Weekending & My Husband the Hero

Another great summer weekend in the books. This time of year is Seattle puts on its best weather performance, and we soak it up like teenagers out past curfew. We love the long light, warm summer days and nights and we are outside every chance we get. (PS this bouquet of flowers is only $1.99 at Trader Joe's right now. Such a score)

Saturday night we caught an outdoor showing of Ferris Bueller's Day Off under the space needle. We packed a picnic blanket, mason jars filled with Santa Barbara white wine, and chocolate bars. Three cheers for a free (and fun) date night.

After a non-eventful weekend, Sunday evening turned out to be interesting. We went to the beach and shared a pint of Talenti's coffee chocolate chip (yes, the entire pint) and enjoyed the sunset.

On our way home, we came across a stalled car. It was on the side of a two-lane road, and it was dark and late, almost 10:00pm. On top of that, the car was stalled just around a blind curve, and cars were coming flying past it and having to quickly merge over to avoid hitting it.

We seemed to both be thinking the same thing, because just as I said "Should we help them??" Daniel was pulling over. We jumped out and ran towards the car. It was dark and hard to see, but we saw a man hop out of the driver's seat. We asked if he needed help, and if he had AAA. He said he didn't have AAA, and we could tell that English wasn't his first language. He mentioned he thought the battery had died. At this point, we weren't really sure what was going on but we knew we had to help, and we happened to be in the right place at the right time. 

The first order of business was moving my husband's car up and around the curve, in case someone were to hit the man's car and pushed that car into ours. I jumped in and moved it to the nearest side street and ran back to my husband and the man. 

My husband instructed me to get in the driver's seat and put the car in neutral. My husband and the man were going to try to push the car to the side street. No easy task, considering it was an uphill incline and the car was a large SUV. I followed orders anyways. I hoped in, put the car in neutral, and started steering, praying for safety because of a thousands things that could have gone wrong at that point. 

It was pitch black, and in the rear view mirror I could see cars whipping around the corner and narrowing avoiding us every time. The flashers were on but that was all the signal they had, that and about 2 second to react and avoid hitting us.

Finally we got the car to the side street. We troubleshooted for what to do next. We thought the car may have stalled because it was out of gas, not the battery. We settled on buying both jumper cables and a gallon of gas nearby. We all went together and got everything. It was quite the sight, the three of us walking through the store and casually chatting. My husband offered to take me home because it was taking so long and it was late. I thought, "Are you kidding me? How could I miss this!" I love seeing Daniel be the hero and I love being along for the adventure. I had to know how this story was going to end.

We came back to the cars, and filled the gas tank. Still nothing. My husband connected the jumper cables and started his car. The man's car started, and we all cheered. Hooray!! My husband the hero. The man was so appreciative that he told us he owned a dry cleaning business nearby and wanted to give us a $100 credit. So nice of him and so not necessary. 

The funny thing is, I was reminded tonight about the intangible rewards of helping someone. I feel the same way when we volunteer at Young Life Capernum for people with special needs. I love being able to help, and so does my husband. I'm thankful I married someone who get this just as much as I do: that when you help someone, often you gain so much more than what you give - time, money, whatever it may be. We relearned this tonight and it was a such wonderful reminder of a lifelong lesson. 

So glad we said yes to helping someone last night. I hope this encourages you to also say yes and to remember that you will often gain so much more than what you think you are giving up.