First, on November 27, 2012 my friend Abi died. My friend and ranch partner, Rick Sanchez is the one who introduced us. Abi is his ex-wife’s sister. Over the years Abi and Rick became good friends and at the time of her death Abi was living in Rick’s house. When Abi passed away Rick headed to San Antonio to clean all her stuff out of his house. He had a cold when he left for San Antonio but appeared to be healthy when he returned.
Second, on December 11, 2012 my car was totaled. Rick had returned from San Antonio only a few days prior and we were catching up with errands that needed to be done. We needed to make a quick trip to the small town of Camp Wood to purchase a Christmas present. Rick was starting to feel bad on the way there but insisted we go due to time running out (the present had to be mailed too). I ran into the shop that sold homemade Mohair clothing (made from Angora Mohair-goat fiber) and then we started our trip back home. Camp Wood is a very small town, around 700 to 800 residents, plus tourists. I had traveled about a block or two when the car in front of me stopped. While waiting for that car in front to continue on, another car slammed into me. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but both cars were totaled. The elderly man who hit me claimed his foot fell off the break but an eye witness never saw his break lights ever come on. Considering the force with which he hit me, I am wondering if he accidently hit the gas pedal instead.
By the time the EMS checked us all out and the deputy arrived from another town to file the police report, Rick was feeling even sicker, we both had a headache and his lower back was hurting. His doctor thinks he just sprained his back and Rick is slowly getting better. But December 11 was the beginning of two very difficult situations we had to face. First, Rick became very sick. Upon arriving home Rick went to bed and basically slept for five days, only waking up when I forced him to take his medicine. He cannot ever remember being that sick before in his entire life. It took almost two weeks for him to even start functioning. He is better now but everyone except Rick, who just slept all the time, was very concerned about his health. Second, my car was totaled.
December 12 we were suppose to go to Abi’s funeral. In fact Rick was suppose to officiate the funeral, but when I was unable to wake him up long enough to even get out of bed, I became concerned and called a retired nurse friend for advice. In the end, I called the family and let them know Rick and I were not going to make the funeral. Just telling them Rick has a temperature of 103.6 convinced everyone Rick was very ill. I then managed to wake him enough to get out of bed and dress. Once he was dressed, I assisted him to the car and off we went to Kerrville, an hour drive away. Rick slept the entire trip.
First stop was the Veterans’ Clinic so he could see a doctor. I truthfully was concerned he might be sent to the hospital in San Antonio and if so they would have to get him there as my car was barely drivable and not really legal due to the accident. Fortunately Rick’s lungs were not involved so the doctor sent him home with some medicine and instructions for me.
After picking up some canned soup for Rick to eat at home, my focus turned to the wrecked vehicle. I dropped my Toyota Rav4 off at the body shop and Enterprise picked me up. I had been on the phone with them since the day before needing a rental truck. When we left the grocery store they did not have a truck available but praise God, within five minutes a truck was returned.
I spent the entire day dealing with issues related to the wrecked vehicle while Rick slept. At the body shop Rick slept in my wrecked car until Enterprise showed up. Then I woke Rick up and helped him get out of the car and into the Enterprise car, where he immediately fell asleep. Then later when the truck was ready and it was time to leave, I woke Rick up and helped him get out of the car and into the rental truck. Rick has no memory of most of the day. He was really ill and I felt bad for him knowing he would rather be in his own bed. Finally everything that had to be done was done and I was able to take him home and put him to bed.
Rick was still not totally well when we had no choice but to start truck shopping. Our need for a truck had been growing over the months and we had been keeping an eye out for an old cheap used truck. Now that my RAV4 was totaled, it made since to replace it with a good used truck. The closest car lot is over 60 miles away and the closet dealership is even farther. So truck shopping was not an easy activity. It usually took us a couple hours just to arrive at a dealership. Then by the time we got there, looked at what is available, and returned home it after dark and we were exhausted. We were able to visit at two dealerships before the Christmas weekend, but they did not have what we were looking for. We spent the Christmas weekend doing a lot of research and praying. Time had run out and we needed to find a truck immediately or start paying for the rental ourselves.
On December 26 as the sun was just beginning to rise we once again headed to San Antonio to visit a third dealership. God was gracious and there we found a truck that provided what we were needed and more. The sun was setting as we signed the final paperwork and were able to leave with our 2011 Nissan Frontier.
Though the cover on the truck is suppose to be easy to remove, the simple truth is the bed is not quite as big as we had planned on having and if we want to carry a lot of something—that is going to be a problem. So even before New Year’s Eve arrived we begin talking about a trailer.
Yesterday, January 24, we went to Kerrville to celebrate Rick’s birthday. After a wonderful lunch we stopped at a few places selling trailers. The second place we looked at had a red 2011 trailer that had just been traded in that morning for a larger trailer. It looked in excellent condition and fit our needs. I wrote a check for $700 and we hooked it up to the truck and drove off.
Our last stop for the day was to purchase some straw bales and then we headed home.
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