My truck broke down!

Yesterday was quite a day.  I didn’t get to climb because my truck broke down on me!  I was coming to the intersection of two of the main arteries of town when my truck’s engine began to make some clicking noises and revving up and down by itself.  I looked for a place to pull off the road before it quit me.  I made it to the entrance of a church parking lot before it quit, so I had to muscle the steering wheel to turn because the power steering was gone.  I let it roll as far as it would go into that church’s parking lot.  I tried to start it.  It turned over, started for a second or two, then sputtered and died with all the warning lights on.  I tried it again, and the same thing happened.  The third time, it wouldn’t start, so I decided to put it in neutral and push it into the nearest parking space, which was uphill. My truck is heavy!!!  I managed to do it, though.  I tried getting ahold of my husband.  No luck.  I left a message and then called my brother, who’s a mechanic.  👨‍🔧  He answered the phone, thank goodness, and called a tow truck for me before sending his hired man with his own truck to pick me up and take me to the house.

It had started to snow.  The pastor of the church came out to check on me and to offer to let me come inside and warm up if I needed to.  I thanked him and declined the offer, assuring him that I had someone on the way and that I’d get my truck out of his parking lot as soon as I could.  The hired man showed up and took me home.  I decided to go upstairs and have coffee with my mom, who was watching Squiggle Bug.  I told her what had happened.  She dug in her bag and, one at a time, tossed me two new t-shirts that she had gotten me.  “They were still on sale.  Did I get the right size?”  Yes, Mom.  “Oh, good.  Does that make your day a little better?”  That made my day, actually, because these two shirts were soft, light, and perfect for climbing!!!  Jerrold called and said he was on his way home.  I finished my coffee and headed back downstairs.

Jerrold and I were going to go and tow my truck to my brother’s shop ourselves to save a towing bill, but the tow truck was already there.  Fortunately, my brother has friends with whom he makes business deals (a favor in services for a favor in repair work).  I showered after Jerrold and I went for an ice tea and some lunch, and then took some Krispy Kreme donuts up to my mom, along with the containers we had borrowed from her most recently.  I had one of my new shirts on.  “Oh, is that one of your new shirts?” my mom asked.  Yep.  I even showered before I put it on!  She laughed and said, “Oh, well, good, I guess!”  Squiggle Bug crawled all the way across the living room floor over to me to be picked up.  I was impressed.  He’s such an active little fellow!  Mom said he’d been trying to stand up and walk all day and only took a 45-minute nap.  I held him in my arms and he was almost falling asleep, he was so tired, haha!

All that said, today I definitely need to go climbing!!!  I have an appointment with my doctor this morning, and then I can go straight to the climbing gym from there.  Perfect!  Sounds like a plan to me!!!  I’ll be driving my F150 today, so hopefully nothing goes wrong!  At least it’s under warranty!!!  There’s a slushy, rain-snow mix falling right now, so I don’t know what the roads will be like, but it’s not my driving that I worry about, anyway…it’s everybody else’s!  I won’t go on a rant about that, but I will say that people need to focus on driving when they’re driving.  Not every accident is preventable, but the majority are!  Anyway, I’ll go see the Doc, then go climbing.  Perfect!  Updates pending!