Last weekend, we moved everything out of the apartment. With that success under my belt, I had the opportunity to start moving our possessions our of our storage facility!
Man, is that something that makes you want to get out of bed or what??? Yippee!
That is quite a formidable task.
All of the rest of the stuff from our 2500 square foot 4 bedroom house in California that we couldn’t fit in our little 2 bedroom apartment in Kansas is stuffed in there! 10′ x 15′ stacked at least 8 feet high!
My son helped me with the first load.
As usual, I was so encouraged by the progress that we were making, the optimist in me started yapping…
“This isn’t that bad at all!…We’re making great progress!…We’ll be done before you know it!”
My son just silently groaned. This was not his idea of a fun filled Saturday with Dad. He was so tired from his first FULL week of work that he had to sleep before going to work at the restaurant. So…
I had to do the second load all by myself!
The second load took much longer. I can’t quite put my finger as to why…
When I brought out the last group of boxes, I was pretty tired. So, I was walking pretty slowly…
Slow enough to notice that the pavement underneath the truck was covered in water!
I had a feeling that Wild Bill was not feeling well but I didn’t realize that he was this sick. His had a very runny nose (the radiator)!
After spending a good 15 minutes arranging and rearranging boxes so that nothing would fly out once I going, I climbed in and turned the key. I knew there couldn’t be much water left, but since there are no hoses at the storage facility, I took off as quickly as possible.
The needle on the temperature gauge was well over the halfway point by the time I hit the first light.
I made my right turn and got on the highway…
“If I can get some air flowing through the radiator, maybe it will settle down.”
It didn’t…
It quickly became obvious that I was not going to make it home. In fact, I was going to be stranded on the highway in just a few miles.
At the last second, I swerved to get off the first off ramp. I needed to find water…FAST!!!
But, I was out in the country. The nearest filling station was at least 3 miles away. To get there, I would have to make a left turn!
The temperature needle was on its way to the big “H”. I couldn’t wait for this country light to change…
I gambled and turned right and headed off into the country.
About 1/4 mile down the road, I saw a side street with some houses in a heavily wooded area…
I turned right. Talk about flying by the seat of my pants…
I passed by the first two houses and then, on a hunch, turned into the third driveway praying that there was someone home.
As soon as I cleared the trees, I saw a man smoking a cigarette on the front porch. There was a hose at his feet!
I yelled, “Water?!”
The quizzical look on his face and made it clear that he needed more information…
“My radiator is leaking and I need water!”
He grabbed the hose, turned the faucet on and came to my rescue!
I made it all the way home, unloaded the stuff and then took Bill straight to the doctor (my mechanic).
That was a close one!
