The Value of Friends

We've been having a lot of vehicular challenges this past week. On the way home Saturday evening, our 1996 Buick suddenly stopped. I mean, it just stopped running and I was barely able to get off the side of the road. I was on a very busy street and sort of felt like a sitting duck, because the battery was drained and I couldn't even use my hazard lights. Dorene was in our van so she was able to come by and at least serve as a beacon for oncoming traffic.

We called our pastor and he came by and gave me a jump start so I could drive the car to the nearby Meijer parking lot, where we let it sit for a couple days. I had visions of major $$ having to be spent, so I wasn't anxious on finding out what was wrong (figuring that maybe this car was done for).

It turned out that the alternator gave out. A couple in our church canceled their plans last night and Harold came by and diagnosed the problem. In spite of my suggestions that it could wait until morning, he took out the alternator and we went and got a new one. Then, in the rather frigid temperatures last night, he installed the new alternator and I was able to drive the car home without incident as it ran perfectly.

Needless to say, we took them out for pizza, the least that we could do. Guarantee you that was a lot cheaper than a mechanic would have charged (another drawback to living far away from a mechanic brother that can also do this stuff). But wow, that was so great of Harold to do this. All I did was hold the flashlight and watched him stand there in the cold and help us out. You can't put a price tag on that folks.

Meanwhile, we just had to put 4 new tires on our van, because we were basically driving on bald tires. Yikes, I just love cars!