Interesting (to me) observation. [View all]

My 270,000 mile truck broke down about seven miles from home after picking my son up from school today.

I called his adult brother to get my work van to tow me home, but while waiting at the side of the road, I worked on it. The entire tool kit in the truck consisted of a 4" crescent wrench and a "scrench"


... and (fortunately) some bandaids.

So it turns out, the problem was a shredded fan belt and some loose stripped bolts holding the fan clutch to the water pump.

Two people stopped to ask if I needed any help. Both of them were young women in their twenties. I am very appreciative that they offered, but I didn't really need anything.

The serpentine belt was separated and shredded, but not broken. I unwrapped the belt from the crankshaft, removed the shredded bits and tightened the stripped fan clutch bolts as tightly as possible with the tiny crescent wrench. I replaced the remaining three ribs of belt using the scrench to relieve the tension on the spring loaded idler pulley (a bit of an ordeal).

I drove it home before my son could find a tow strap to come get me.

The observation? It made me happy that paralyzing fear of strange men isn't universal. Two thoughtful young women stopped to ask if I needed help, and had it not been for the scrench, I would have.

Maybe we're all just people. Sometimes we need help, and other times we have help we could offer.