Deflated to Elated

Frankly, I have been having a hard time with my new status.  A little over a week into sitting at home while just down the street another sits in the chair I called mine for over 14 years is hard.  Non-structured days, days feeling abandoned, rejected and non-essential have been taking a toll on my mood and outlook.  I hear the buses run every morning and afternoon and know they are no longer my responsibility, nor anything and everything else in the local school system.  Letting go and moving on is tough.

I have tackled an array of household chores that never seemed to get accomplished while I was punching the clock. We have a giant Sago Palm in the back yard, the product of a gift from a Board Member years ago when we first moved in this house.  Over time it grew, put out puppies and eventually achieved a diameter of over 15 feet and a height over 7 feet.  It was a monster begging to be trimmed.  I tackled the Sago this week.  Hours and hours of snaking around the base on hands and knees individually cutting the prickly branches, pruning the monster back.  Finally trimmed, I was left with a large pile of cuttings that had to be hauled to the dump.  That was a mission for Friday.

 

I began loading all the clippings from the major reshape effort on the Sago in the back of my truck.  Took hours. I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt to protect me from the branches and once all the trimmings had been picked up and loaded I was very hot and tired.   I headed to the dump to dispose of the prickly little branches and it  took another hour to unload the truck.  As I was pulling away from the large brush pile at the dump I heard a thump/thump under the truck.  I assumed I had picked up a branch and was dragging it, but no.  I had a flat tire.  So flat the tire was coming off the wheel.  It was 4:45 p.m.

I was very hot, very tired.  I called AAA to come change the tire for me; why else pay for such a service?  They said someone could be there in an hour and a half.  I was a good 1/2 mile from the office at the dump, way out on the back  40.  I sat.  It began to dawn on me that the dump may be closing.  I did not know what time.  I did not know if I could still get out, or if the wrecker could get in.  I sat.  With a heavy sigh, I got out of the truck and retrieved the jack, tire tool, etc. from behind the back seat.  I went to the front left tire and began to try to loosen the lug nuts.  I had the tires balanced and rotated about a month ago and the mechanic used an air wrench to put the nuts on.  Jeez they were tight.  The lug wrench was one of those angular ones not the good X-shaped ones.  I struggled.  I grunted.  I strained, and the nuts would not bust free. I stood on the wrench and they would not bust free.  Now mixed with my fear of being caged in the dump all night I was angry at the lug nuts and the guy who tightened them.  I was exhausted, near tears.  This felt like one more kick in the teeth while I was down.

A white pick up truck arrived out of nowhere.  I did not see it coming, though had I stood and looked I could see for miles in every direction.  It was the young man who worked in the office at the dump.  He told me as he was leaving he happened to look back and saw my truck sitting out here alone.  Had I pulled on the other side of the brush pile he would not have seen me.  He said the dump was closed, the gate locked and I would be stuck.  I told him I was working on changing the flat, but couldn't break the lug nuts loose.  He looked at me for a second, then said, OK, I'll give you a hand. I felt a huge surge of relief.

Rudy, the young man, was about 21, over 6' tall and probably weighed over 250 pounds.  He took his own lug nut wrench out of his truck, the good X-shaped kind, and quickly broke the nuts free.  He pulled out his portable floor jack, positioned it under the truck and easily jacked up the front end of my truck.  The flat came off and I threw it in the recently emptied bed of my truck.  We cranked down the spare from under the bed of the truck, he rolled it over, slid it on, tightened the nuts, and let the truck back down.  He was now like me, hot and sweaty and dirty from lying on the dirt in the junk yard.  I thanked him, shook his hand, gave him a $20 and hopped in my truck.  He smiled and said thank you very much.  We exchanged names.  I followed him to the front gate, he got out and unlocked it, swung it open, and I passed through to head home.  It was almost 6:00.  Thank goodness for Rudy or I would have had a long, lonely night sitting in the dump, or I would have had about a 15 mile walk home down narrow little country roads in the dark.  Neither prospect was appealing.

Fate or simple happenstance, the flat reminded me that there are really good people in this world. I do not know Rudy and may never see him again.  He arrived just when I needed help the most.  A heavy angel, perhaps.  A simple flat tire at that place and at that time could have been truly traumatic.  I could not have driven on the flat.  Thank goodness for cell phones.  20 years ago I would have been really stuck.  I awake grateful for all our technology but more for the good people out there, who regardless of their own wants, needs, and schedule will stop to help another human in need.  I forget that I as wallow in the pain triggered by not so good people who are willing to hurt others to accomplish their own wants and wishes.

My tire like my mood was deflated.  The arrival of help and support when I needed it the most brought a new kind of tears to my eyes.  I was grateful.  I was elated.

Thanks, Rudy.