The sort of long and the sort of short of it

Last Wednesday my brother left for college. Now he's far far away, in a distant land full of buggies and cow-like perfume, and when am I ever going to see him again? Probably never. But life moves on . . .

And I was faced with a decision. My parents were gone to help Clyde move into college so I was home alone, only to see Craig in the evenings when he gets back from work. What was I to do with myself? Should I stay and go mini-golfing with small group? Or should I go over to my cousins for an over-due visit? I really wanted to go mini-golfing (I haven't been for over a year and I haven't been to Twinkle Town for about two years!), but then I very much wanted to see Cara again too. What was I to do? Then the solution came. When in need, pray! So I asked the Holy Spirit to help me, and after a long and painful deliberation, I felt led to go to the cousins. Granted, I was still unsure, but that seemed like the right thing to do.

But Dad and Mom had taken our van, and since I'm still not wholly comfortable with a standard just yet I needed an alternative for transportation. Daddy had arranged it so that I could take the Fairview car, so I prepared to do so. It didn't help that my dad told me not to fill it up with gas because the car is supposed to come off the road at the end of the month. Nor was it exactly encouraging when my mom suggested I take some change for a pay phone in case the car broke down and I needed to be rescued. And the trivial fact remained that not only had I never broken down before but I had also never driven by myself anywhere beyond a dozen miles or less.

But I told my mom not to worry. After all, I had learned what to do if you break down in drivers' ed. If you're by the side of the road and you need help you put the hood up and tie a white flag (red in a snow storm) to the radio antenna or driver's door handle. This supposedly is the universally known signal that you need help, though if it were universally known I'm not sure why I'd never heard of it before. But that's why you take drivers' ed, right? And everyone remembers everything they're supposed to know about other people signaling for help, right? So of course I really had nothing to worry about even if I did break down. Drivers' ed covers it all.

So now that I've made a sort of long and sort of short story sort of long I'm about to make it sort of short again. I drove over to my cousins and back the next day all by my lonesome (an aprox. 1 hour drive one way, now that the bridge is out), with little or no mishap. Nothing really happened in particular, except when I had a guy tailing me. I hate being tailed. I wasn't even going an unreasonable speed! In fact, I was actually going five or maybe even ten (*gulp*) above the speed limit. When I got to going over by about fifteen I decided that this was ridiculous and I was going to go whatever speed I liked (I was also feeling very guilty). So I resumed going five over again. I don't like the idea of triggering road rage in anybody, but there are some things that people just have to deal with. I only hope that the speedometer in the Fairview car was accurate . . . .

And not only that, but I had a fabulous time at Cara's! Plus when I got home I found out that small group decided not to go mini-golfing after all so I was saved from some devastation.

I guess the Holy Spirit might actually know what He's doing. :)