Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Balance, Karma, Serendipity... Whatever!

After my rather dismal post yesterday, I had an interesting experience.

I had to leave the class that I was teaching in the hands of some of my staff because I had to attend a brief meeting at our Washington, DC office. A bit of a pain to make the drive, but no worries, it won't kill me.

It took me about 10 minutes to get there from where I work in Alexandria, Va. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes so I lost no real time and was out the door like a shot when the meeting concluded (I hate meetings).

I was headed back to my office when I saw a blue Honda Odyssey minivan with it's emergency lights flashing, sitting right at the top of the South Capitol street on-ramp to I-395. If you don't know DC traffic, let me tell you that this is a BAD place to break down. So, I turned on my blue/red light bar, and pulled up in front of this van and found that the lady (two of them, actually) had a flat right rear tire. She explained that she had already called Triple A but they said that it might take as long as two hours for them to get there.

Well, the long and the short of it is this: I wasn't prepared to just drive off with a "Good Luck!" and a wave, so I changed the tire myself. Not that big of a deal, but it made me feel good to help someone.

So there you have it... sometimes when things really look like sh... er, crap, you can find something good in it that will make it better for you.

Now that I have given you the feel-good story for today, let me say that the jack that comes with the Honda Odyssey is an absolute piece of crap! Why can't they install a decent sized jack these days? I spent most of the time it took to change that tire, turning that little bar that passed for a crowbar, just to get the bloody tire of the ground so I could change it! Maybe I should go to the designer's house and ply my skills there!

Feel better?

I do.

GF

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you are feeling better. Random Acts of Kindness, generally have that effect. Serendipity indeed.

About the jack? Companies present the illusion of helpfulness with their products. What they really want is consumers to come running to them (or accomplices) for help. Conspiracy?

Re-designing products to make them better, more user friendly? Sounds like a fabulous idea.

Deborah

Anonymous said...

You, my friend, are a saint.

But I will never, at least I hope I never, understand women who will not at least attempt to change their own flat tire. What is up with that?

Suzanne

Gunfighter said...

Saint? Ha! Not bloody likely, pal.

Good karma, I suppose. Do something nice for someone, someone will do something nice for me. Or do unto others etc...

I can understand why they didn't try to make the change themselves... both were in skirts w/heels... and they were in a dangerous place.

Who knows, but all is well that ends well, I reckon.

Bill

Bent Fabric said...

If I ever get a flat I sure hope you're in the vicinity. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm happy to say that I know how to change a tire. Everyone should know how to do that. Don't they watch horror movies??

Anonymous said...

Hey ya big lug, changing tires wasn't the only nice thing you did today--thanks for your encouragement; it meant a lot! :D