I can’t remember if I posted here, but I am in the process of writing a new book. This one will be different than the others I have written. When will it be done? I don’t know. I work on it in spurts when I have time. Sometimes there isn’t much of that. But, I am enjoying the process. Tonight I thought I would share an excerpt from one of the chapters. This chapter is about learning, even if it’s not something you’re interested in, because you never know when that knowledge might come in handy.
My husband is kind of a jack of all trades so to speak, and another of his favorite things to do is to work on vehicles. He enjoys fixing cars and rebuilding engines. Again, I took an interest in his interest, simply so that I could understand better what he was doing and have an intelligent conversation with him about vehicle repairs and maintenance. This has come in handy many times over the years when I hear noises or have funny things happen with my car. I can describe to him what is going on so he can then fix the problem.
Recently however, I was very grateful for the things I had learned over the years about cars. My husband’s mother was in the hospital and he and I and his brothers were traveling back and forth between our homes and the hospital, which is about 75 miles from our homes. I had been at the hospital all day with my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law had been in for a few hours just before my husband came. He and I left about the same time and within about 10 minutes of leaving the hospital I received a text from my sister-in-law saying my brother-in-law was broken down at a gas station near the highway entrance. She wanted me to stop and possibly give him a ride home if need be. I had several of my kids in the car and all their gear, and was worried about fitting him and his dogs into my car for the long ride home. But I said I would stop and see what we could possibly do, thinking I didn’t know much about cars. I called my husband who was at the hospital and he recommend he turn the car off and then turn it back on to see if that would fix it. Otherwise, he had no good ideas for me without actually being there to look at it.
When we arrived, I asked him to turn it off and then back on. He had already done that and it hadn’t fixed the issue. As we sat there, late at night in the cold, I asked my boys for suggestion as they help their dad fairly regularly, but they didn’t have any suggestions either. I prayed for help and had the distinct impression to disconnect the battery cable and let it set for 2 or 3 minutes and then reconnect it. My brother-in-law didn’t have any kind of tools and I only had a pair of plyers, but my son was able to get the battery cable off. We waited for several minutes and then reconnected the cable. He started the car and it had worked. We followed him home from Anchorage to make sure he got home safely. I am so grateful for that inspiration to disconnect the battery cable. I was confident in my knowledge of how to do so, and grateful my boys were there so they could help if I needed it.
If you found any grammatical or punctuation errors, please let me know! I have had so many opportunities to learn many different things over the years and I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have gained in a large variety of subjects. Learning should never cease, even when we are old, and the knowledge we gain here is one of the only things we can take with us when we die. So, learn something new everyday!
Stephanie Richey Art 
You must be logged in to post a comment.