Homer, please stay well!!!

Today I drove to Oakleigh with Mum to pick up Homer. Homer is my new car (not brand new, but new to our family). He is a beautiful white 1999 Honda Odyessey 7 seater mummy car that we bought about 2 months ago. We had him checked out by our mechanic and he seemed to be pretty sound. Within a month of having him, he was sick and $520later for a radiator top, thermostat and the brakes machined, he was running well again. Last week, he suddenly started making a really bad grinding noise, I mean really, really bad. Our friend and mechanic came and had a look and as soon as we started the car he raised his eyebrows and said 'oh'. That 'oh' was because it sounded to him like the transmission. He rang a couple of his contacts for us, while we rang some of the local guys, and we got prices from $1500 to $4000. Needless to say that once I stood up from having fallen down in shock, I cried!!! So he chased a few more contacts and got us in touch with a place in Oakleigh that does repairs for Honda dealers. They said it was a pretty common problem in Honda's and they suggested a reconditioned transmission with a 12 month warrantee on parts and labour fully fitted for $1850. Plus because I would never have driven it so far with that grinding going on, they arranged a tow truck to pick it up for $100. I'd priced a tow truck with RACV - it would have cost just over $220. So they picked him up on wednesday and he was ready to come home today.
Mum had the morning off work and was able to take me over, but she had to get back to work by 11.30. We went to the car place where I left the car seats and then she dropped me off at Oakleigh Central shopping centre. Two and a half hours later, with three kids who were almost as bored as I was of the little shopping centre (just speciality shops, no KMart, Big W, Target - we'd even browsed the aisles at Coles and Safeway!) he finally called to say it was ready! By the time I walked there - no pram, I hadn't realised that Rachel had put on all the weight she lost when she was sick and then some - the boys who were niggling at each other and the heat, I just needed to be out of there!
Ben and Rachel were asleep within minutes, and we drove home with no problems. Homer is running well and touching all the wood near me, I hope he stays that way for a while now!
Thanks for letting me vent all that - I feel much better now! I think a shower and an early night are in order and tomorrow is a new day! Bye for now :-)