Unbelievable

There were some bizarre happenings around our house this week.  Warning: this is kind of lengthy.

It all started Tuesday evening when I decided to take a walk with Mom and Dad.  Jason had some work to do, so he stayed at home with the kids.  As we were headed out, Jason was pulling the van in the garage, which he'd just swept out.  So, Wednesday morning, I needed to drive the van, but couldn't find the keys.  I called him to see if he remembered where he'd put them, but he couldn't remember at all.  All day AND evening of Wednesday was spent searching for the lost keys.  The yard was scoured.  The drawers were searched.  The garage (the most likely place we felt) was practically overturned.  NO KEYS!  Even my brother and his wife came to help us look.  Nothing.  We looked until we could not think of any place else to look, and even then we still searched.  We finally just figured that Jason had placed them somewhere where Jake might have taken them and then, who knew?

You may be wondering what the big deal is.  The big deal is that when we bought the van used, there was only ONE key.  I never got around to having a spare made.  YIKES!  I was completely stuck!  So, Thursday morning, I called the Honda dealership, and they told me that yes, I could have another key made, but that the van had to be there for the programming of the key.  What?  I knew what I had to do.  It had to be towed.

So, I called a U-Haul place in Stanford, and the guy gave me the option of either renting a U-Haul dolly, or, for half the price, I could borrow his that he owned.  Of course I chose the latter.  My dad said that he would go get the dolly with his truck and in the mean time I would be trying to figure out how to get my van out of park so that we could get in onto the dolly.  With the help of the nice people at Alton Blakely Honda, I was able to do that.

We had help lined up to push the van up onto the dolly.  Jason was coming by and another friend.  But, as it turned out, Dad was able to use one of his tools to load the van himself.  He had JUST gotten it loaded when Mack (our friend) pulled in the driveway to help, and then right behind him was an unfamiliar red truck, which I'd noticed had just gone down the road the other way, had turned around, and pulled into our driveway.  Immediately behind the strange red truck was Jason.  He and Mack hadn't even gotten out of their cars when the guy in the red truck holds out a set of keys and says, "Ma'am, did you happen to lose some keys?"  

I just about fell over.  

I said, "Yes, I did."  And then I just stared at him in disbelief as he told me he had found the keys a half mile up the road.  He continued to say that he was driving down the road and saw the keys, stopped and picked them up, and then when he drove by and happened to see our van on a towing dolly, he thought that maybe they belonged to us.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Needless to say, we were all in utter shock!  The key ring was all rusted from the rain and the remote was busted up and detached from the ring.  But there they were!  They'd been taken for a ride when Jason had laid them on the back of his car Tuesday night and drove off with them Wednesday morning.  HA!  I didn't give him too much grief.  After all, he felt bad enough and plus, haven't we all done silly stuff like that?

I know this is a long story, but there's more.  I decided to keep the service appointment I had at the dealership because I needed a spare key anyway.  I got the key made, ordered the remote, and while there I found out that there had been a safety recall on a part of the transmission.  Because we bought the car with a salvage title, we had no idea.  Honda insisted that the part be replaced (at no cost to us) and in addition, they want to check the rest of the transmission.  If there has been any damage as a result of the part having not been replaced yet, Honda is going to give us a brand new transmission.  But, we're still waiting to see about that.  I just see this whole episode as evidence of my God taking care of our needs!  

Oh, but there's one last thing.  I have to almost laugh though, because currently the new key is stuck--STUCK--in my ignition.  It WON'T COME OUT!!!  At least I already have an appointment scheduled for the transmission part this week, huh?  What a week!  

But I won't complain, because God has blessed us through this, from the keys being found, to the part being replaced, even to the fact that the man in Stanford didn't end up charging us for the use of the tow trailer.  Now if we can just get the key out of the ignition...  :)