Our Lucky Day

As some of you may have noticed, I neglected to post anything about the festivities on the fourth of July, which has been one of my favorite holidays ever since I was a tiny child and my parents taught me all the words to "You're a Grand Old Flag". I have such smart parents. Seriously, what a joke.

I still love freedom as much as ever, but the summer holiday season has a new winner: our anniversary. Despite a mutual loathing of the summer months and all things hot and sweaty, Ryan and I were sufficiently impatient to get ourselves hitched that we tied the knot in July, the most brutal month of all. We were married on July 5, two years ago, and, although the fourth of July is a fun companion holiday to the anniversary, I secretly wish we could have waited for a more favorable month (ok, I guess not so secretly if I am posting it on my really popular blog). Que sera sera.I am determined to make the best of the fifth of July, no matter however foolishly selected.

A few weeks ago at Jazzercise, my instructor mentioned that her sister took the family up to Snowbird for their summer activities, which were evidently great. I checked out their website and found a bed and breakfast package that met my two requirements: it was cheap and it provided access to the mechanical bull. I thought it would be fun to surprise Ryan (a mechanical bull is fun, but a surprise mechanical bull...), so on the morning of July 5 I piloted our new little chariot up the canyon.

Well, halfway up the canyon. I should mention at this point that on our way home from Washburn Motors in Orem, the finest used car dealer in Christendom, the check engine light came on in our new car. I called Steve Washburn and he assured me that he had checked out the car thoroughly and considered it safe to drive over the holiday weekend, and that if I could bring it back down to Orem on Monday he would run the diagnostic and take care of whatever was causing the problem.

Next comes the part about how halfway up the canyon the car choked, jerked, stalled and refused to start. The car we purchased two days prior. It stopped. On our way to our surprise rehoneymoon. Our reliable Toyota with only 70K miles. It died, is the thing. Halfway up Little Cottonwood canyon.

I should also mention at this point that Ryan had some concerns about the car, although his concerns were primarily about how the car would be cheaper if it were a ten year old tin can, crafted by GM in the U S of A, so I doubt he would have preferred anything with greater chances of reliability, but it did make the breakdown a little extra uncomfortable for me (he did not punish me unduly, and only said that we should have known better than to skip taking the car to a shop for a full diagnostic, which I thought was gracious considering we were broken down in One Million degree weather on our anniversary in our new car that I picked out). So we called Triple A, the most glorious godsend of an organization that capitalism hath ever wrought, which membership was purchased for us as a gift from my genius grandmother. And then we called Steve Washburn.

Me: "Um, hi Steve. We're actually having a little trouble here. 'Member how I called about that check engine light? Well, thing is, the car seems to have, well, actually it just stopped. I mean, it jerked and choked for a few minutes and then pretty much, yeah. It won't start. Oh, and it's our anniversary and we were just on our way out of town."

Steve Washburn: "I am a glorious Angel of Mercy and the King of Integrity. I will pay to have your car towed to Orem and I will fix it for free. And I will give you a loaner car for free. Would you like one million dollars and a ticket into heaven?"

Me: "Steve Washburn, I think I love you."

As Triple A plus members, we are endowed with 100 miles of free towing, which was enough to haul our sad little car down to Steve Washburn, Angel of Mercy and King of Integrity. And the towing guy let us ride down in the cab of the awesome vehicle abovepictured. And when we got there, Steve Washburn, Angel of Mercy and King of Integrity, presented us with the keys to this: