Oh dear....and ouch

Mrs S and youngest were due back this evening. At one o'clock this afternoon I received a plaintive phone call. "We're in Kamloops." Said my other half.
"Why?" Says I. Kamloops is five hours driving and a two and a half hour ferry ride away.
"The car was chugging at the traffic lights."

There followed several strained telephone conversations, both with Mrs S and the Service Manager of a local Ford Dealership. The upshot is that the transmission on our old grey battlebus has blown a gasket, which will require around seven hundred dollars plus to fix. Mrs S came over all stressed, and I put my best talking head on to keep her calm. The upshot is that Mrs S and youngest are stranded for two days in Kamloops waiting for the car to be fixed. I am left wincing at the size of a large unexpected bill which just wiped out my last paycheque. We'll cope, but it's just inconvenient. A client still owes me money for work done (Invoice put in four months ago, several reminders sent, second Invoice just submitted), so no extra tea, toast or treaties for a while. Bummer.

To keep my spirits up I'll end with a small joke which seems appropriate;

Percy the Amazing Penguin is driving through a small town on a hot day when his car goes phut and coasts to a stop. Of course he's 'amazing', you ever hear of another Penguin who can drive a car? Percy gets a tow into the local Garage, and having ensured that his car will be fixed that afternoon, goes to visit the local ice cream parlour.

Percy being a highly stressed Penguin, much comfort eating of Vanilla ice cream ensues. The day being hot, a lot of ice cream ends up all over Percy's beak. While in the ice cream parlour, greedily scarfing another pint of ice cream, Percy gets a text message summoning him urgently to the Garage where his car is being fixed. So quickly does Percy leave the ice cream parlour that he forgets to wash the melted ice cream off his beak. Arriving at the Garage all stressed, out of breath and his face covered in ice cream, Percy demands of the mechanic; "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Well it's fixed, no problem." Says the mechanic.
"But what happened?" Demands Percy.
"It looks like you just blew a seal." Says the mechanic. Percy suddenly catches sight of his ice cream daubed beak in his reflection and goes bright pink in embarrassment.
"No, it's really just ice cream." Said Percy.

You have to laugh of you'd go daft.