The good thing is that it's Friday.

OMG, these past two days have been insane. Wednesday, I discovered that my vehicle had a coolant leak. So, I left work an hour early to get my car to my local garage to fix it. The owner of the garage is a REALLY great guy named Chris (Mt. Hood Auto & Tire). He offered me a free loaner-car, because he knew that I had a hellish commute and a job to go to, and since Hubby's Jeep is under the weather too, I can't drive it.

So I dropped my car off after work on Wednesday, and the owner gave me a 1998 Mazda MPV with 228,000 miles on it. It's a good car, he said. It drove to Seattle and back only recently. So all I had to do was to bring it back this afternoon with gas in it. It worked like a dream Thursday.

This morning, just barely off the mountain, on Rt. 26 when all of a sudden all the dashlights turn on. Check engine, airbag, oil temp, you name it. The radio also cuts off for a second. So I start looking for somewhere to pull over, figuring something is about to happen. I pull off into the parking lot of a place called Calamity Jane's, and the whole car just turns off. It's not even 7:00 AM. It's freezing. I call work to tell them that my loaner vehicle has just broken down, and then leave a message with Chris. "Hey Chris, I'm at Calamity Jane's and I don't think this Minivan likes me very much. I think I made minivan and soccer-mom jokes one too many times yesterday."

I called AAA, who told me Purdy's was going to come and get me. They were; no lie, diagonally across the street from where I was broken down. However, the truck was at home with the driver. He finally gets to the office at 8:15; he goes inside to do something, and then crosses the street, arriving at 8:25. My toes feel like little ice-cubes. He is kind enough to tell me to get into the cab, where I crank the heat up to broil, and bask for a while.

8:50; we pull into the Mt. Hood Auto, and all four guys who work there including the owner come outside to apologize and share in the humour of the situation. I spy my poor Jeep, its hood agape, bits of its motor on the fenders and resting on the ground. Poor baby! The guy working on it wants to show me what he's doing, and Chris comes in and says to me:

"Stephanie, I'm so sorry. Please take my car to work, you need to get down there."

The guy gave me his personal vehicle so I could commute to work and get my job done. Wow. I felt terrible, and so did he. So the guy working on my car engages me a minute or two more, and I come out and my training books and CD cases have been transferred into his black 4Runner; his keys taken off his chain and added to mine. Yes, the Toyota logo looks wrong on my Jeepy key chain, but frankly, I'm so glad it's there.

Every once in a while the small gestures make the biggest impressions. Chris is my hero. I will take my car there any day now.

I got to work at 10:00. I'm leaving early to insure 1) that Chris gets his 4Runner back in one piece and 2) that I get my Jeepy-Jeep back in one piece. I'm so lucky I have a job where this stuff can happen and things can be flexible.

So despite the stress, it's still a Happy Friday; however I'm afraid I have no office special drawing for you today. I have to finish my work on this shortened day.

Happy Friday all. :)