Oh, What a Day!!!

Friday, September 7, 2007 will be forever etched on my memory. The most important reason for this remembrance is to give thanks for the successful results of my father-in-law’s prostate surgery. However, the events of the day leading up to this surgery were anything but successful.

My lovely wife had gone to Arlington Thursday with her parents so that she could be with them during the surgery. My assignment was to make sure the kids get to school, pick them up for the early release, and head up to Arlington to meet them. Seems simple enough.

The morning started leaving the house a couple of minutes later than usual to get my son to school. When I have both kids to drop off, I take him first, then my daughter. As I walk into the garage, my son exclaims, “Oh, dad! You have a way flat tire!” Needless to say, I changed the tire as quickly as possible, but I still got him to school about 10 minutes late. It’s now 8:20 and I have to travel about 10 miles to my daughter’s middle school and then drive into Abilene (approx. 20 minutes). I have an 8:30 client scheduled. They drive in from Sweetwater and never miss an appointment. I’m thinking they are going to be very upset with me. I call ahead to the secretary and give her the “heads up.” She kindly goes and explains the situation to the couple.

I pick up the kids and have researched places that might be able to fix a flat tire fairly quickly. I drove by one place on the way to pick up the kids and it had no cars out front and one in the garage. However, when I drove back to the tire store, there were 3 cars in front and 3-4 in the garage. Needless to say, the kids and I waited an hour and a half sitting on the floor because there were no seats available, to hear the technician tell me the tire was not able to be fixed. So, I had to buy 2 new tires – not in the budget.

We get gas, and finally get on the road 2 hours later than planned. About 20 miles east of Eastland, TX I’m driving in the left-hand lane with a pick-up in front of me in the right lane. I notice he has two oil drums in the back of his pick up and within seconds I also notice one the lids of those drums is flying off like a Frisbee out the back of his pick up and is headed straight at my car. All I can do is think, “I sure hope that doesn’t hit my windshield!” The lid dives down toward the asphalt and I think, “Oh good, I can just straddle it and drive right over it!” because there is no way to miss it. “Whew! Barely got out of that one!” Then I hear the sound of pavement scraping under my vehicle. I’m imagining sparks flying all around the bottom of the car and the possibility of us all blowing up. I knew if we blew up, my wife would kill me! So, I pulled over to the shoulder of the interstate, open the door, and immediately smell radiator fluid. “That can’t be good”, I think. I look under the front of the car and the barrel lid has wedged itself up under my fender and jammed itself into the radiator. I remove the lid, save it for evidence, and see fluid draining out rapidly. I exit the interstate and call my wife to let her know what just happened. I tell her I’m going to try and make it as far back to Eastland as I can because I have good friends in Eastland who would help us out. I get as far as the infamous “Ranger Hill” and my temperature gage hits the red zone and the caution light comes on telling me the engine is overheating. I pull out my trusty Palm Pilot and look up my friend’s phone number. I haven’t called them in a VERY long time. So long in fact, that I did not have the correct area code. I called information and got the correct number. I called the Whites – Ronald and Donna. Donna answers the phone it goes something like this:

Donna: “Hello?”
Me: “Hi Donna, this is Paul Irby.”
Donna: “Paul Irby! How are you?”
Me: “Well, I’m in a little bit of trouble.”
Donna: “How can I help you, Paul?”

I explain the situation to Donna and she immediately says she is on her way to pick up myself and my two kids. We leave the car because it’s parked on the shoulder and we don’t want to be in it in case a random semi-truck loses control and plows into the back of it. So there we are standing on a feeder road parallel to I-20 with our luggage. It was quite a sight! I couldn’t help but tell my kids what a great Christian friend Donna was to not even hesitate to offer help at the mere mention of “trouble” not knowing what kind of trouble it was.

Donna picks us up 30 minutes later and my daughter tells me Donna is her “most favorite lady ever!” She takes us to her home and asks her husband about a good towing service and/or mechanic. He gives her the name and I call them and they are more than willing to tow it in and fix it if they can.

Laurie arrives in Eastland about an hour and a half later. She hasn’t eaten since 9:00 AM and it is now about 7:20 PM. She had just sat down to supper at Abuelo’s when my call for help came through. We run through McDonald’s and eventually arrive at Arlington around 9:15. Her Dad was sitting up in bed and seemed to be doing great! Laurie also, had not seen her dad since he went in for surgery around 1 PM.

Saturday morning I call the mechanic/wrecker service and he tells me not only is the radiator severely damaged, but the lid shoved the radiator into our A/C compressor. Thank the Lord for insurance!!!

As we are telling everyone, what HAD to go right that day, DID go right. My Father-in-law had successful results from his surgery. Everything else went horribly wrong! However, I am quick to note that it could have been much worse. No one was hurt or killed. Our kids are safe. It’s not hard to see the hand of God even in the midst of disaster.