When you give a five star rating, Yelp says "Woohoo! As good as it gets!" over there to the right. I can't agree more. CALL THIS MAN!!!!!!! Let me tell you why! Ed and I had quite the adventure today, so sit tight - this is going to be a long one. But man, was it fun!! It's the most pleasant experience I've ever had finding out my vehicle is toast.
My big old ranch truck was sitting in the Barton Creek Square Mall parking lot, thirty miles from home. I had loaned it to a friend to help another friend move, and during the move it broke down. I'm not too surprised - it's got almost 200K miles on it, and for a GMC that's a lot. Plus, since I live on a farm with cattle and tractors and the like, I've beat the hell out of it over the years.
I text Ed first thing this morning asking if he could meet me there about noon. He was finishing up with another job in Pflugerville, so got to me as soon as he could, about 1:30. Diagnosis took all of a minute - it's fried. The godawful racket of metal against metal coming from somewhere inside the engine was a sure tipoff to even a casual bystander that there was something really, REALLY wrong. Ed confirmed it - my truck's now a nine thousand pound paperweight.
So now what to do - put even more money into it or just give up on resuscitation efforts and buy a new one. I have to make a decision now or the mall cop will have it towed the next day, but I can't - I have to have time to think. If I make the wrong decision it could cost me big. I asked Ed if he knew a good wrecker service and how much it would cost to get it home where I could decide what to do. Since I live way west, WAY out of town in Spicewood, BIG CHUNK was the answer. Crap. Think, Linda. What are you going to do?!
Ed, bless his heart, saw that I was in a spot, looked over at the Sears next to us, and said, "You know, if you buy a tow bar, I'll tow you home, keep the tow bar, and we'll call it even - no gas money, just the tow bar for me will be good." A hundred and fifty for a tow bar, a hundred less than calling a tow truck, and I get to sleep easy tonight knowing I have more time to figure out what in the world to do? DEAL!
So we go into Sears ... no tow bars. I call a couple nearby parts stores - no tow bars there, either. Ed starts looking at the ratchet straps (yes, we're still in the air conditioned store while figuring out what to do - we're no dummies). I tell him, "You're thinking of towing it with those? Isn't that illegal?" He educates me that it's not, so I said, "I have a tow chain in the truck. You pull, I'll be the brakes, and between the two of us we keep the chain tight, yeah?" He smiles a knowing smile at me. Yep. I grew up in the country and graduated Redneck Wrecker 101 at an early age just like Ed apparently did.
Ed gets the chain all rigged up, we get in, and off we go. Oh, crap - the power steering doesn't work unless the truck's running. No chance of that, so we stop and switch places since he's just a little bit stronger than me (*she says with tongue planted firmly in cheek*) and off we go (NICE RIDE, Ed! Your Suburban's fun to drive! And I forgot to put the seat back - sorry - hope you didn't bang the hell out of your knees getting back in).
We start winding our way out of town, I miss the first turn since we can't get over in the right lane (*insert much cussing about traffic here*), we have to go a different way than we discussed, I start waving my arms around out the window pointing, and Ed knows Countrified Hand Signals! YEAH! We made quite the team pulling it the rest of the way home, nice and easy, no fiascos, communicating perfectly when needed, me towing, him braking, even through that construction going on just past Bee Caves. It was great! Smooth sailing all the way.
We get home, come to a park, and I get out to greet him with, "THAT was FUN! I haven't done that in YEARS!" I'm laughing because I'm so relieved it's home safe, and he's laughing, too, probably relieved that I didn't wreck his Suburban (Admit it, Ed - there was a bit of that, wasn't there? *snicker*).
So now I need something else to drive. I ask him to diagnose the funny noise my other car's making that I suspect is the clutch going out. Ed says, Yep. So we coordinate how to get it to him so he can fix it (And you better BELIEVE I want him to fix it. Someone who was willing to help me get out of a BIG FAT jam, who trusts me enough to drive his vehicle when he didn't even know me, and who, because of his straight-talking honesty along with everything else, inspired that same trust in me towards him? You betcha.) and I offer him a beer.
I'm glad he had a little while to visit. I enjoyed getting to know him. He's a good man.
Ed, I hope Byshop enjoys the bugs I sent him. If you ever get time, bring him out here to the country. We'll take him down to the creek and I'll teach him to catch mudbugs. Then we'll eat them - IF he'll let us. read more