You don't handle this sort of thing so well, do you?

Several years ago, well, I guess it was about twelve years ago, I was on a trip with a friend from our Church. We took the long way back, though the white mountains and then down to Globe, Miami and some other similarly obscure northern Arizona towns near where he grew up.

On the way, the radiator started to spring a leak. we had to patch it up and add water every few miles. He was clearly concerned, both because he might not be making a good impression on the Pastor and because he really did want to get home. He commented on how I was really keeping my cool in spite of the problems we were having. I told him that since it wasn't my car, it really didn't bother me so much at all.

Fast forward to Friday night. we were invited to watch a movie with some friends that we hadn't hung out with for a while. We had the movie and we loaded up the kids, my Mom (visiting from Denver) and Diane(my wife) and I into our car. Diane noticed a light was on inside the car and wondered aloud how long it had been on.

After two hours of unsuccessfully trying to jump start it with my truck, we finally decided to check the battery. We don't like to do this, because we have to take apart several pieces of our car before we can get to the battery. The last one to take out the battery was the shop, so they had apparently tightened it down with some sort of pneumatic drill, or a muscle bound mechanic training for the next Mr. America contest. So, we decided to ask Diane's Dad is we could get some better tools to take it apart.

After he came, he tried to jump start it again. Fortunately, it worked. We were too late to go to our friends, but at least our old car is still chugging along, even though I vowed to walk to the nearest car dealership the next day and buy a new one.

Apparently I impressed my mom. Even though I was more than a little upset, she said she thought I really kept my cool. according to her, I didn't swear once. I guess she can't read my mind like Diane can.