It's All A Matter Of Perspective

You know, if I believed that my God were a vengeful god, I'd be wondering what I'd done wrong. Fortunately, I don't, and I'm not about to wallow in my own sorrows. No, everything has a purpose, and while I don't always understand, I'm OK with the fact that I'm certainly learning. And learning.

Yesterday's trip was pretty uneventful. I left my brother's home on time, and didn't miss a turn or a change of path. When I got to Roswell, NM, (yes, the Roswell of alien fame, and BTW, I lived there at one time!!), I followed the AAA routing right onto the correct road. I checked again on the itinerary, and it said I was just 21 miles from my destination. Hmmm. I had a quarter tank of gas, so I was in good shape. Except . . .

The way the routing itinerary was worded, that was correct. What I didn't realize was that the 21 miles was counted from the split of 2 highways, not from the initiation of the highway that I was on. Therefore, my gas calculations were off by about 45 miles. And, unfortunately, this was all going uphill into the mountains, which increased the usage of gas significantly when pulling a trailer.

You should understand that the Southwest is different from much of the rest of the country. Towns are not as closely spaced, and if near to others, many do not have gas stations, but travel a few miles to a neighboring town to purchase gas. As I passed through a couple small towns, I found only one gas station, and it was out of business. I knew I had to find gas and quickly. As I watched the gas gauge drop and drop, I began to notice that I was holding my breath. Not good. All I needed was to hyperventilate on a mountain road. Ali was in the back, getting tired of riding, and began little whines and grumbling noises to let me know that he was not happy. So to comfort us both, I started talking to him about anything, everything. It helped me to talk and I think it helped him to hear my voice. Finally I found an open station, and filled the tank, unfortunately to the tune of $2.69 per gallon rather than the $2.23 I passed up near Roswell!!

Alright, gas crisis forestalled, I continued to my destination. My son met me in the little town and guided me back to his place. All was well until we turned off the highway onto the gravel road leading to his house. It is a gravel road, and recent deluges of rain has loosened much of the gravel. It is necessary to go up a hill, fairly steep, and I just couldn’t do it. My van is front wheel drive, and the weight of the trailer, along with the loose gravel were a bad combination. I couldn’t get any traction. So I backed down the hill . . . well, as best I could. We finally decided that the best bet was to lessen the weight in the trailer, so we off-loaded some things into his pickup bed and ran it to the house, just about a block away. We did this 4 times, and then I redistributed the weight and made sure that nothing fragile was subject to falling. I tried a run at the hiss again, and to my delight, I began to ascend the hill. For a while. About 1/2 way up the hill, I couldn’t go farther. I also knew that I couldn’t back up. I was in a realy pickle!

Just about this time, my son was talking to a man at the foot of the hill who offered to do what he could. A car came from in front of me with several young people in it, and all these people simply jumped out of their vehicles and began pushing my car up the hill!! It took a few minutes, but between their help and my continued pushing my poor little van, we popped up over the crest and I was able to pull right in front of my son’s house. How much better neighbors could Allan have?

Today we finished unloading the trailer. I am taking out what I need for now, and repacking the rest, then we will store it in Allan’s storage building. Tomorrow we will return the trailer and have lunch with a cousin in a nearby town. Tomorrow night is a wine tasting party, and Saturday holds a parade in a nearby town. Next week Allan’s birth mom and step father, step brother and sister-in-law will be here for a few days. After all that, maybe Things will be more or less normal. Normal? In my life? Uh-huh!! Yeah. Sure.

I’m very tired and need some sleep. I will be back into the grove very soon, and until then, know that I am safe, healthy and happy. Yes, by golly, I’m happy! Just think how much more serious things could have been. Life is very good, and I’m just fine!