Do you ever question your choices?
Like ‘which is the lesser of two evils?’, or when deciding between two pretty good choices or two less than desirable choices…wonder if you made the right one?

I listened to Matthew McConaughey’s audio book ‘Greenlights’, which really encouraged action, making choices and if you get down the path and it’s not right, make another choice, but do something…

Well anyway…After picking Skyler up from school today and coming home – we were headed next to a good-bye dinner and my car wouldn’t start…It was my choice to stop off at the house, and when I stopped, it had been downpouring in the afternoon, so I had the headlights on…and when we stopped home for a moment so Skyler could drop off his things and grab his tablet…I accidently left the lights on. It was pouring rain, and I didn’t notice… all my choices.

When we went to leave to go to dinner my car wouldn’t start.

I posted on facebook and by the time my post was approved to the local group, it was late at night. I got a response on facebook, someone I was connected with on facebook could come out and help we had like 248 mutual friends, that should be a good sign. I said if they ‘could come in the morning that would be great’ and gave my location…He said he couldn’t in the morning, but could right now.

Technically, it would be very helpful to me to have this solved this evening, then, I know what’s happening in the morning.

I know for sure I can get Skyler to school, or I know if it’s a different problem with the car. I’m planning on needing my car this weekend too. So it would be more convenient for me to have it done this weekend…but it also seems odd to me that someone wouldn’t want to come out this evening, unless they work in the morning and can’t…but also kinda creepy, it’s creepy right? Or creepy from a woman’s perspective?

So, I’m questioning this, like is this just someone wanting to help? Or do I have to be concerned, and what safety precautions do I take. Do I lock my house so no one can get into it, do I worry about who has the keys to start my car, he said he’d bring a friend and that is the part that concerned me….why does he need a friend?

Anyway, my neighbors have very big loud dogs, so that’s good. There’s that old saying beggars can’t be choosers. Is that true? Can I be a beggar and still be discerning ? I’ve certainly had some sketchy situations, in the past which I’ll share later. My last house felt a little more creepy that way. There I was usually the only one inside the neighborhood, so it certainly made me nervous when someone I didn’t know was coming out to work on something, also because there was one way in and one way out. I guess this house feels much more safer… So I really wasn’t thinking at first, here there are several houses around. It’s slow season though and there isn’t so much work, a lot of people are running low on funds and I really wish there were more options for people to learn and occupy their time, more opportunities that lead to earning a better living, anyway that is another topic that I’m sure I will touch on in other blogs…My point is that I was suddenly overthinking this, this is what women have to consider, what is the best way to be the most safe?

I think the ‘bringing a friend’ comment gave me the most concern, because I felt like it’s a lot more challenging for me to fight off two people. I was looking at the facebook profile of the guy who was coming to help, and I did recognize his mother, she used to sell fruit to my old neighborhood, and her son would help her, always very kind…although, she is a very good sales person and I always ended up with more veggies than I knew what to do with. So I felt some relief in knowing I recognized his mother and she did seem to be one of those mother’s that had children that were respectful. There was still some unease over him coming with a friend. As I was typing this he texts that he’s arriving…Ohh, ‘Where are my keys, my car keys, should I separate my house keys, should I close the gate and greet them in the road? Should I lock the gate to my front door?’

I wanted to have all this planned out, perhaps have a baseball bat nearby, but here they are….

The first gentleman gets out of the car, the car is remaining in the road, it hasn’t pulled into the driveway.
He arrives and shakes my hand, tells me his car wouldn’t start either when he was about to come. I recognize him from his mother selling fruit and I feel like it’s a good sign. He also has that ‘I’m a good person vibe’.

I look at the vehicle parked in the road and I realize I recognize it.

As he pulls into the driveway. I have a huge sigh of relief.

It’s Bismark, the friend that this guy was bringing along to help him jump my car is an electrician that I’ve known for years.

One of the best and most well known in the area.

Now, I’m completely relaxed about the situation, I know these guys are only here out of the goodness of their hearts to help me, because they saw my post of facebook. I don’t need to worry about what I have locked or if I let one of them start my car, there is no malicious intent here.

Thank you God, Thank you Universe, Thank you Life, Thank you Pura Vida…whatever you subscribe too. I am full of gratitude. What a gift.

They tried to jump my 4×4 and at first the current wasn’t passing. The clamps on my battery were slipping a bit so he checked his volt meter and it wasn’t getting what was needed. You could tell that Bismark was guiding his friend to instruct him on how this is done, and why. And I was now very glad that he had thought to bring his friend to help. They said I need to get better support for my battery. They charged it, had me drive around the block and leave it running for a bit. It’s working! Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s 11 o clock at night and I had people that came out as soon as they saw my post to help. They work early in the AM and you have to get on a very long waiting list if you want the services of an electrician around here. And somehow, I got it. I tried to pay them what I had…they refused to accept my money.

They just wanted to help. What a tremendous gift. Now I don’t need to struggle in the morning to figure out getting Skyler to school.

There are really beautiful souls in this country. Both these men are Costa Rican and refused compensation for coming out to jumps start my car. They say you can never be too careful. But can you? I may have declined this help out of my fear and then I would have been stuck in the morning. Thankfully this story turned out positive, I realize that not everyone is that lucky. We do need to consider these potential outcomes… do we also need to consider that perhaps people are good natured and well meaning?
I want to give a shout out the the angels that helped me out in the middle of the night tonight and wouldn’t accept a colone. I am grateful. Muchísimas gracias, estoy muy agradecida por tu ayuda.
Shoutout to these gentlemen for their help. Muchisimas gracias Bismark y Diego

Was there a time that you had to think about how to be safe in a situation? Where you had to determine if accepting help was safe? Do you feel like you’ve become jaded?

Pura Vida,
Cheryl