A Helping Hand...or two

I was awakened at 6:30 this morning by my phone ringing. It was my husband who had just recently left for work, asking me to come and get him down the road, as his truck quit running. Ugh. I was so cozy in my bed, but I got up and threw on some yoga capris, a shirt, and hoodie, grabbed my purse and crocs, and backed out of the garage to go and bring him home. I didn’t feel that I needed anything else since it was just a short trip there and back. Once home, he could take my car to work while someone else towed his broken down truck to a service department to be fixed.

 Luckily, it’s a Monday, and I work from home on Mondays, so it was fine if he had to use my car for this one day.

Driving, only half awake, I see him standing by his broken down truck. I look at my temperature gauge and it reads 14 degrees. Brrrr, good thing I am just bringing him back home because I am clearly not dressed to be out in this weather. He didn’t look like he was either, so it’s a good thing that he broke down so close to home.

As I pull off to the side of the road, I see that his truck is at a stop sign, but still not in a great spot to be sitting for very long, so, I wonder what his plan of attack is going to be. He walks up to my window with a tow rope in hand, and then after assessing my car, advises that I don’t have any of the towing “thingy’s” (my word, not his) that one would need to tow a truck, so he tells me that I would just have to help him push his truck back off of the road a bit to get it out of the way. What? I have to get out of my car and help push a very heavy truck off of the road? I am not dressed for this, and it’s freezing out!

He tells me that I will be fine. Famous last words…

 Luckily, I was a girl scout, so I reached into my emergency bag that I keep in my back seat, and pulled out a pair of gloves. There is nothing in my bag to cover my exposed shins, so I will just have to live with my decision to wear yoga capris in January in Indiana.

I was happy that it was still dark out as I was sure that I looked like a vision in my “outfit”. Just then a car rolls up next to him to ask if we needed help. YES! I yell out in my head, but he thanks the driver and tells him that we have it handled.  Brother…

I walk to the front of his truck and get into position to push, while he has one foot in the truck, one foot on the road, and a hand on the steering wheel to help guide.  I was thankful that I have been lifting weights for the last couple of years and was hoping that all of that sweat was about to pay off.

PUSH!! The truck barely budges. PUSH AGAIN, HARDER! This time it moved about an inch. Another person stops to see if we need help, and my husband waives them on.  NOOOOOO!! Come back!!  I yell out again in my head, but he too is gone. I try to muster up that super strength that you hear about in extreme situations, but after a few more futile pushes, I curse my muscles and lack of upper body strength then suddenly realize that my lower body is really cold. My husband jumps out of the truck and walks up to me to discuss plan B, when yet another good soul drives up to ask if we are okay. This time, I take over and encourage my husband to accept this kind strangers help as I climb back into my warm car.

I start to thaw out as I watch these two men try to push the truck out of the way. They pushed and pushed but didn’t really get any further in their attempt than I did, so I apologized to my muscles for the previous curse, and I continued to watch them from the warmth of my car.

 Another person stops to ask if we need help. If I haven’t said it enough before, let me reiterate it again, I love living in the country! I love everything about it. Here it is, Monday morning, around 6:45am, 14 degrees with snow flurries, and people are stopping on their way to work or wherever, to help us. I don’t know if you would get this kind of selflessness in the city, but I do know that you get it in the country!

Finally, my husband and the other man decide that they can’t push it out, so I move my car out of the way so that they can tow my husband’s truck off of the road with the other guy’s truck.

10 minutes later, the truck is out of the way, the kind man is on his way to continue with his day, and I am back at home making coffee to start my day. I never really doubt why I love living in the country, and today is just another reminder of why I love it and the people so much!