A long short story about friendly people and a helpful universe…

A week or so ago we took my Honda to the dealers because mice had chewed through the wires on the fuel injector harnass, so it was only running on three cylinders. They said they’d have to replace the harnass, and that was over $430 for the part alone. It didn’t feel quite right, so I left.

Some days later, my car still unfixed, JOHN’S car breaks down at work – won’t start, etc. So I picked him up that night in my car. The next day, we were driving in to where his car was parked to call a tow truck and get it to a garage, when MY car suddenly lurches and doesn’t want to go any further. SO we pulled off to the side of the road. Oh great – BOTH cars?

We were just on the outskirts of town, and after looking at the engine and scratching our heads *grin*, we decided I’d stay with the car and John would walk to the nearest house and ask to borrow their phone. As I watched him walk away I said out loud, “Okay, universe, we could use a bit of help here!” I turn around and suddenly there’s a small fire truck coming around the corner. It sees us and pulls over. The three firefighters, two men and one woman, try to use their cell phones for us, but can’t get a connection. (Not surprising way out here – lots of hills too.) So they radio it in and have them call the towing company. Thanks guys!

So we waited, and the tow truck guy showed up promptly – he’s was also really nice and funny. He took us to one garage, which was full, and then we went to another place that a guy John worked with had recommended, which was able to take us. Then, he dropped me off at the car rental place (he checked to make sure they had a car for us before he left) while he went with John to get HIS car – LOL.

So, the woman’s taking down my information when she sees that my license is EXPIRED. Oh crap – it’s not REALLY expired, I’d mailed in my renewal – I just hadn’t gotten my new license back in the mail yet. I panic for a split second and the woman says, “We can just drive you over to the DMV and they can give you a printout we can use – this happened to me the other day.” (It’s a small town, and the DMV was just around the corner.)

Over to the DMV – wait only about 25 minutes – get the proof, come back. The woman had to leave, but a guy who I swear is Robin William’s younger brother helps me instead. But apparently they hadn’t yet cleared all the stuff on my account from the LAST time we rented, so then we had to do THAT. My eyes were glazing over at this point – LOL.

It was three hours later than we’d planned that John and I finally sat down to lunch/dinner – feeling very strange and off kilter, but fine too.

Today, we got up, determined that this was going to work out all right for us, even though we didn’t really have any extra money at ALL. I dropped John off at work and drove the rental car to the laundromat to do a few loads. Then I stopped by the repair shop because I wanted to see if they might possibly have one of the cars done before Monday, so we could get a weekend rate on the rental car and then turn it in. Well, they looked at the Honda, and in like ten seconds they figured out that the computer fuse blew and that’s why it wouldn’t start. And in ten more minutes, they’d fixed the chewed wires and the car was good to go. $39.90. (Just a BIT less than the first $430+estimate – I know – never go to a dealer for this kind of thing – yeah yeah – LOL).

Took the rental car back too – only $35 for that! YES! And now all we have to do is get John’s car back. We’re pretty sure it’s the starter, since the tow truck guy, Jay, said he could see it dangling – heh, and because of the rod and bracket I found under the car when we moved it that night were for securing the starter – LOL.

So that’s my story so far. There was a lot here to get freaked out about, particularly in the money arena, but so far, it’s working out wonderfully. It kinda feels like we sorta floated through the whole experience, meeting wonderful people that helped us when we didn’t know what else to do. We were determined not to get worried or get into a funk or anything about all the potential problems this could ‘mean’ for us.

That’ll learn us! 🙂