Yesterday I had to do a run into the big ugly. I was out of cigars, needed some groceries, propane for the stove, and to pick up a head gasket and batteries for the excavator. I had lunch with my business associate to round it all off, then I headed east back to the homestead.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but it did remind me that I am rather tired of driving. It’s 3 hours down, a lot of running around, and 3 hours back. I left the diesel heater going on low in the house, so at least I wasn’t coming back to a cold house.
I was almost home…
Well, that’s not good.
The upper drivers side ball joint decided to leave this earth, and I was still 5 kms from the house! So, like any self respecting bushy, I had to improvise with what I had on hand, which wasn’t much.
I dug through my stash of assorted junk and found a bag with a few zip ties in it. Bingo!
I jacked the car up, sort of wiggled the upper control arm and the steering thingy together and used 6 of my zip ties. That left me with 3 unused ones.
It sort of worked, for a while anyway…
At 5 km/h, it held together, sort of. But it wasn’t meant to be. Dang it, I should have had some duct tape in the car!
About 3/4’s of the way home, the zip tie fix let go. So, What would you do? Sit there and mope? Park and walk in the dark with no flashlight? I’ll tell you, when you’re that close to home, even though it’s grinding against the tire and sounds terrible, you’ll go for it!
(Man, the internet has a long way to go….)
Anywayyyy…
I made it home. My frozen french fries weren’t completely thawed and I did have a wobbly pop to calm my nerves. Ok, I had a few. The house was warm. The interwebs were on. And I went to bed shortly thereafter.
The next day, today, Sunday, it was pouring rain and looking out the window and seeing my dead Yota, well, it wasn’t inspiring. I shot up a quick prayer…
Lord, if You want me to fix the car then the rain needs to stop.
My church, Free Grace Baptist Church, in Chilliwack BC has a livestream. I try to tune in, even though it’s not the same as being there. Life in the woods, what are ya going to do?
And the rain stopped. The sun was shining! Right around the time when church was starting. What to do, what to do…. Fix the car and praise the Lord is what!
As you can see, the tire polished the spring and one zip tie was left hanging.
And now it’s time for the little miracle story.
Last spring, I was having front end issues. It was way out of alignment and needed lots of tlc. Money was tight and I needed a miracle. Then I found the best little mechanic shop in Abbotsford! (I’d give them a plug but it is the internet and, well, you know) I had just bought a new ball joint the day before but when they got it on the hoist they said everything was fine and all it needed was a slight adjustment and two tires. All in it came to $200! Thank You God!
So, I had a new ball joint but didn’t need it. I had a new ball joint but didn’t need it, so I put it on a shelf at home and forgot about it. Until last night.
Now, of all the things to break, in the middle of nowhere, and I have the part? Tell me that’s just a coincidence and I’ll tell you that God knew 6 months ago that I was going to need that part!
Is it perfect? No, I don’t have a press to sit it properly. But! I had the freaking part! I had it fixed in under an hour! And I was able to catch the church livestream.
God is good.
And, on to the next adventure… Whatever that will be!
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