My Knight in Shining Armor/Overalls

     It was my gray roots that instigated this adventure. I decided to go to Wal-Mart in Kirksville and take my chance on a makeover. I wanted hair color with highlights, and the random hairdresser whose turn it was to take me obliged. The process took four hours. I arrived in daylight, and darkness had fallen by the time she was done.  I also bought shampoo that would enhance the color, had my eyebrows waxed, and my Discover card charged in excess of $100 for the whole process. I am embarrassed to say I just tipped the hairdresser two dollars, because I was in shock from the total bill.  When I looked in the mirror, I barely recognized the trendy striped hair woman in the chair. “Your husband won’t know you,” my hairdresser said.  H-m-m-m.    After what happened next, would he want to know me? 

     I rushed out to my Jeep and headed home. I turned my wheel a hard right, and that is when I noticed a thumping sound. I stopped, got out of the Jeep and looked at my tires, but saw no flat, so I kept going. It still made an alarming sound, so I called Blaine on my cell phone. The thumping became even louder, so I told him I had to get off the road and hung up.  I turned into a suburb and parked near a stop sign. I looked under the Jeep and saw that a long piece of metal was under the wheel instead of connected to it. I called my husband back and felt tears burning my eyelids.

     “I don’t know what to do. There is a long bar under the left wheel of my Jeep. Do I keep the Jeep running? Do I keep my lights on?”

     “You can keep it running. You have enough gas.  Is it the tie rode end or the steering rod end?” he asked.

      “Um, how would I determine that?” I asked.

     “Look at your front tires. Are they both pointed in the same direction?”  I climbed out of the Jeep with my trusty little flashlight that he insisted I keep in my glove box and looked at my tires.

     “One is pointed to the right, and the other is straight,” I reported.

     “The tie rod end came off,” he said. “I am on my way.”

     Immediately, I feel better. Blaine has been rescuing me for years. Flat tires, broken washing machines and dryers, electric problems, house remodels, he is the man to fix me. One time grandson Logan’s Hot Wheels car was run over by a car. When he saw the flat toy, he said, “Maybe Grandpa can fix it.” Blaine has that kind of reputation.

     I plug in my Tom-Tom and find my location on the map, which I report to my hubby, then sit and wait. Finally, the green “tool truck” is in sight, and he sees me sitting there, waiting for him.  I jump out, hug him, tears in my eyes, and he says exactly the right thing, “I like your hair.”  Gulp. True love. But then he tops it.

      “Look at the dent in my truck,” he points. He had slain a dragon on his quest to save me. A deer ran onto the highway. “I knew if I hit him head on, he would ruin my radiator, and I wouldn’t be able to make it to you, so I turned hard and made him hit me in the side.”  

      He proceeded to lie down in front of the Jeep, instructed me to turn the wheel, and wired the tie rod end up, so I could drive it back to the Wal-Mart parking lot. He did not want me to risk driving it home like that, so we found a parts store that was open and bought a new tie rod end. We drove back to the parking lot, and I had what our children know is the worst job in the world -  HOLDING THE FLASHLIGHT FOR THEIR DAD! You must hold it on what he needs to see without shining it in his eyes. To complicate matters, the temperature had dropped dramatically, and I did not take a jacket, so I wrapped myself in the blanket I keep in the car, and held the flashlight. The miracle worker I call my husband lay on the hard asphalt and fixed my Jeep.

     We drove home, following each other, “whither thou goest, I shall go,” back to the farm.  This man, to whom I have been married 4O years, is my knight, if not in shining armor, in shining overalls. I have loved him for most of my life and, God willing; will have many more years with him. Who can resist a man who can fix me and everything else in my life? Not me!