my knight in shining armour-all

yeah, so earlier today, i decided to run around and take care of some things. ya know, but in my car. cuz that's the suthern way, we drive everywhere, even a few blocks down the street. when in the south, do as the sutherns do. but i woulda driven anyway, cuz longview is a ways aways.

first up, my lil place on the farm (beider has been there and i wanted to feed him extra food and also leave a few things, pick up a few things~~like shoes!). all was good til i got off the one hi-way and went to get on another and i stopped. and by that, i mean that my car stopped at the stop sign (cuz i read well, and even if i didn't, the damn red shape is so ingrained) and then it didn't go again. the engine stalled. sigh.

i tried to restart it. it made that 'err-er-ruhr-rhr' sound. ya know, that one that says, "look, you can pump the gas all you'd like, but it's not gonna help the engine catch and turn over. it's just not." sigh.

so after i set my yield lights to blinking, i hopped out (cuz i can be all young and spry like that) and popped the hood (cuz that's what you do when you've got car trouble...your tire could be flat, and folks will pop the hood, it's ingrained). the battery cables looked connected. and there were no obvious wires disconnected or parts hanging loose or cables slipped. while i was stopped with my hood up, i thought, "hey! i can add some anti-freeze, cuz i have a new bottle in the trunk". so i popped the trunk as well (balance, it's allllllllllll about balance, doncha know). and while i was doing that, a nice young lady pulled up and let me use her cellie.

that's what she called it, 'ya wanna use my cellie?"

now, ya'll know i'm not big on phones of any kind (having just recently taken the ringer switch on my landline off its permenant "off" mode and leaving it on); but cells and me only have a bare nodding acquaintance. so i very gingerly took the proferred cellie and flipped it open and pressed the digits, so exact and ginger was i that sweat popped out on my forehead, my tongue popped outta the corner of my mouth, and i frowned intently with concentration. the poor woman was probably regretting her cellie offer.

the only number i could think of was jerry's work number. and wouldn't ya know, that turned out to be a good thing, what with him being at work and all this tuesday afternoon. jerry made me repeat my frantically confused softly-spoken self to make sure that he knew where to come to rescue his damsel in distress, once again.

the surprising thing was, there were quite a few folks who stopped to offer assistance. i know it probably had something to do with the fact that it was during the day. but that was odd for me, in my previous times of car abandonment issues (the car's ghost was about to give up and abandon me), you might recall the number of times and situations in which i've been car-troubled. and it's been lots. you'd think i'd break down and get me a cellie. or get a different car. but i'd only be able to afford another used vehicle and that would have its own set of used-vehicle-troubles. better the devil ya know.

included in the multitude of folks who stopped to check on me and my indecently exposed car with its popped hood and trunk was a man who was driving a tow truck. and two police officers. who were very nice, and were gonna push my car to the other side of the road, but! along came jerry, who gave me a jump (*gasp* right there! in public! in front of two law officers!) and got me back on the road.

sigh.
my hero.
sigh.