Well I must say this is a completely opposite piece than last night, and in fact quite a blessed afternoon and evening I'd like to share. Today being the last day of our usual summer program trips, I debated going for an oil change after dropping off the last of the kids. I was tired but decided if the Parkway north was light on traffic at that time of about 3pm, I would attempt the oil change I had planned this morning but botched when I took my own car and was not motivated to go back for the van. Traffic was light, and I took the chance, trusting it was the way the Lord was leading despite low energy levels.
Cruised up to the Wawa and filled up on gas and then cut over to 46 east to the Jiffy Lube. Kind of out of my way for an oil change, but this is where I felt the Lord leading. A little expensive at $39, but the knowledge and advice I was given there made it all worth it. I wanted to do an oil change because the check engine light came on the other day, and after my neighbor-mechanic cleared it, I realized emissions was past due since April. Oops. The van having nearly 100,000 miles has had a few glitches lately, no surprise, but one of them is the ODB hasn't been working properly and can't easily be read.
Well this is where the $39 started to pay off as the mechanic at Jiffy Lube informed me that Motor Vehicle will give you an automatic fail if they can't use the ODB. True or not, I was still going to try popping by Wayne's MVC just in case he was wrong and the van as able to pass. I also learned that apparently there is no grace period any more if a vehicle fails and is past due. But I still wanted to try.
However, he also suggested the simple solution that it could be a blown fuse disabling the ODB and I could google the vehicle model and location of the fuse. I almost ignored this advice thinking it too complicated at the moment but then paused for a second in a parking lot and googled "finding odb fuse", which turned out to be so simplistically profitable.
Right a way a youtube video came up by someone with a similar vehicle saying that if your cigarette lighter is not working then that could be the fuse that needs to be replaced. Bam, bing, boom! The left side cigarette lighter has not been working for I don't know how long. Then I started to wonder if I could just take a look under the hood and maybe run over to Autozone to pick up the fuse.
Fortune would have it that the cover to the fuse box was already loose, for it is such a pain to take off from a cold start. As I pulled off the cover, I had learned earlier that I needed to look for the fuse that said "cigar". Not only did I have a needle nose pliers handy for another van glitch, there was a 15 fuse spare on the inside of the fuse cover box. Was the original fuse even broken was the last question, and it was. The rest is history, as after replacing the fuse the cigarette lighter started working again. Praise the Lord!
The question remains if the ODB will work now too, but I believe it will. I attempted to have it inspected, but by that time (5pm) I had missed Motor Vehicle inspections by a half hour. Perhaps tomorrow morning. Maybe.
As fun as all this was, I decided that since I was so close to Jonathan Cahn's Beth Israel and was, and still is, Friday evening, that perhaps I could stop by for their service. Interestingly there have been other times with this exact opportunity but I was just not inclined. I was inclined tonight though, even feeling the Lord was leading me there for some reason.
Not really a surprise being led there, but I had some time to kill so I decided to stop by Kohl's off 23 north of 80. I did not find anything there but before I entered the store I saw the bumper sticker "This car climbed Mount Washington" and I wondered where this great mountain is, on the not too uncommon bumper sticker. I wanted to know.
Having left Kohl's and still time to spare, I continued north on 23 to the Goodwill not too far up the road. I soon found myself lost there and time quickly passing. And now here is where it becomes interesting in that I found a large coffee mug that said Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Finally! Knowledge! So sweet to the soul! And a mystery solved.
Well, I decided to pick up the mug for 50 cents, for how could I pass it up at that price. And aside from the great deal, I felt that God had a message for me, something I was not able to put my finger on just yet. Only an hour earlier I had really wondered where Mount Washington was and then
bam, the answer:
But the story is not over yet. It was nearly eight so I made my way down to Beth Israel. I was not really sure what to expect, but I was still feeling the leading of the Lord. It took me a minute to understand, but when I did I had to take a picture of the title of Jonathan Cahn's message:
Wow! I would have dismissed learning where Mount Washington is, but the knowledge gained was so quick that it baffled me. It was almost like I asked and instantly learned. And no google involved! I was just so blessed and encouraged this evening. I recorded the whole message and perhaps I'll be able to share it here sometime. In any case, this has been a very long and time consuming entry, so I'd really like to finish this up. In doing so I will leave you with one last beautiful image as I was walking out of Beth Israel:
God bless!
