Thankful for My Village

Having a small village of friends means I have a large assortment of experts to call on when needing help with life's day-to-day problems and inconveniences.  Today's unplanned car dilemma was made easier thanks to one of my village members.

Unfortunately, my newly repaired car wasn't quite as fixed up as I thought it would be.  Last night while on an Indian food run I had noted the temperature gauge racing to hot after driving all of about one mile.  Ugh.  I hate dealing with car stuff, so my first instinct was to ignore it and hope the problem would solve itself overnight.

That didn't quite work out as planned.  This afternoon I lifted the hood and poked around the engine to see if I could make sense of the problem.  Obviously, something was going on with the coolant level in the radiator.  The wet spot underneath the car led me to believe there was a leak somewhere.  Thanks to that leak I was going to have to take it back to the shop where I'd only been less than 24 hours before.

Enter my go-to car expert, Mary Ellen.  I've known her for over 25 years, which means we go back long enough to have known one another when we were zipping around town in cars that were not always in the finest state of repair.  If memory serves me right, it was Mary Ellen that taught me how to pop the clutch on my Ford Escort when it wouldn't start.  She was also known to shop all over the area when looking for a cheaper car repair, even going as far as Scranton's largest auto junk yard in search of a new engine for her little Subaru.  So today, when I was faced with that pesky radiator problem she was the first person I asked for advice.

Within 15 minutes of my call for help she was at my house and underneath the car looking for the source of the leak.  Her hope was that it was just a loose fitting that we (she) could tighten up.  I poured water into the radiator, and onto Mary Ellen, as she looked for the problem.  Without a clear answer we drove it back to the service station where it sits waiting for a second opinion.

Life's little inconveniences are better when faced with the support of others. Even though I've known that for many years, it still feels good to know there's always someone to call when a little bit of help is needed.