What's important again? Part 2

No, my second long hiatus from blogging in a month and a half is not related (this time) to the announcement by one Sarah Palin that she is not running for President.  No, this hiatus was related to my taking the family on a cross-country trip.  And honestly, it was good to step away from the computer every so often and reevaluate things.  And did I ever get the opportunity to reevaluate.

See, while most of the trip was quite enjoyable (we visited a certain cartoon mouse and friends), one member of the family became very ill, and we feared for that member's survival. 

I refer, of course, to our vehicle. 

On the way out, the vehicle informed us that we were leaking oil.  And we were leaking it badly.  As we had already traveled several hundred miles and did not want to blow multiple days by waiting for the vehicle to sit in a shop in the hopes that they could fix the leak (as opposed to, say, visiting a cartoon mouse), we pressed on, keeping a sharp eye on the oil level.  The leak was not getting any worse, but it was bad enough that we were adding a quart every 100 miles. 

Once we reached Cartoon-Mouse-Land*, the vehicle was allowed to sit and not cause us any grief until such time as we left to return home.  And for two days of driving, we continued to add oil and hope that everything would go well and that we could get the vehicle into the shop once we were back in Austin.  We already were fearing that the cost of repairs would be more than we were willing to pay, given the age and mileage of the vehicle, and we were okay (though certainly not thrilled) with what we expected to come.

What we did not expect was for the vehicle to die on us, with (as we learned later) a non-functional fuel pump.  Between that and the oil leak, this vehicle is not worth the cost of repairing it to make it run again, and so we began the grieving process (which, as one might expect, is harder for the 5-year-old) to say goodbye to the vehicle.

So what does all this have to do with reevaluation?

I have not refrained from mentioning on this blog that I am a Christian.  Honestly, though, I would argue that American Christians don't always think about reliance on God.  With a gimpy vehicle, though, I thought about it quite a bit.  We prayed to make it back home safely, and at first, when the car broke down, I was a little frustrated...after all, we were stuck on the side of the road.  But, really, I now think that our prayer was granted.

See, what I did not mention was that the car broke down less than ten miles from our house.  We drove over 2700 miles on this trip, and the car could have died anywhere along that route.  (And anyone who has driven Interstate 10 knows that there are some long, desolate stretches.)  We were able to get a tow truck for the vehicle, as well as a taxi to get Mrs. Snowed back to pick up our family's other vehicle to come get us and the stuff, at a very late hour, and not only that, but both the tow truck and the cab arrived at the same time, so that we could coordinate everything perfectly.

Obviously, I'm not saying that everything went perfectly, but God was definitely watching over us on this trip.  I don't know that I'd say that something like this would happen like this again, as God is going to do what he chooses to do, but in this case he chose to get us home, and the way it all turned out was a great reminder for us to put our trust in him.  And that is much more important than any of the petty political things about which I normally blog.**

*In accordance with the wishes of Mrs Snowed, the chances of any pics of the family at Cartoon-Mouse-Land showing up on this blog are about the same as the chances of the Indianapolis Colts running the table and winning the Super Bowl this season.  If you want to see pics, you might want to talk to me in a location in which I don't use a nom de plume.


**Not that I'm gonna stop tweeting about the political stuff.  I mean, my snark has to have an outlet somewhere.