Monday, June 23, 2008

Been a while...

I haven't written for a while now. I had a crisis of confidence in my motivation. Am I doing this for the wrong reasons? I still don't know, but this morning I was nearly forced to stop, so I did. It felt good.

As I approached the middle street merge area, I saw a young lady on the side of the road, her car's hood up and she was on the cellphone. I was late for work and in the center lane and although I felt sorry for her I wasn't planning to stop.

Then the blue Acura in front of me stopped dead in my lane. Soon his hazard lights came on and I realized he was having trouble. I kicked on the amber flasher and got out to check on him. Right then someone else came to help to so we pushed his car off to the side of the road, getting him out of the dangerous traffic. I ran back to my truck and got it off the road too and checked on both stalled cars.

The Acura just died. He had gas and battery and was not overheating and he just called his dad to help. I walked over to the young lady and inquired if she was OK, and likewise her dad was on the way. As is typical, there was really nothing else I could do.

I said my "goodbyes" and "be carefuls" and got back on the road, very late for work now, but I called the boss and he said "no problem."

It's frustrating not being able to always solve the problem. I keep lots of resources with the truck (tools, water, gas, a battery-jumper, air compressor, duct tape) but if there is something mechanically wrong with the car, a call and a tow is about all that can be done. I was surprised how many times people with cellphones just wave off help. It happens a lot!

Maybe I'll start to stop again (that sounds funny). Stay tuned.