Thursday, June 02, 2005
An Ounce of Prevention
On a stress scale of one to ten, today would most likely be considered an 11 for Karim and I. We had begun this day beautifully, happily, breakfasting together in the Motel Restaurant with the plan of going into the downtown to apply for a better job for Karim. Shortly after leaving the restaurant we headed onto I-10, hoping to stop first at the bank before heading off toward our desired destination. About half of a mile down the freeway, a truck had evidently dropped part of a load of concrete blocks which had broken and scattered into two of the three lanes. Unfortunately, the rubble had not been noticed by the driver and no one had yet been alerted that there was a road hazard on East I-10. To make matters worse, the "spill" was in an area that was not visible until drivers were right on top of it. We were in the center lane when we noticed a lot of broken rocks and gravel, and we couldn't switch lanes for the cars on either side of us. Karim had just barely begun to slow the car, but we were still going pretty fast when we saw "it"...the concrete block that hadn't shattered was headed straight toward us. "Oh, #&*@!!" In order to keep from hitting cars in other lanes, the only alternative was to drive over the block and hope for the best. karim aimed the right front tire at it so that it wouldn't strike anything important on the undercarriage of our car, and then we hit it. Immediately we knew that we'd lost the use of the tire, and pulled over to the nearest offramp to stop, which wasn't difficult as the engine had already stopped running. When we got out of the car, we realized that it was more than the tire that we'd lost. There are three hoses that run from the Fuel tank to the engine (duh, the fuel lines), and all three of them were severed completely. We were leaking gasoline. As we surveyed OUR damage, we noticed other cars were pulling over to the side of the freeway as well. All of them with flats. We counted seven cars within our range of vision. (Later, in the tow truck, we counted ten).
To make this long tale a tad briefer than it could be, we ended up being towed to a friend's Texaco station which also has a garage. There we were told that the fuel lines would have to be ordered as no one in the entire Houston Metro area had them on hand. They would be coming from Dallas probably tomorrow morning, and the parts alone are going to cost almost 200 dollars. I was very frustrated, but I could see that Karim was beyond frustration. He had already foregone his sleep for the day, having left the night shift at eight in the morning and planning to sleep upon returning from the job hunt, and this news was not sitting well with him. Between watching his silent, cloudy expression, and trying to figure out the Arabic conversation between him and the Jordanian mechanic I knew that I needed to keep my mouth shut. It was up to me to remain strong today, because he was too tired to deal with my stress. I distracted myself in the front part of the station watching "justice tv" shows, keeping half an eye on Karim as he wandered back and forth between the garage and the soda fridge. He came in after about and hour and a half and said, "okay, we need to go to the junk yard and get the tire and rim." This we did, but not to our great enjoyment. Any trip to a junk yard, when you don't know anything about cars is a hassle, but we managed to find a good rim with a fairly decent tire on it (to replace the brand new tire that was destroyed) and returned. Poor Karim, in his "Sunday-go-to-meetin'/job applyin'" clothes, changed the wheel while I finished watching "judge Joe Brown". All in all we spent almost five hours at the Texaco station, and were then transported back to our Motel by one of the owners' sons.
Upon our return, Karim and I had discussed the situation. What had happened? We thought perhaps it was the "evil eye" as many Muslims believe. At breakfast, the mouthy waitress had complained (trying to be funny) on the way Karim had taken two parking spaces, and chided him for it. "That's why I recited Qu'ran as we left the parking lot", he told me. But, we also discussed a more likely scenario. Maybe God was preventing something worse down the road, keeping us safe from something that might have harmed us bodily. As awful as this situation was...is...at least we were not hurt. If Karim had not thought ahead to hit the block just right, perhaps we might have collided with another vehicle. Okay, so the plastic fuel lines were severed and the wheel broke and it's going to cost us some cash, but it's not medical expenses...or worse, funeral expenses! God was watching over us, and he knew exactly what he needed to do at exactly the right time.
I am surprisingly calm at the moment. Most other times in a situation like this, I am a raving maniac, frothing at the mouth, uttering words that any good woman wouldn't even KNOW, let alone utter, and blaming everyone and everything around me (except me). Somehow, God has kept my temper, and helped me to remain calm (well, calmER), perhaps for Karim's sake. I guess I'm just thankful that it wasn't worse, and hopeful that it will be better. One consolation is that when it's fixed, the newest part on the car next to the brakes and trunk lock will be the fuel lines. (Hey, maybe God is helping us to get a new car one piece at a time...)
To make this long tale a tad briefer than it could be, we ended up being towed to a friend's Texaco station which also has a garage. There we were told that the fuel lines would have to be ordered as no one in the entire Houston Metro area had them on hand. They would be coming from Dallas probably tomorrow morning, and the parts alone are going to cost almost 200 dollars. I was very frustrated, but I could see that Karim was beyond frustration. He had already foregone his sleep for the day, having left the night shift at eight in the morning and planning to sleep upon returning from the job hunt, and this news was not sitting well with him. Between watching his silent, cloudy expression, and trying to figure out the Arabic conversation between him and the Jordanian mechanic I knew that I needed to keep my mouth shut. It was up to me to remain strong today, because he was too tired to deal with my stress. I distracted myself in the front part of the station watching "justice tv" shows, keeping half an eye on Karim as he wandered back and forth between the garage and the soda fridge. He came in after about and hour and a half and said, "okay, we need to go to the junk yard and get the tire and rim." This we did, but not to our great enjoyment. Any trip to a junk yard, when you don't know anything about cars is a hassle, but we managed to find a good rim with a fairly decent tire on it (to replace the brand new tire that was destroyed) and returned. Poor Karim, in his "Sunday-go-to-meetin'/job applyin'" clothes, changed the wheel while I finished watching "judge Joe Brown". All in all we spent almost five hours at the Texaco station, and were then transported back to our Motel by one of the owners' sons.
Upon our return, Karim and I had discussed the situation. What had happened? We thought perhaps it was the "evil eye" as many Muslims believe. At breakfast, the mouthy waitress had complained (trying to be funny) on the way Karim had taken two parking spaces, and chided him for it. "That's why I recited Qu'ran as we left the parking lot", he told me. But, we also discussed a more likely scenario. Maybe God was preventing something worse down the road, keeping us safe from something that might have harmed us bodily. As awful as this situation was...is...at least we were not hurt. If Karim had not thought ahead to hit the block just right, perhaps we might have collided with another vehicle. Okay, so the plastic fuel lines were severed and the wheel broke and it's going to cost us some cash, but it's not medical expenses...or worse, funeral expenses! God was watching over us, and he knew exactly what he needed to do at exactly the right time.
I am surprisingly calm at the moment. Most other times in a situation like this, I am a raving maniac, frothing at the mouth, uttering words that any good woman wouldn't even KNOW, let alone utter, and blaming everyone and everything around me (except me). Somehow, God has kept my temper, and helped me to remain calm (well, calmER), perhaps for Karim's sake. I guess I'm just thankful that it wasn't worse, and hopeful that it will be better. One consolation is that when it's fixed, the newest part on the car next to the brakes and trunk lock will be the fuel lines. (Hey, maybe God is helping us to get a new car one piece at a time...)
