On my way home from getting Jessie from school today, our Dodge truck finally gave up the ghost. At least the transmission did. I pulled up to a stop light. It was red, so I stopped. At the green signal, I gave it the gas, and it gave me a few sputters forward, but that's all I could get out of it.
"You've got to be kidding me," Jessie said, and snickered.
"Not kidding," I replied, pressing on the gas, begging Big Red to move forward. He wouldn't budge.
I tried to pull off the side of the road as best I could, but I didn't get far. With a trembling hand, I searched for the emergency flashers and finally found them. My first thought was how in the world I could get the truck off the road. I didn't see a way without more help. As usual, the first person that came to mind was my sister-in-law, Hannah! She was gracious enough to come to my rescue, and she showed up with one daughter with wet hair (who was kind enough not to scowl at me for abruptly putting an end to her shower), another daughter who was pretty bored with being there, and the baby that she provides daycare for.
We quickly decided that it would be best to at least try and get the truck off the road, so Jessie and Hannah pushed while I steered. I was able to get it mostly to the side, although I was sure that if a policeman drove up, I'd be in trouble. Next thing was to figure out how we'd get Big Red home. I called Shaun and asked about a tow rope. Lo and behold, we had one in the back of the truck (go figure). So Hannah and I went to the back of the truck, picked up the rope, and said, "Now what do we do with it?" This is the problem with always having your husband along when you break down. All the women stand around and giggle while the men hook up the truck, and the women never learn how accomplish these tasks! :-)
Next obvious thing was to call someone with some knowledge about tow ropes ... and hope they were home. Shaun and Ricardo were at work, so there was no help there. Shaun's dad, Jim, was the obvious choice, and he had just gotten home (whew!).
"Brenda's truck broke down and we have a tow rope, but we don't know how to hook it up," Hannah said over the phone.
I thought that was the worst thing she could have said ... but at least she was honest. ;-)
"Maybe I should watch you hook it up this time, so that next time, I'll know what I'm doing," she went on, chuckling. After talking a few more minutes, she hung up and reported that Jim was on his way to get us.
"He said he would be more than willing to come rescue us two damsel's in distress," she relayed, laughing.
Disgusted, I said, "I'd rather he come get this damdodgeindistress."
We looked at each other, wide eyed. But the hilarity of the statement was too much, and we went into yet another laughing fit. You know, the kind of laughing fit that only women in times of stress can have.
Jim arrived to relieve us damsels, and hooked the two trucks together in no time with his handy dandy chain. He would drive his truck, and I would steer Big Red.
"I've done this before, Jim, but it's been a really long time."
"You're going to be the breaks for us. Just make sure you keep the chain taut," he instructed. "It can be a hair raising experience, that's for sure."
He turned and walked away.
I assumed that was my refresher course.
My main fear was breaking what I knew to be precious to Jim - his tow chain. However, I was able to keep the chain taut, except for that one incident ... I think I kept it a little too taut, which may have resulted in a little whiplash.
Needless to say, we made it home in good time, and I will be forever grateful to Hannah and Jim who were willing to drop everything and come to my rescue. Thanks, guys!
The ridiculousness of the whole incident is in the conversation I had with Shaun before he left for work today.
"Maybe you should take Ashlee to work with her car, go get Jessie, and then you could go get Ashlee from work tonight," Shaun suggested.
With the plans I had for this evening, that wasn't going to be very convenient, so I decided (with his blessing) to go ahead and take the truck. We knew it had a transmission problem (it wouldn't go in reverse), but it had been driving forward just fine.
"Chances are that you'll be fine. But it could happen that the whole transmission will go out."
"Well," I said sarcastically, "you know that if the truck breaks down, it will be with me!"
Sigh ... If I could only stuff those words back into my mouth. ;-)
~PrairieBren
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