One of those days!

Hello!
       Today was one of those days. I woke up and went to fix my
breakfast. I found that I had no water coming through the tap. There
was no water from the town. That is usually no problem. I just go
open the valve to my water tank and the water comes down the pipe into my house. Gravity does wonders when the tank is above the house :- ). I went to do just that, but it didn't work. The valve was messed up and stuck closed. So, I needed to get it worked on.
       The fundi (skilled workman - in this case a carpenter, but he also knows some plumbing) came to help me. He stopped up the pipe in the bottom of the tank with a plastic grocery bag. Then he took the pipes apart and prepared to replace the valve. A little water came
out of the pipe from the tank, but not as much as the full tank would lead you to believe. So, the plastic bag worked. The replacement valve, however, was bigger than the old one. So, I had to find a pipe cutter and get the pipe rethreaded. We got all that done and I had
water in my house by noon. I was so happy! I could now cook some
lunch and get some other house work done.
       In the afternoon, I decided to help one of my workers by taking six
five gallon water jugs to her house in my truck. I heard a noise in
the front wheel when I left, but thought it just needed a little
grease. On my way home (a 5 minute drive over a pot-holed road), I
went over the last of three speed bumps on the main road and heard a
very loud something break. It was the wheel. I turned the truck onto
a less busy road stopped it and got out to look at my front wheel.
The wheel was not straight from top to bottom. The bottom was
sticking out away from the truck. It was not messed up lugs or loose
lug nuts. This gets technical and I don't know all the right words.
So, suffice it to say, it was broken. I was afraid to drive it that
way, but didn't take my cell phone with me. It was only going to be a
short trip after all.
      So, I locked the truck and started walking. I was only a
little ways away from the truck when another CMF truck came towards me. I flagged them down. It was some guys who work for my teammate, Gene Morden. So, they called Gene and he came to see if he could help in about 10 minutes. He looked at it and agreed with me that I
shouldn't drive it. So, we went and got a mechanic from town. He
came to look at it. He and Gene worked on it for about an hour. They
jacked the truck up and wedged a piece of wood under the broken part.  That held it up a little more, but the tire was still crooked.
      The mechanic was going to drive it to town like that. He
couldn't make any right turns. So, it was interesting following him.
At one point, Gene decided to ride with him. Only thing is, he wanted
to stop traffic on the main road if he needed to and to direct the
mechanic on his driving. So, he stood on the runner, holding on to
the roof rack and leaning down to talk with the mechanic every once in a while. (This was one of those moments when I wish I had my camera!) Gene got a phone call while he was doing this daring stunt.  So, he talked on the phone while standing on the runner and holding on with his other hand to the roof rack. We eventually made it to the mechanic's shop. Gene decided to get inside the truck before we got to the bridge into town.
       So, I left my truck at the mechanics. I will have to get a new
part and that may take some time. So, I will be without a truck for a
while. The good news is that we were able to get it to the
mechanics. He was willing to come make a road-side "truck-call" and
it was after five in the afternoon. The part was probably cracked on
the incredibly bad roads I drive on here. I did look before it was
completely broken but couldn't see the crack. The speed bump just
hastened the breaking process. So, hopefully, my truck will be fixed
sometime in the next week or so.
       It was just one of those days. Things go wrong. Even so, things go
right too. The fundi did fix the water. The made up stopper of a
grocery bag kept me from loosing all that water on the ground. I
didn't make the problem on the truck worse by driving on it broken. I
even got to smile as I followed behind my slow truck watching Gene
riding outside and talking on the phone.
I hope your day was better! Thanks for praying!!!