We Cookes know how to do a few things. We know how to put out an award winning newspaper, we know how to do some gardening and cooking, we know how to volunteer and promote. All of us used to know how to play tennis, and all, except me, were very good at it.
What we don’t know how to do is anything involving electronics, cars, motors any kind. Basically anything with moving parts.
We have great neighbors across the street who help us with anything of that nature. Everyone should have neighbors like Cecil and Rachel Lopez. Cecil is retired and a veteran. He can fix anything and has solved many problems for us over the years. Rachel makes tamales and salsas and jams and jellies and all kinds of treats, she sews, makes quilts, you name it. We have often been on the receiving end of her generosity.
Last Thursday I had an out-of-town errand to run and I had already decided to take a mental health day, so I had a very leisurely morning drinking my tea and doing my morning routine. I finally got up and took a shower, got dressed and got in the car.
Dead battery.
And I was all alone.
Mom and Dad were out of town. Neither of them would have been any help, mind you. I only mention it because Dad’s truck was there since they took Mom’s car to Fredericksburg.
So I back Dad’s truck out of the driveway and park it in front of my car. I was going to jump my car off with his truck. I had done this before. I knew what to do and I even knew I had jumper cables.
The first problem I had was I couldn’t figure out how to open the hood of either vehicle from the outside. I thought surely there was a way to open both of them from the inside, so I was in and out of both cars looking for a button of some kind. Finally I called Dad to ask him if there was an inside button to open the hood. There was, but it wasn’t a button.
It was a square piece of plastic that you wouldn’t know was there, so well hidden it was. Same in my car thank goodness.
So I’m in the driveway with both hoods up rummaging around in my trunk looking for the cables when a chorus of angels and a bright light appeared. There was neighbor Cecil looking at me like, “I know your mother and father. And I know you have no idea what you’re doing so I’m now going to take over.”
He didn’t actually say that. I could just tell that’s what he was thinking.
I said a thank you to Jesus as I ran inside the house to get him something he asked for to help.
My battery was all corroded but he still got it running in no time. I thanked him profusely. I said, “Mr. Cecil, you know nobody in this house knows how to do anything.” He laughed way too hard at that. He’s well aware.
As soon as the car came back to life my low tire pressure light appeared and I noticed it was also time for an oil change, so I had Noelia follow me to Steve’s Texaco to drop it off. Billy and Steve always take good care of our cars, which is why we don’t need to know anything about fixing them.
So my mental health day didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned but all’s well that ends well.
Thank you again, Mr. Cecil. We don’t know what we’d do without you.
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