Small Blessings

So a couple of weeks ago, several things happened to both LJ and I. The first was my car.

It died. A couple of times and the once for good. Every indication said fuel pump. And that was gonna cost a pretty penny by the time it was all said and done. So...it was sitting in the driveway and LJ and I were pretty much operating on just his vehicle.

The 2nd was his car.

We were on our way to visit a good friend of ours in Austin. We drove up 290 and were about 30 min from Austin when out of nowhere the RPM guage on his car starts bouncing, bouncing, bouncing then the engine just dies...as we're driving 70-ish mph on the highway. Bad, bad things...

So we call his brother - who lives just south of San Antonio (3 hours away). I think LJ was more calling him for advice or ideas about what to do but instead he didn't even hesitate - he just said "Stay where you are, Bubba. I'm on my way."

So LJ and I pushed the care just up the road to a convenience store so that we were off the side of the road. Then - since we had quite a bit of wait time, we walked a quarter of a mile up the road a little farther to a nice little steak house called - of all things - JW's (LJ's best friend's name is JW). We had a nice dinner and then went back to sit with the car until Ross got there to pick us up.

So to cut to the chase, Ross took LJ's car to see about getting it repaired and we took Ross's wife's car back to Houston.

So now we had 2 cars out and were operating on a borrowed vehicle.

THEN...a couple weeks later, after LJ's vacation and a trip home to see family and friends, we were at home unpacking and unwinding. LJ was just settling down to go to bed and I was still up milling around the house.

I caught myself staring at my engagement ring - as I often do. But for some reason something looked a little off. I looked closer and one of the prongs on the ring had been bent to where the tip touched the tip of the one next too it. I Panicked. I ran to get LJ and we both looked at it and tried to figure out what to do. It's a 6 prong ring, so the diamond was still held securely by the other 5 prongs but we didn't want to chance it. So I put it in the box to see about taking it to get it repaired later when we could afford to. We bought the ring at Zale's but we used a diamond from a ring he already had. So Zales would not give us any kind of a warranty or insurance policy on it. So that meant the repairs would be out of pocket.

So....now to the good stuff!

My car.

My dad helped us get the car towed to a mechanic in North Houston. He was a friend of a guy that dad went to school with. Four hours later, we get a call from the mechanic. It was not - in fact, the fuel pump. A couple of wires behind the battery had burned out. Instead of costing nearly $1000, it only cost $200 and that's including the cost to have it towed 1/2 an hour across town.

Then My ring.

Zales was NO help in getting it fixed and if it's not covered by a warranty or something, I would rather not go through Zales' Assembly line approach to repairing my ring. I'd rather go through an actual jeweler.

So about 2 weeks ago - just after discovering the issue with my ring, I started a job at Methodist. On the main floor of the building that I work in there is a jewelry store (with a private jeweler) called The Jewelry Box. I stopped in there one day to ask them for an idea of how much it would cost to repair the ring. I didn't have it with me but I described what had happened. They told me approx. $200. I was devistated. We just don't have that kind of money right now so it just seemed like it was going to take some time before I could wear my ring again.

So fast forward a couple of weeks to yesterday. I had put my ring on (longingly) a couple of days before and COMPLETELY forgotten to take it off. On my way out yesterday, I realized I still had the ring on. I thought, well I'll just stop and see what they say about it when they see the ring. The guy I spoke to before (who I think is the owner) recognized me. I showed him the ring. He said "It really looks a lot worse than it really is." I told him I was concerned about bending metal back and the metal being prone to bending in the same spot again. He looked a little closer and said "That's true but because this is a soft bend - more a curving of the metal rather than a sharp bend, it shouldn't cause you those problems."

So I asked him how much he thought it might cost to fix it. He said, "Well, I can probably have it back to you tomorrow, and it should only cost you about $12.00" That's right you read that correctly. Twelve dollars. 12. That's all. I was shocked. He said all he would really have to do was work the prong back in place and then make sure the rest of the prongs and the diamond were secure. He'd clean it and have it back to me tomorrow (now today). I couldn't believe it! Sooo stinkin' excited to get my ring back!

Then last night LJ's mom called. The original prognosis for LJ's car was that the timing belt went out, probably bent the push rods, and would probably cost around $2000 to fix. Well LJ's mom called to tell us that it was the timing belt and a couple of other belts on the car, but that the push rods were not bent and as soon as the mechanic put the new timing belt on the car started up right away and ran smoothly. And instead of a $2000 fix it would be closer to $500. HOLY COW!!

I couldn't stinkin' believe it. Major major good things going on. It's a GOOD DAY!