It's a Christmas Miracle!

So, on Saturday, our car exploded.

We'd been driving around shoveling snow and ice off of most of the sidewalks in the city of Provo per our status as Continental Apartments R.A.'s.

It was magical.

(In all seriousness, it was actually very satisfying work. Although, if anyone knows of a way to shovel multiple blocks of snow without tweaking your back, both Jordan and I would love to know your secrets)

We got home, and got ready to make a fantastic dinner for some friends. You see, I have these Christmas dishes this year, but discovered that I had no one to share them with. So we've been inviting people over! It's like real Christmas!

However, we were missing some very Hawaiian Haystack necessary ingredients (namely, slivered almonds. I started the night being adamant that they be slivered. I have since determined that they may be sliced. It is acceptable... but still not the best).

So my daring husband went out to trek to the grocery store, and the car wouldn't start. It would make angry noises and smell like gasoline. So I went to stare into the maw of the beast, and was rewarded with a gasoline geyser to the face.

After calling my mechanic Dad, we determined that it was probably going to not explode immediately upon starting it. So we did it again, discovering the source of the spewing. A hose (I think leading to the injector? I think? Is that a thing?) had a inch or so long split along the seam. So, being Saturday night, we were grounded.

Luckily, we live within walking distance of church. Unluckily, I found out I was working on Sunday (not that it would have made a big difference, but it's always frustrating to find our your working the day before you work.... /rant). Also luckily, my dear brother offered to drive me to said shift. It was very frustrating to be dependent on him for getting to work, but we survived it!

So, this morning, Jordan and I slapped some duct tape on the sucker and revved her up.

Turns out, gasoline dissolves the adhesive on duct tape.

SCIENCE.

So, we ("we" being "me" - Jordan had to go to work) called our handy dandy USAA towing (I married the right guy. Go USAA!) and told them that we had a fuel leak.

So, that was bad word choice.

Next thing I knew, I had a 9-1-1 operator on the phone and a fire truck in front of our apartment complex.

Anywho, those guys were the bomb. I apologized to them for calling them away from real emergencies, and showed them the busted hose. These guys were great. They took a look and he said "Well, as a fireman, I'm going to go ahead and clear you to get your car towed. But as Joe Blow from down the street, I'm just going to fix this for you."

AND THEN THE MAGICAL FIREMEN FIXED OUR CAR.

They were charming and kind and very proficient. He cut off the busted part of hose and reattached it. And now it purrs like a dream. And I gave them a plate of snickerdoodles.

And now the car is ready to go up to Oregon this weekend! Although probably we're going to still replace the hose, but at least now I can go to work today!

We are so blessed. It was much better to discover this problem now, rather than somewhere in the middle of Idaho during our trip. Grateful for the little miracles!