Your Silver Lining

[Chai Guy]

You know how they say "Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining"?? Tired old cliché right?

Well, sometimes I think that it might be true.

Last weekend I was headed out to Joshua Tree with my girlfriend to go camping with some fellow burners. About half way there I heard a loud "Ker-plunk" in the engine, so I pulled off the freeway and went to check the engine. It sounded like I broke a rod as all hell was breaking loose in there. I pulled the valve cover off and couldn't see anything wrong, but I was pretty sure that's what had happened.

I called my friend up on the phone (It's now midnight). He agrees with my assessment, and offers to come and get me, I'm a good 2 hours away from his house. He also offers that if I can stay put until morning, he will rent a dolly for his truck and tow me back home. So I call Sharper (the organizer of the trip) and she offers to come get me so that we can still enjoy the weekend (we are a good 1.5 hours from her house). Since I can't do anything to the bus before Monday, I say "Sure, why not?".

So Sharper shows up to rescue us, mind you I have never met her in person before, she doesn’t even know me, but here she is in the middle of the night (it's now about 2:00am) rescuing two strangers and bringing them back to her house!

We ended up spending a great weekend with Sharper and some other nice folks at Joshua Tree. While there, we meet two other people who offer to give us a ride home. Again, total strangers offering to drive us a good hour out of their way. I tried to offer them some money for gas, but they wouldn't hear of it.

I call up my mechanic and ask for the number of the guy who tows for him (I know he has better rates than most). I know it's going to be expensive to tow my bus so far, but I just don't trust any mechanic to work on my car. I call the tow guy and he just happens to be on an appointment 5 miles from where my bus is and he can pick it up, no problem.

Then this weekend I planned to go to Lake Havasu for a bus camp out, but of course my bus is still in the shop (it will be done Monday), and it's my only form of transportation, so I'm out of luck. I emailed my friends to tell them I won't be making it and even though it's about an hour and a half out of their way, they are coming down to pick me up tonight.

It's nice to know that while machines may sometimes fail us, our friends are there to help.

Do you have a cloud with silver lining story? Share it here!

[enthropic]

Just your posts Chai