God in the Little Things

Yesterday was our customary "Panera Bread Lunch Day." The Kia needed an oil change, so we dropped it off at the car dealership and hitched a ride to Panera (since it was POURING rain). When we picked the car up after lunch we were told that we'd need a couple new tires soon (really? The car only has 20,000 miles on it, for heaven's sake!). Randy mentioned that he wanted to get a "real" tire for the spare to replace the "donut" variety that came with the car. Since Alyssa and I will be driving across the country at the end of June with two cats and a dog (prayers, please), he wants us to have a good spare in case we get stranded with a flat tire in the Rockies or the middle of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Today I drove up to Kohl's in Cedar Falls, following my morning women's Bible study. Randy needed some towels for a special project he's doing for the church he will begin serving in California in exactly two weeks. I embraced the opportunity to dilly dally and try on some summer shirts and basically malinger (yes, this is basement-avoidance behavior). By the time I checked out it was past time for lunch, so I decided to stop at the Subway on University Avenue before getting on the highway and heading home. As I drove west on University, a bad sound started under the front of the car. I pulled into the Subway parking lot and confirmed that my right front tire was totally flat. This is the Subway RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Smitty's Tire and Appliance. Imagine that!

While I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Subway, a nice young man named Jacob, walked over to Subway with a portable pump with which he inflated my tire long enough to drive it next door to Smitty's. I continued to enjoy a relaxing lunch while they replaced the irreparable front tire and mounted a new tire on the spare wheel in the trunk.

It could not have been handier unless I had actually had the flat tire in the Smitty's parking lot! God's grace and timing amaze me sometimes.

Now, about that trip across the country. We have a Kia Spectra, a car on the smallish side with not much room in the back seat. We will have two medium-sized cat carriers housing two very unhappy cats, and a gimpy (not small) dog on the back seat. That should about consume all the available space. The vet said a couple times/day we should let the cats out to eat and drink and use a cat box. Picture this. Alyssa and I will take up the front two seats, the animals the entire back seat area. Somehow we are supposed to find room for a cat box and food and water bowls which the cats are supposed to take advantage of while we let them "roam" around the car. First of all, I'm pretty sure once they are freed from their cat carriers (in which they have ONLY ridden to the vet's office and back) it will be no small feat to get them back INTO them again. About the only floor space big enough for a cat box will be under Alyssa's feet in the front passenger's seat. So, here's how I picture the scene. I will turn around and get on my knees to liberate the cats from their carriers. Then Alyssa will put her feet in my lap, so the cats have room to do their business if they should so choose, while they are, more likely, frantically trying to make their escape or at least get far enough from me that I can't wrestle them back into their carriers. I should also mention that the dog HATES riding in the car and is so lame that it's nearly impossible to get her into the car since she can't hoist herself in and HATES to be picked up. Sounds like fun, don't you think? Any advice will be gratefully accepted.