Day 1
There were gists on other days this week, but yesterday is where we start. Wedding day for S: new suit, spiffy outfit for W, joy in the air (though admittedly grumpy with time crunch), lovely unTexas weather for the un-air conditioned car set. Rolling down 410, I'm feeling like there's too much traffic, too much noise: I pull off to do the quiet meander down Vandiver. Second stop, the car lurches forward, dies. Will not turn over to start up again. From cool wonder, I am quickly a matchstick away from explosive and gutted. A couple of folks drive around us. Man in an old truck stops to T's right. Pulls over under an oak tree, helps us push the car behind him. We look under the hood together, one with an eye to possibly knowing what to look for, and that one AIN'T me.
Two and a half hours till the wedding.
A. - his name is A - sez, let's go get some anti-freeze, since we're all out: leak somewhere: pray it's not the "new" radiator. T and W stay in the shade of the oak, I go with A (newly moved from Kansas, wonderfully easygoing air, just what the doctor ordered) to Advance Auto Parts, get the stuff: quick stop by A's house to fill up a water jug. By the time we get back to the car, three other cars are standing by to help, and T is on a borrowed cellphone with BOB, the almighty BOB, savior of all things mobile and less than so. Miracle of miracles: BOB answered the phone, and he is home for the next few hours. BOB who shuns the payments we insist on his taking.
A follows us to BOB's to ensure we are okay for the drive. B immediately finds the busted bypass hose (not radiator!!): I borrow his nifty little Civic, take T and W home to get ready (R and L will pick them up to make the wedding on time), zip by O' Reilly for the hose and clamps, back to B's, 5 minute repair, obligatory refusal of money (Me: "Put it on the tab, Bob." He: "You already have money on the tab.") and eventual acceptance, back to the house in revived Merry Hawthorne, into the new suit, and on to the church. I walk in as all others are walking out: Methodists marry quickly: I am only twenty minutes late.
Off to the old Gunther: Robert Johnson's seminal haunt? Food and lots of dancing, wonderfully festive evening. Love Shack, Word Up, Prince, Sinatra, Bennett, Armstrong/Fitzgerald. Nice, very nice, all just hours after the precipice.
Under the hood with Bob (he sees this work as one of his ministries, hence the discomfort with money: we insist it is to support the ministry), I say something about being thankful this didn't happen on the beach trip last weekend, or even on the highway just an hour before. As wonderful as the blessings are, I added that it would be nice to not have to be thankful just in times of car troubles. I think his answer was something like: "Yeah, but what are you going to do - argue about it?"
The dancing, the company, the evening: all blessings too.
Two and a half hours till the wedding.
A. - his name is A - sez, let's go get some anti-freeze, since we're all out: leak somewhere: pray it's not the "new" radiator. T and W stay in the shade of the oak, I go with A (newly moved from Kansas, wonderfully easygoing air, just what the doctor ordered) to Advance Auto Parts, get the stuff: quick stop by A's house to fill up a water jug. By the time we get back to the car, three other cars are standing by to help, and T is on a borrowed cellphone with BOB, the almighty BOB, savior of all things mobile and less than so. Miracle of miracles: BOB answered the phone, and he is home for the next few hours. BOB who shuns the payments we insist on his taking.
A follows us to BOB's to ensure we are okay for the drive. B immediately finds the busted bypass hose (not radiator!!): I borrow his nifty little Civic, take T and W home to get ready (R and L will pick them up to make the wedding on time), zip by O' Reilly for the hose and clamps, back to B's, 5 minute repair, obligatory refusal of money (Me: "Put it on the tab, Bob." He: "You already have money on the tab.") and eventual acceptance, back to the house in revived Merry Hawthorne, into the new suit, and on to the church. I walk in as all others are walking out: Methodists marry quickly: I am only twenty minutes late.
Off to the old Gunther: Robert Johnson's seminal haunt? Food and lots of dancing, wonderfully festive evening. Love Shack, Word Up, Prince, Sinatra, Bennett, Armstrong/Fitzgerald. Nice, very nice, all just hours after the precipice.
Under the hood with Bob (he sees this work as one of his ministries, hence the discomfort with money: we insist it is to support the ministry), I say something about being thankful this didn't happen on the beach trip last weekend, or even on the highway just an hour before. As wonderful as the blessings are, I added that it would be nice to not have to be thankful just in times of car troubles. I think his answer was something like: "Yeah, but what are you going to do - argue about it?"
The dancing, the company, the evening: all blessings too.
posted by murat11 at 12:27 PM
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