Weird Angels

I got my van back today (hate to say what it cost) and was anxious to get back to work. The day was perfect with no wind and 65 degrees with plenty of sunshine. I met with the property manager who issued me a set of master keys for each complex and off I went to get busy while there was still some daylight left (6 pm).

When I get there, the parking lot was full and there was no room to park. I called the property manager who tells me to just drive across the grass to get around to the entrance. This complex is a very old building and has renters that tend to leave in the middle of the night..if you get my point.

I go to leave the parking lot and roll across the lawn, but I only made it about a van length before momentum stopped....I was stuck. When I got out and looked, all four tires had sunk into the water-logged ground by about 8 inches. Turned out that a water line had broken below ground and I got to find out just how bad it had been leaking.

I did some dumpster diving to find some cardboard to shove under the tires, but that did nothing. As the sun started to set, a renter came outside to smoke. Nice guy, but was clearly the product of many years of drug use as his faculties were a little slow and he smelled of marijuana. He came over to my van and offerred to help push, but that didn't help at all. I was thinking out loud and wishing I had some scrap wood that would be thin enough to wedge under the tire's...this guy runs into his apartment and comes out with a few scrap sheets of plywood. I tried it but just couldn't get the tire to ride up onto the boards.

I tell renter dude that I really needed a shovel. Just like that, he runs back into his apartment and comes out with a spade and an old iron hoe. I take the tools and dig out the mud behind the tires all around for about 3 feet. My shoes were caked in mud at this point as even walking in the muck caused me to sink. Once the mud was dug out, we put the plywood behind the wheels and tried again.....no dice, still stuck. The tires couldn't get enough traction to climb the wood's edge and just burned rubber instead.

By now, I am about out of ideas and ready to call a wrecker when renter dude says that I should try going forward again into the muddy yard, but I tell him that what I really needed was a piece of chain-link fence to set behind the tires. Just like that, renter dude goes back into his apartment and returns with a 3x3 piece of chicken wire fencing (I am starting to think that this guy has a very interesting apartment). It worked, the van made it back out of the tar pits coverd in thick mud.

I was going to offer to clean the dudes apartment, but I was scared to see what else was in there. Seriously, who has a spade, scrap wood, antique hoe, and chicken wire in their apartment? Monte Hall would have loved this guy!! I slipped him a twenty instead and thanked him.

I have come to realize that I have some very strange guardian angels......  

WOw that's a hell of a story, and a scary sounding dude!!   

Reminds me when I was younger, and dumb.   
I went down to Baja, Mexico to met up/party and go water ski with some friends. And I made a bad choice by turning off a dirt road to make a U-turn in the middle of the Mexican Desert in a Lowered Truck NO LESS! Man, talk bout' a bad decision LOL, we were stuck there for hours digging but with my friends help we finally got out.........total muddy nightmare.  :albino: 

I think I could have asked for a human skull and that dude would have brought one out!  

LOL, Rob, I think you're the only one here that has the most bizarre things happened in your life, if you're an elementary teachers, I bet your students will listen to your life stories with their mouth open :-)

I'da loved to seen the look on your face when he came out with the chicken wire.
Givers come in many shapes & sizes.
Long live renter dude.

It's Love Bro. Just think if the whole world operated out of Love! Awesome story Rob, my streets bad blood pressure would have been through the roof. Yet you seem to just take it as it come. BTW, all my vans have a tow strap in the driver side door. I get stuck a lot. Or at least I prone it.

Davey Cracker wrote:WOw that's a hell of a story, and a scary sounding dude!!   

Reminds me when I was younger, and dumb.   
I went down to Baja, Mexico to met up/party and go water ski with some friends. And I made a bad choice by turning off a dirt road to make a U-turn in the middle of the Mexican Desert in a Lowered Truck NO LESS!  Man, talk bout' a bad decision LOL, we were stuck there for hours digging but with my friends help we finally got out.........total muddy nightmare.  :albino: 

your first bad decision was LOWering your truck, lol jk

I've made a lot of bad decisions in my life (and some good ones too), that truck wasn't one of them..........It's a mater of taste and opinion, and everyone has one.     

I wonder if the guy builds chicken fighting rings   Nice guy

Gawd only knows what else is in that apartment, but he sure saved my night.

Maybe I'll go back there and take a picture of the ruts that I left, rental dude might have access to an bobcat that I could use to fill them in.