A Series of Unfortunate (and Fortunate) Events

Warning:  Lengthy post.  I want to remember every last detail of our exhausting week!  

Brecka, Kassie, Britlyn, Sally, Maren, Emma

I absolutely love going to Education Week at BYU, and this year I decided to give my girls a taste of it.  Kassie and her girls, Brecka and Britlyn, were going for a few days so we decided to meet them there for classes and a show on Wednesday and then spend Thursday playing and shopping in SLC.  Fortunately for us, we have a great friend, Bob Clark, who owns a condo a block from temple square, and he said we could stay there for a couple of days.  

Fun place!  Wish we'd had time to use the pool....

We drove up Tuesday night and had a relaxing evening choosing our classes and watching "Far From the Madding Crowd."  (yummy period drama)

 

We had a great time on the campus the next day.  The classes were excellent, the musical "Crazy For You" was silly but well done, and we had lots of fun with the Vincents. (happy background music should be playing as you read this)

 The next day started out great and we had a wonderful time exploring temple square and having lunch at a cafe in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. 

Fun times!  Little did we know what stressful events were about to unfold.  (switch to ominous music in the background as The Series of Unfortunate Events begins)

The Culprit

We headed back to the condo and piled into the Highlander, ready for a crazy day of back to school shopping when lo and behold... it wouldn't start!  Unfortunately, we were parked on a steep incline of a fairly busy side street, but we got to work trying to determine the problem.  We had only owned the vehicle (which the girls had named "Fergus" to go with the Highlander theme) for 5 weeks and didn't know much about the hybrid system, so we were a little clueless.  We cleaned off the battery connections and made sure they were tight.  Still nothing.  I went into the condo looking for the maintenance man but he only worked in the morning.  Fortunately, a sweet old man by the name of Richard G. Scott (Yes!  But not THE Richard G. Scott) must have noticed my lost expression and asked me if everything was alright.  He and his wife, Judy, brought a portable battery charger outside and tried to jump-start the battery but it didn't work. Then they got a friend of theirs, Carolyn Ingalls (Yes!  But not THE Carolyn Ingalls) to drive her car over and jump-start the battery.  Still no signs of life.   They kindly made a rather lengthy sign for the car since it was parked in a two hour parking zone explaining that it wouldn't start and I'd have it moved within 24 hours.  The girls and I unloaded our food and laptop and took it back in the condo to wait for help.  Fortunately, Del's brother, Jason, worked a couple of blocks away and offered to come take me to an auto shop so they could test the battery.  If it was dead I'd buy a new one and be on my way, but if it was fine Del would come tow me home so the Toyota dealer we bought it from could fix it at a reduced rate.  Sadly, the battery tested perfectly fine.  I tried starting it one more time and a miracle happened!  It started!  I drove up the road and around a few blocks thinking that I should drive it long enough to recharge the battery.  Finally, I pulled into a church parking lot at the top of the hill and turned it off.  Unfortunately, it didn't start back up so I had to roll it into a parking spot.  So Del borrowed my parent's truck and his parent's friend's car dolly and started out to rescue us.  Fortunately, in the meantime Jason offered to drive us 25 minutes to his house so we could see Kari and her new baby, Ruby (an absolute doll!). 

We had a fun visit with family and then headed back to SLC to spend the night at the condo.  On the way (about 9:30) Maren got a text from Bob Clark's granddaughter asking if we forgot to pack some of our stuff.  Unfortunately, they were spending the night in the condo with their mom, so we were booted out! We packed our things out of the condo as Bob's daughter watched (with a rather grumpy face, I might add). Fortunately for us, Jason said not to worry because they had two spare bedrooms and room for everyone.  Just as we breathed a sigh of relief over this bit of silver lining in our cloud Del called to tell us he had hit a deer on his way to our rescue!  How tragically Unfortunate!  Fortunately the truck still ran fine and other than a cracked grill and bent fender it wasn't too bad, so he was on his way.  We gave him directions to Jason and Kari's house and headed there. Unfortunately, during our drive, Del's dad called and informed me that he didn't think the car dolly Del borrowed would tow the Highlander because it was AWD, so we'd have to leave it at Jason's house and rent a full trailer from U-Haul.   An hour and a half later due to horrible traffic, we arrived at 12:30 am and fell into bed.  Del and Devin made it there by 1:30. 

We rented a trailer early the next morning ($153! That's Unfortunate!) and drove to the parking lot to load up the car.  The lot was full of cars from people living in nearby apartments, and we had hoped it would clear out by 7 but it was even more full and we weren't sure how to get the truck, giant trailer, and Highlander maneuvered into place in the tiny parking lot without hitting another car.  Del decided to try to start the car one more time and another miracle happened!  It started!  Fortunately, he was able to drive it into place to load on the ramps before it died.

We made it home in one piece and dropped it off at the Toyota dealer, who felt terrible about the situation and said he'd work out a deal for us.  Fortunately, he also loaned me a 2013 Ford Escape, which was great because I was scheduled to attend a series of veterans meetings with a member of our DC staff and had 20 minutes to get there. 

I finally broke the news to my dad about his truck and he took it moderately well (That's great!  I might as well just sell it now!).  We informed him that we would pay for the damage but a scratch on his baby causes him physical pain, so we knew he would need a period of mourning to recover.  It helped that his other daughters reminded him that Del and Devin could have been killed and it was fortunate that it was only a truck that was damaged.

But our Series of Unfortunate Events wasn't over yet!  I took Maren and Emma to Walmart late at night and somehow backed the loaner car into a small pole at the end of the row. I felt so sick I couldn't even get out and look to see if there was damage.  I have never been in an accident, and it was mortifying to have a fender bender in the Toyota dealership's car!  Even when we got home I avoided looking at the bumper.  I guess I figured if I couldn't see it that it would just go away.  Unfortunately, it didn't. There was a chip in the paint and a scratch on the fender.

Fortunately, the dealer called us to say the vehicle was fixed and they weren't going to charge us anything.  There had just been a bad connection between the battery and the hybrid battery and they were able to fix it with a $15 part and several hours to diagnose and tear apart.  Unfortunately, it was humiliating to return their car and confess to the damage.  Actually, I was too cowardly to do it and sent Del to return the car and explain.  It was seriously one of the nicest things he's ever done for me!  I was so grateful!  Fortunately, they were very kind and said their detail guy could repair it and they wouldn't charge us.  (They were still feeling very bad about the car and the deer, I guess)

Also fortunate, my parent's insurance company said that hitting a deer is considered an act of God and doesn't increase your insurance rates, so for a $100 deductible they repaired the $4,000 in damage.  My dad was extremely happy when the repair shop said they'd also fix the 3 dents on his tailgate and scrape on the driver's door for only another $150 deductible.  Those small flaws have been killing him for years but my mom refused to let him spend the money to fix them (It's a truck, Jack!  Trucks get dings!).

When all is said and done, I can definitely say Heavenly Father blessed us so much throughout our whole stressful weekend.  There were so many times He made things easier for us and put kind people in our path to help us, but He also put a deer in our path. He's like a teacher who gives you an awful, unexpected pop quiz but stays there and helps you learn all the right answers so you can ace it.  The girls and I were actually laughing throughout most of the experience, saying "What next?!"  (Except the damage to the loaner car.  I still cringe every time I think about that.)  I've learned I should never say, "What next?!" because it can always get worse.  And better.