like al pacino's cash

As many of you know, our family does the gift giving instead of receiving on our birthdays. But don't tell the grandparents, they still give to us on our birthdays. My gift to Jack this year was a surprise Switchfoot concert. So I picked him up from track practice a little early and we drove up to Clemson for the concert.
I took Allison's truck because it has a heater, and to be honest, I didn't trust mine to make it up and back. After our Austin extravaganza last month, I thought better safe than sorry. So after the concert, we're driving back up I-85 and made it almost to Anderson before the tensioner idler pulley's bearings seized and screwed the pulley off. First I lost power steering and then the battery light came on. I muscled the truck across three lanes to the shoulder and got out thinking I'd find a shredded serpentine belt scattered all over the engine compartment. Instead, I found, by feel, the pulley a foot from where it should have been attached. I thought if I could get it screwed back on with my hands, and then replaced the belt with my hands, we could possibly make it to the next exit and get off the interstate.
Now you've got to remember that a couple months ago, it took me 45 minutes to replace the belt on my truck even with a wrench for the tensioner. This thing packs about a ton of pressure, and requires a wrench so small that you have to Elastawoman to get your hand down there and fight the pain of the wrench cutting into the palm of your hand while you use your free hand to thread the belt through a mouse trap maze that requires a college degree to solve. Last night I did it in 27 degrees in complete dark with my bare hands while tractor-trailers blew by me at 80 miles an hour. That's what a little fear and adrenaline will do.
I got the truck to the next exit before the pulley screwed off again, called a cab and found a motel to wait for the auto parts stores to open. This morning, we got another cab and were driven all over the place to every store looking for the right part. When we finally found it, I had the truck back up in about 20 minutes, but we were about 9 hours behind schedule.
Jack missed half a day of school and I had to rearrange some lessons.
I wanted to ask him which was the best gift, the concert or missing school. Though the missed school for an emergency was pretty cool, I think he really enjoyed the concert, as did I. He sang almost every song with them at the top of his lungs, and accurately predicted the last song and the encore.
So there you have it. A fun way to celebrate 41. Another year. Another adventure. Gone, like Elvis and his mom.