A Pain in My Rear

My 2017 Hyundai Cantus has blessed me and myriad others as it's traversed over 60,000 km of the Dominican's highways and byways, using those terms loosely in some instances, since October 2018. Lately, though, it's been a pain in my rear...and taken a few hits to its rear. 

One day during the Symposium, my dashboard screen conked out. I just started the car one morning and...nothing. No radio, no connecting my ancient iPod, no backup camera. It was a month or so until I had the bandwidth to have it looked at. My go-to car guy (he does house calls!) determined I had some burned out fuses that meant I needed to replace the screen entirely. Cha-ching. The upside is my new one functions with Apple CarPlay. 

One day while still screen-less, I pulled up to the office with a flat tire. I'd gone to the botanical garden that morning with no problem, but it was flat flat. I nabbed an unsuspecting seminarian who happened to be leaving at the right moment to help me put on the spare, then ate up a few "free" hours between meetings getting not one but two new tires, to keep things balanced. 

The day I got back from Courtney's wedding and later picked up a team from St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Lee's Summit, MO, I took a right turn too sharp on my way to go for an afternoon walk at the garden, scraping the passenger side back wheel well on a concrete pylon. The same car guy who'd just replaced my screen sourced the black plastic piece that fell off unbeknownst to me and was set to come install it in situ on Monday, until...

I got rear-ended Saturday coming back from PriceSmart. I lay on my horn and braked when a concho merging left cut me off in the middle lane and thought based on his screeching brakes that the guy behind me had enough lead time to stop. He, in fact, did not. We both pulled over and emerged unscathed, though we couldn't say the same for either vehicle. 

Among many indicators of Divine protection in the whole situation are that he stayed at the scene, was apologetic instead of argumentative, and is insured. My car was perfectly drivable, but we stood on the side of the road maybe 15-20 minutes chatting and waiting for his family to come pick him up. He gestured at my "Concordia Seminary St. Louis" shirt and asked if I was a Christian; turns out he is, too and attends a church a stone's throw from where the accident happened. 

He followed me to Casa del Conductor, a place I'm still unsure how to describe in English words. It's a benefit of full car insurance: a comfortably outfitted (A/C, overstuffed chairs, water & coffee) forum in which to file a police report before an impartial officer. All in all it took about 2 hours. I left more annoyed than anything. Side trips to my insurance company and a body shop are NOT what I need in the leadup to the regional conference with soon-to-be four new families in various stages of on-field orientation. I'm not in charge of any of that (yet), but I'm a frequent understudy to those who are. In an ideal world, the repair will happen while I'm hosting a team in Belize 8/17-26, but I'm not holding my breath that anything in the Dominican will be that simple. 

Speaking of the regional conference, I'll head to Punta Cana with the rest of the regional team Friday, riding with Tirzah. Surely nothing can happen to my car while it sits in my garage for 9 days...right?

Until next time, blessings!