A Christmas Story

Good Morning!
It's a beautiful day, bright sunshine and hardly any wind, but COLD!  It's still just about zero at 9 a.m., in spite of the bright sunshine.


I have a little Christmas story to tell you today.  Yesterday we took a neighbor to the airport in Burlington, and also picked up Bill's car at the hotel where he and the family stayed before their flight to Namibia last week.  Fred drove Bill's car, I drove our neighbor's.  Because Fred had some errands to do in the Williston area, I headed home ahead of him.  There was mostly bright sunshine in Burlington, but I hadn't been on the road very long when it began to snow lightly.  There wasn't much accumulation until I got to Marshfield, and the roads got slushier from there on.  When I got to West Shore Road turn, I slowed as I normally would, but the minute I left the main road, I was no longer in control of the car.  It slid sideways straight into the snowbank.  I won't mention what I was saying in the few seconds before I thumped to a stop astride the snowbank, but I was not a happy camper. 

Now, at 2 o'clock on a snowy afternoon, there usually isn't a lot of
traffic on West Shore Road, but as I stood in the road wondering what my next move would be since the house at the corner is vacant, and the one across the road seemed to be, too, and unlike most folks, we have only one cell phone, and Fred had it with him,  I was thinking I could either wait for Fred to come along or start walking.  Almost as if it was scripted, a logging truck pulled in across the road, and then a very big truck came from West Danville direction.  I thought they were all part of the logging operation going on there, and was considering going over to see if someone had a cell phone so I could call a wrecker, but in a very few minutes, one of the men came across the road and asked if I was ok (I was) and said if I didn't mind waiting a few minutes, he'd come over and pull me out!  Thinking he had a logging truck, I said, "Do you think you can get it out?"  He laughed and said, "Oh, yes, I can get it out alright."

While I was waiting, two different neighbors came along West Shore Road heading for West Danville, and offered to help.  I was very appreciative, but was happy be able to tell them I had help coming from right across the road.  Within a few minutes, one of the big trucks headed over to where I was waiting.  Then I realized the truck was a mega wrecker - big enough to pull logging trucks out of ditches (which I guess is what he was there for), so of course it could handle the Ford.  It looked spiffy new with bold lettering, "Lyndon Truck Service."  It was a monster truck with doors along the body where chains and pulleys were managed by knobs and levers to lift or pull, and when the man got out to begin working on the car, I noticed his name, Dennis, on his jacket.  

He was obviously a true professional and it didn't take long to get the car back on the road.  By then Fred had  arrived, and things began to look a whole lot better. The right front tire was flat - Dennis said that wasn't unusual and he didn't think there was any other damage - and in no time he and Fred had the spare tire on.  While they were doing the tire thing, I was warming up in the car.  I had already started writing a check to "Lyndon Truck Service" and  Fred was talking with Dennis, so I rolled down the window and asked Fred how much I should make the check for.  Turned out Dennis wouldn't accept anything, even though we both argued the point with him.   He had been working in the cold and snow for at least half an hour to get the car out, and we felt fortunate he happened to be there, but in spite of our protests, he just laughed and said "It's Christmas!" and got into his truck and left! 

We decided we'd better get the car to the Ford garage in St. Johnsbury so they could fix the tire and check for any damage.  I was a little nervous about the little tire on the front, so I took Bill's car and Fred drove the Ford.  He had no problem.  At the Ford garage, they were able to take the car in almost immediately, so we went for coffee at McDonald's.  When we got back, the report was good - the tire was flat only because snow had packed in between the rim and the tire and that broke the seal, and there was no damage to the undercarriage.  Then came the shock.  There was no charge, just another "Merry Christmas!"  Fred came out looking stunned, and we left wondering if we'd stumbled into some fairyland universe where everyone is happy, helpful and generous.

I think this may go down in our record book as the day we were reminded of just how nice people are; and I don't think it was all about the Christmas season, I believe we're very fortunate to have a lot of really, really great people here.  Dennis, our concerned neighbors and some very nice people at Twin State Ford in St. Johnsbury made what might have been a really bad day for us one we'll remember, in a good way, for a very long time. 

Merry Christmas!

 _____

We've had a couple messages about the animal caught on the Rossi's web cam.  One guess was that it was likely either a raccoon or a young fox.  Another guess was a weasel.  We know there are lots of animals prowling around during the night - at our house, I see fresh tracks every morning, and some nights Woody gets a little frantic, going out for only short periods and acting very nervous when he comes back inside, so we suspect he's far more aware of what's going on out there than we are.