March 2012: our car

The pace picked up quite a bit for our family from what we enjoyed in January and February, as March was filled with lots of activity!  J-rod and I began the month by going on a date to see Wicked--oh how I love that show!  While we enjoyed the production immensely, the real excitement happened right after the show as we were tried to make our way through traffic to head home.  After stopping at a red light in front of the theater, my car stalled and we impeded traffic for a while.  The engine would turn on, but the car would not move in any direction.  

A nice couple driving around us asked if there was someway they could help (the only ones to offer assistance, everyone else honked, yelled, and/or cursed at us--as if we had purposely chosen to just sit in the middle of traffic!).  We asked the couple to flag down ASU Campus police that was directing traffic up ahead, which they did.  ASU Campus police helped to direct traffic around us and block our car from getting hit from behind while we waited for Tempe police to come help push us out of traffic and eventually have a tow-truck meet us and take us and our disabled car home, 40 miles away.  The lively and kind tow-truck driver shared lots of fun on-the-job stories with us on the drive home, and also told us that by the sounds of what had happened to us, we were likely in need of a new transmission.  We eventually made it home, and I was very grateful I had warned our babysitter and her parents that it would be a late night (though at the time I said that, I had no idea just how late it would turn out to be!).

The next night J-rod slowly drove the car to the dealership where we left it overnight, along with keys and a description of what had happened.  The next morning I called the dealership to be sure they would be able to at the very least take a look at our car.  Not only were they able to look at it and determine that yes indeed our transmission was gone, but they provided me with a loaner car for the week and told me we were very lucky to have lost the transmission when we did.  I was confused by this statement until it was followed up by, "if you had lost it a month from now, it would no longer be under warranty."  We knew we were being watched over and were so very grateful for the blessings that had come our way!