I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried

I'm back in the saddle again - posting that is - and fresh from a long weekend visiting my sister in Minnesota. The trip was a lot of fun! We all had a great time! I was expecting this to be a run-of-the-mill-back-from-vacation-guess-what-we-did-over-the-weekend kind of post. And it would have been too if it wasn't for our crazy trip home.

Break down
We were almost home - just north of Ames, Iowa when Hubby's truck broke down. With gauges red lining, we limped to the Ames exit driving about 40 miles an hour on the shoulder for three miles. The truck was making a horrible noise, which only grew louder the farther we drove. We turned into the first parking lot we could find, a credit union right next to a gas station. As soon as Hubby touched the brake, the truck died - not good.

Hubby popped the hood and looked at the engine; not because he knows anything about automotive repair but because that's what you do when you break down. He walked over to the gas station to borrow a phone book while Darling Daughter and I stayed in the truck. I amused myself by people watching. Not a lot to see - the credit union was behind us and there just wasn't a lot of action on an early Monday afternoon....or so we thought.

A little thing called fate...or is it karma?...more like Divine Comedy
Strange things happen to my family. If you've ever doubted that God has a sense of humor, come over to my house and let me tell you some stories. My brother once cheated death when his furnace blew up with him standing next to it - walked away without a scratch. Later that day, he won a cruise to the Bahamas through a radio trivia contest. I warned Hubby when we got married he would be sucked into the DMG family curse. So when we found out the credit union where we were parked was robbed while we were sitting there my immediate response was to laugh out loud.

No one hurt in armed robbery at credit union

I missed the whole thing because the truck was facing the wrong way. We didn't even have a clue anything was going on - nobody told us - but we caught on pretty quick when a police officer pulled into the parking lot and got out of his car carrying his shotgun. I thought maybe he didn't like our Hawkeye license plates - Ames is home to the Iowa State Cyclones and they are bitter rivals with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, Hubby's alma mater.

The policeman came over and talked to us. We found out the robbery occured when Hubby was in the gas station. I told them about a few people I saw in the parking lot - nothing exciting from my point of view but they made me talk to two different detectives. I did the best I could. People watching is a passive activity - you never think you'll actually have to remember what they looked like. They were done questioning me about the same time the tow truck showed up.

Would have, could have, should have....
It was all very exciting. I don't know how helpful I was. I didn't see any of the actual robbery itself. Hubby - being the morbid one in the family - was kicking himself later, "I never should have left you alone in the truck!" He dwells on what could have happened - if I had seen something and if the robber had seen me seeing something and then something really bad could have happened...yadda yadda yadda.... I guess I don't worry too much about that kind of stuff. I didn't see anything let alone something therefore nothing happened. It's the story of my life - when something really cool happens, I'm always looking the other way.

The best news out of all of this is the truck is fixed and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg. We were sweating bullets thinking it was something really serious. Turns out it was just a broken hose clamp and a busted thermostat caused when we turned on the air conditioner; broken hose blew coolant all over the thermostat and fried it. First car repair we've had in a long time that came in under $200.

Somewhat anti-climatic but like I told Hubby, "Hey! It's blog-able!"