Automotive, pets, Stories, Uncategorized, Weather

Stuck!!

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I know we’ve had “kindness of strangers” stories before, but here is another.

Took Guinevere to her doggie class Monday night.  The school is built on a hill and there are two parking areas, one up top that we’ve been warned is occasionally ticketed and the one that goes down the hill in the back.  I have always parked down the hill.

It was only about an inch of snow and I wasn’t very worried until I got down to the bottom of the hill and turned around to get into my favorite parking spot and slid a bit.  So I thought maybe I should park up top, just in case.  Now, you should know , I don’t have great tires, but I don’t have a great need for them, living on a well-plowed county road and surrounded by other well-plowed thoroughfares (50th, Crosstown, 35W, 100).  But this was one of those times when I needed better tires;  I could not get back up the hill.

There is a spot off the parking lot, behind a bank of garages and I thought “I’ll zip in there and when I come out I can get a little speed to get me up the hill”.  If I had really looked at the area I was about to enter, I would not have done this. It clearly hadn’t been plowed since the LAST snow – once I was back there, I could not get out.  And to add insult to injury, for some reason I did not have any gloves in my pocket.

In between the two halves of the class I tried shoveling out and did get the car moved closer to the parking lot, but then got stuck again.  When I went back inside and started to call AAA, Terry (one of the instructors) said “Let’s go take a look.”  He and John (who I had never met) came out, attached a big strap to the back of my car and basically pulled me out of the snow and all the way to the top of the driveway backwards.  I was able to park up top and finish doggie class!

I have a thank you card design in mind and I think I will deliver them with zucchini bread next Monday night.

What the last kindness you’ve received (or given)?

17 thoughts on “Stuck!!”

  1. The Eye Clinic in Bismarck has a very elderly woman who volunteers to greet patients in the waiting room. She brings coffee and magazines and chats up everyone. I found her really annoying for some reason. She was the epitome of kindness.

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  2. Our nearby friend Angela let us stay overnight a couple of weeks ago when our plumbing went kablooey. And then she was able to stay hear this weekend when, after some work done in her house, the smell was too much for her to stay there…

    Two neighbors across the alley regularly snowblow our alley after the big snows. And some guy with a blade from the next block came the other day after the big one several days ago.

    Trying to think of something more out of ordinary…

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  3. I’ve been humbled by the many readers of my books who see me around town or at book signings and tell me (unsolicited) how much they enjoyed one or both of my books. Not an earth-shattering kindness compared to most, but those people took a minute from what they were doing and approached me, more-or-less a perfect stranger (other than knowing me through my writing) and said something they didn’t need to that truly made my day.

    Last week I sent an email to our garbage collecting company praising the compassion and integrity of our route driver. He noticed a puppy with an injured leg hobbling down the busy road next to our house and immediately stopped to help the pup. Before the truck driver stopped, several cars drove past the dog and ignored it. I half expected the puppy to get run over in the next minute or so. The driver gently held it down, comforted it, and picked it up with the intent of bringing it to a vet or finding the owner,

    The neighbors apparently talked to him through their window and told him to bring the puppy inside where they could arrange to care for it and/or find the owner.

    We watched from our windows–it happened so fast we barely had a chance to react–if he hadn’t come along, we would’ve gone out to help the dog.

    Anyway, the owner of the garbage company (local) replied to my note saying it made her day that one of her employees did a good deed generated such a reaction from us.

    I firmly believe that if we all spent more time praising people for the good they do rather than finding fault with every little bad thing, our world would be better, as would the rest of the world around us. Can’t fix global problems by ourselves, but making your immediate world a better place is more satisfying.

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. Little things do make a difference, often more than we realize. Good for you, Chris, for taking the time to write that email.

      The last two times I went shopping at Aldi’s, someone handed me their shopping cart and declined my quarter. It’s such a small gesture, and one that is so easily paid forward, but it never fails to put a smile on someone’s face.

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  4. As you all know, I’m a sometime user of FreeCycle, an online network of strangers who use the internet to give away items they no longer need or use, or request things they are in need of. FreeCycle uses the words “Offer” and “Want” to distinguish between the two types of ads, and, of course, everything is offered for free.

    A month or so ago, a woman from a local church posted an extensive and detailed list of items wanted for a family of four who had lost everything in the Drake Hotel fire in Minneapolis. Her church had sponsored the family, and found them an apartment, but they had nothing, no furniture, clothes, dishes, nothing. I immediately saw an opportunity to hand off some dishes and other kitchen paraphernalia to a family who could use them. She responded that she couldn’t pick up until the following weekend. That gave me five days to locate more of the needed items. I posted the original Freecycle list that included a lot of things I didn’t have, such of kids’ clothes, shoes, and toys, to a local neighborhood network “Nextdoor Hope.” I volunteered that if anyone had anything to contribute, they could drop it off at our house, or I could come pick it up, saving the woman from the church who had made the original request, a bunch of trips. Within the next few days my front porch filled up with clean children’s and adult clothing, games, books, towels, bedding, blankets, shoes, boots, toiletry items and housecleaning supplies. It was wonderful to see some of the young mothers in my neighborhood swing into action and pass on their hand-me-downs to a family in need.

    When the woman from the church arrived at my house that Saturday morning with two teen-age girls in tow, they filled her large SUV with the items that had been dropped off or I had collected. I have no idea who this family is, or what their circumstances are, but I’m guessing that if they called the Drake Hotel “home” prior to the fire, chances are they’ll need a lot more help getting back on their feet.

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  5. Sometimes I hate being stuck being me. Same old fears. Same old dumb mistakes. Same old habits. Same old convictions. I’ve spent much of this day regretting stuck being me.

    Then this afternoon someone reached out to me. She’s someone I tried to be kind to several months ago. Now the sun is shining a little better. If I’m stuck being someone, I’m glad the person I must be usually tries to be kind to others.

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    1. I feel sad, Steve, that you think of yourself as stuck. Just yesterday, I think, you told us about how you’re now exercising daily, something you hadn’t done in at least a decade. That’s progress, and it’s huge. In your new living situation you’re no longer recluse, that too is progress. Seems like you’re taking on “same old” whatever one at a time.

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      1. Thanks, PJ. I actually am not stuck, and you are right to point to some new efforts I’m making to be better. But I think a lot of us would admit we try and try to be better–whatever that means for each of us–but sometimes go back to dumb stuff we’ve done over and over.

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