street?”. Yes it was so I felt a little better. I started looking around at the people in the parking lot and most of them just stared and shook their heads. Boy was that a whole lot of help. Well after deciding that it wasn’t a fire I pulled the knob to pop the hood. I didn’t actually open the hood because I thought it would be a good idea to let it cool off. At this point a very nice gentleman comes over to see what is going on and he looks under the car and notices the water and tells me it’s not on fire. He thinks it’s my water pump and I explain that I just had that fixed. He opens the hood and notices that there is a large hole in the tube that runs to the water pump and suggests I just unscrew the clamp, trim off the bad part and screw it back on again. I am so relieved at this point that it is something small that I tell him thank you very much and I do think I can fix that all by myself. He heads back to work and I go find a screwdriver, knife and scissors. If anyone else has a suburban they know how tall the engine is. I am 5”8 and still can’t reach in. So here I am with a knife, my flip flops, my blue sunglasses, my new Tinkerbelle shirt (which I don’t want to ruin) and a screwdriver standing on my bumper and leaning into my engine. If I could have taken a picture I would have because I bet it was funny. Needles to say I took of the clamp, trimmed the broken tube with my knife, clamped it back on and shut the hood. I felt GOOD! I got in the car and was signing “SheRa Princess of Power”. I drove over to my brother where we filled up the radiator and that is all folks. I am still feeling pretty good about being a girl that kicks butt. Just a little note that in between all that I did call my hubby and tell him what was going on and that I “might” need a ride. Here is the piece from today.