Today I learned what it meant to have a blowout -- not a flat tire, a blowout. I was on the way taking Nikki to preschool when I noticed that the car was pulling really strongly to one side. (It just so happens that we bought this car last Saturday and thought that we actually found a good deal. This is a typical bargain for us!) I thought at first that Nate just must not have noticed how out of alignment it was when he was testdriving it, but when the car started shaking really bad and I saw black pieces of the tire fly by my window I finally got a clue that something was wrong. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, I know. I have never seen a tire look that torn up in my life. It was shredded, and I was afraid I had messed up the car driving on it.
Anyway, Heavenly Father really was looking out for me. One of the things that Nate made sure the car dealer included was a spare tire and jack (which I think he pulled out of another car on the lot), and I was so grateful to have that. I don't have a cell phone, so I knew I just had to change it myself. I had no clue which end of the jack was up or down, and we could have sat on the side of the road all day before I had it figured out. But a nice older man stopped just a few minutes after I pulled over and changed the tire for me. Just one more reason that I really like living in a small town.
So, I finally got Nikki to preschool and I asked the director where the closest place was that I could get a new tire. She told me about this little backwoods hole-in-the-wall tire shop just down the road. They had me in and out in less than 30 minutes. It just so happens that last week I had to get a new tire for our other car, and I called around for prices a little bit and ended up at Sam's. Well, it took them 3 1/2 hours and cost two times more than what I paid this morning. I guess that was a bonus to now know where to go to get new tires.
All in all, it was quite an experience, and I am so grateful that the Lord was looking out for us. He kept us safe and sent wonderful people in my path to help me out.
Just a side note, the man who stopped on the side of the road kept calling me "shoog" (short for sugar), and the guy at the shop kept saying "baby doll." Now, I hadn't showered, I was in sweats, I had no makeup on, and my hair was a frizzy mop on my head. Nobody was flirting with me. It's just the way the locals talk around here. Even people at church say that. It just made me smile this morning to be living here with these good country folks.
2 comments:
oh my! i don't think i've ever personally known someone who's had a blowout. wow. sounds like you kept your cool. it really does help to live in the country. there is nothing like it.
one time, after cory & i were first married, i was working in kinston. i had been having some car issues, but one day coming home from work the transmission died--right in front of the mall. as soon as it happened, i knew what it was, but my car was stalled in the middle of a pretty busy street. i remember saying a little prayer to Heavenly Father to just let me be able to get it out of traffic and into the mall parking lot. i knew i was being watched out for, when the car began moving again & i was able to coast into the mall--where the car promptly died and didn't want to budge another inch. its those "tender mercies" that let yout know you're never really alone.
That's a really neat experience. It's so true that we are watched over all the time. I think of those daily prayers where we always ask to be kept safe, and I know that is what happened to us that day. I'm sure the Lord intervenes far more than we ever know.
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