It Comes In Threes

I just got home from the fireworks at the Aragon (Georgia) barbecue festival. I went to support the Lucas McCain band and to get my flyer/phone number/picture into the hands of Dave Harper and Frankie Hilburn (of the band Sweet Southern) to get our band in the lineup for playing at Rock Stock at the end of September or first of October.

Earlier I met Hampton Humphries at the restaurant he was playing and gave him my promotional materials as well.

This week has been one unusual thing right after another, specifically "in threes." Last Saturday June 17th, I went down to watch Eddie's band. Ray (my exhusband) played in it. His wife Patricia was there and her friends. Eddie (my son) sounds so wonderful. In the last set I got up on stage to sing my usual highlight of the night Redneck Woman. People asked for more and we got a request for Seven Bridges Road. We started singing it and his bass player Billy joined in with low harmony. People loved both songs. Ray came up to me later and said what a good job we'd done and that we really sounded great, that the harmonies were tight and he'd never heard us sing so good. He told Eddie the same thing. I was flabbergasted that he gave us praise. It's just so NOT like him. All those years I would have given anything to hear good words like that come out of his mouth. Tisha said it was probably the Xanax talking, allowing him to actually say the truth!!!

My brother David was there, along with three co-workers and his best friend Brian from high school days. We all danced and had a wonderful time.

On Sunday (17th) Father's Day I went over to visit with Daddy. We cleaned out his pantry and I brought all kinds of junk home, some so outdated I ended up throwing a lot away but he couldn't have thrown it out himself. There was a jar of homemade pear relish from 1992. I told Daddy the lid (on the Mason jar) was popped up (which means the contents just ain't no good anymore, you know as in rotten, bad, spoiled!!) but he looked at it with his one eye and said "Aw, it should still be okay."

I watched part of the Nascar race with him and asked questions about it, enjoying our time together. He asked me if my truck was still running alright and I answered yes, it was doing great. I left about 4pm and at 5pm on the interstate going about 75-80 mph, I had a tire blow-out on the back passenger side. Luckily I was at an exit ramp and was able to get off the road without having to be on the interstate by myself with a flat tire. As SOON as I pulled into the McDonald's parking lot, a nice young man pulled up and said, "Ma'am, could you use some help with that?" I said "I certainly could" and told him that was so fast I didn't even have time to worry. At this point it scared me in a way. I asked if he was on the interstate and saw it and he said no, he'd been across the street and heard the noise and pulled in right behind me. I realized his good intentions were sincere and I was so thankful. And of all times to be low on cash, I only had $2.00 with me. The only thing I could think to give him was my band business card (since we'd been talking about music and he'd done some roadie-ing before). He truly was an angel. I offered my hand in appreciation and to thank him but he pulled away because his hands were dirty. I didn't care. I grabbed his hand and thanked him anyway.

I got back safely on the road and made it to the house. I took the tire to Tim's on Monday morning and left it for him to replace it. I knew it would take a couple of days to find the right one, or so I thought.

On Tuesday evening coming home from work about 6 miles from the house I had just gotten on the phone with Keith and just enough time for him to tell me he might need to move into my basement because he'd just bought two new speakers. I was stopping at the red light and heard "crunch, grind, snap, crackle and pop". I said "Oh shit, what was THAT?" to which he thought I was responding to him, but I told him my truck just broke and I didn't know WHAT it was but something had happened to my brakes. I was able to pull off the road safely into the parking lot of Chattahoochie Tech and park in the shade to wait for the wrecker. I'd called Tim who thought I was calling about my tire being ready but I told him no, I was broke down and stranded. Luckily again, Tisha was out of school this week and had been to a few appointments. I got her on the phone and she came to my rescue. I called Adam to let him know I would not have a way to work on Wednesday and would be working from home on the schedules. Once again when I arrived home, I was thankful for my safety.

Tim got both the tire and the brake fixed and called me. I called Carolyn and asked if she'd take me to go pick up my truck which she did very happily but she missed getting to see that handsome Tim because he was already gone.

And then to top off the phrase "it comes in threes", today on my way to do some errands and traveling about 55mph, a car in front of me suddenly veered to the left, and I was headed towards a car stopped crossways in the road. The driver obviously had pulled out into the oncoming traffic, panicked and stopped. I had to make a quick judgement to keep from running right into her driver's side door and possibly killing her with the rate of speed in my big truck against her little car. I didn't have time to see if it was clear to my left which would have been safer by staying on the road, but had anyone been there I'd have run them off the road and possibly cause more than a 2-3 vehicle wreck. So I veered to the right, going completely off the road with all four tires onto the grass, dirt and gravel trying to slow down and watch for holes or humps that would throw me. Luckily it was mostly flatland with no embankment or ditches. As I manuevered back onto the road, I looked into my rear view mirror and she was still stalled in the road. Rev (the dog) was thrown into the floorboard and as he was getting back up, was looking at me like "WHY did you do that to me!!!" It was hilarious after the fear was gone.

So, within 7 days after my dear daddy said, "Is your truck running okay hon?" I had my three death-threatening experiences with my vehicle, like mama and so many other people always say.....it comes in threes.

Someone prays for me constantly. This is obvious. I told brother Randy (the pastor) that if no one else had their angels last week it was because they had a special mission over me.