Automobile Troubles

A piece of advice - bring a well-functioning maintenance free car to Europe.

Why - because cars are triple the pain to maintain here.

Case Study - December 26th Kyle and Allen departed for youth group trip to ski in Austrian Alps.  Kyle drives his car to SHAPE and leaves car in church parking lot.  Later that morning Kyra and I get in my car to go to church.  My car won't start.

In order for Kyra and I to take our planned trip to Paris (I know life is rough) the next day, I need a functioning car.  I still have to take dog to boarding place in Flanders.  The car at the house doesn't work, but the car at SHAPE does.  So, I begin my 90 minute plus walk through the snow to SHAPE to get the functioning car.  This achieved I drive home and take dog to board and pack for trip.

My car is still sitting useless and non-functioning in garage.

Upon Kyle's return he attempts to jump start car.  No luck.  As with most things in Europe we can expect that towing a car will be significantly more of a hassle and more of an expense than in the US.   Kyle had attempted to find a AAA equivalent here but without success.  With a renewed sense of purpose he tried again and found one.  He joined.  Then we had to wait a day to call for service.

We waited a day.

I called.  The company came.  I attempted to explain what was wrong with the car (difficult enough in English) in French.  The guy attempted to jump start the car.  It worked and my car now works.

I haven't yet tried to start it again this morning, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Legos, Cars and Engines

 It started with Lego car sets.  Allen wanted to build a Ferrari and then another one and then another one.  Lego sells kits to build these cars.

Then Allen decided to use his random Legos to build his own car, complete with car doors that opened and closed.

Now he has moved on to bigger and better things.  He's built moving pistons.  He is powering them with a motor and experimenting with gears.  He has created a clutch and can move from first to second gear.

The version pictured has only one motor but he has moved on to two now.  He has added gears to see how many revolutions he can get and when he hits the point of diminishing returns.

Allen loves explaining all this and as I am not at all mechanically inclined, I understand only a small fraction.

What I do understand is that he is good at this and he likes it.  That is enough for me.