As many of you know, today is Mother’s day. Today my daughter and I should be waiting on my wife hand and foot. We’re not. Instead, we’re going to the Portland Opera’s matinee showing of Aida.

You may wonder, what does this have to do with Mother’s Day or chemistry? Well, on the Mother’s day side, my wife gets what looks to be a beautiful afternoon all to herself, which I’m sure she’ll enjoy. On the chemistry side, I get to try and find one of my colleauges in the chorus.

Update:

Well, that certainly didn’t work out.  We had just reached I-5, when I heard a “thump”.  Soon, the red lights on the dashboard for the battery and oxygen sensors lit up, quickly followed by the water temperature light, and the needle was rising.  I took the first exit I could, found a safe place to pull over, and watched the white smoke from the back of our 85 VW Westfalia camper.

I got out and watched a large volume of coolant draining rapidly from the back.  When I looked into the engine compartment, I could see the coolant vigorously boiling in the resevoir, and found that one belt – maybe for the coolant pump – had broken, and another was off.

About two hours and almost $100 later we were back home, thanks to AAA.  Needless to say, we missed the opera, and my wife didn’t get to have the relaxing Mother’s day that she deserved.