With a Little Help from My Friends

It is truly amazing... I have been blessed with an abundance of truly wonderful friends (some who are also family-members) in my life. I don't make friendships with just anyone I happen to meet (acquaintances, yes... friends, no). But those friendships that I do form generally last. And I have been blessed so richly with great friends. People who care about me, and don't just say it, but actually mean it. Friends who have supported me when I needed it. Friends who have cautioned me when I needed it. Friends who have made me laugh when I needed it. And friends who tried not to cry right along with me when I needed someone strong. And friends to help get me through the little pinches of life :).

So, Tuesday night I left work (and with the dreary days we've had, -oh, we're on day 5 now- I was driving around with my headlights on), and noticed in the car in front of me's reflection that my driver's side headlight was out. GREAT. It's always something ;). So, I finally went and bought a bulb yesterday and thought they would install it for me at AutoZone. No such luck. So, I tried it myself when I got home. If someone had been watching me, they were probably getting a huge chuckle at my expense, because I had my tools out and was ready to take something apart... I mean, hey, I've just moved and learned how to take all sorts of things apart... it just seemed par for the course, since this is, after all, another piece of "man's work" :). Anyway, I couldn't even figure out how to take anything apart to get the headlight out (which seemed like the logical thing that needed to happen, at least from my standpoint). So, I called my friend Virginia from church. She's an engineering professor here at the university. Anyway, she called me back (I'd left a message asking her if she knew of a place I could take my car where they would install my headlight bulb) and said, "why don't I come and look at it, I've done it before." So she came over and we spent the next 20 minutes in the cold trying to figure it out... Okay, so I shouldn't use the word "we" since she did all the work :). But she was successful, and I learned how it was done (by the way, the only tool she used were her hands). Yeah, I'm a genius :). But how awesome of her to just drive over and do it for me and save me the money. Anyway, repayment (not that it was necessary) was home-made hot chocolate with almond extract... YUM. I love hot chocolate in cold weather.