Just a quick update on the saga of my new van: On Tuesday the new van was towed to the Mercury Lincoln dealership to be repaired. After working with it for a day and a half, they finally gave up and admitted that they didn't have a clue as to what was wrong with it. They suggested that I take it to the larger Mercury Lincoln dealership, because they would have better equipment to diagnose the problem. So I called the other dealership and explained what was going on. They assured me that of course they could handle the problem, their mechanics were much smarter than the first dealership's. So the first dealership got the van running just enough for me to drive it to the second place on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday afternoon I get a call from the second garage. They decided to give up on the problem; they couldn't figure it out either. Sorry, but come get the van please. I called the dealer that I actually had bought the van from, and they asked me to bring it in to their mechanic. By then it was too late for me to do anything, so Friday morning I got up early to catch a bus to the 2nd garage to pick up the van. On the way to the bus stop I slipped in a puddle and sprained my ankle. (You should have seen me limping back to the apartment, yelping with every step, and with my back literally covered from head to toe with wet, oily mud!) I called my mom, and she drove down to help me that afternoon. We get to the 2nd garage, and they assure me that even though they didn't know what was wrong with the van, it was totally safe to drive. "It's not like the engine is going to suddenly turn off while you're driving," were their exact words. So I get in the van and pull out onto the busy highway. I made it three buildings down the road (not even an entire block!) before the engine suddenly went dead as I was driving. I was able to coast into the next parking lot, where we then waited almost two hours for a tow truck. My van is now sitting at the 3rd garage, and I'm hoping that this mechanic will be able to figure it out. Since we didn't get it to him until late Friday, though, it will be at least Monday before he has time to work on it. In the meantime, I'm stuck at home. I can't even walk anywhere this weekend, since my ankle is still sore. On the bright side -- I can't clean the house because of my ankle so I guess I'll just have to force myself to sit and read all day.