You'd think I'd know by now.

Remember last Friday? Very cold outside…it may have reached 8 degrees above zero…but that may just be an optimistic view.
Many of you know me: I have had a complication of driving problems for oh…as long as I’ve had my license, I guess one could say. Speeding tickets, accidents, break-downs, locking myself out of my car, running out of gas….yes all of these and for each of these accounts there have been numerous occasions. I am not proud of this trail of disaster and have been dedicated this past year to diminishing the record.
I am on a journey. Driving, not so unlike life, is a work in progress for me. I have not had a speeding ticket in over a year and a half. And it has been 8 or 9 months since my car managed to park itself in a neighbor’s garage.
But running out of gas? That…I am still working on. It’s not like the time I stopped at a gas station to get a cup of coffee only to realize a mile down the highway that I was stalled on the highway because I had neglected to get gas also. No, this was more of a conscience choice I made on Friday to see how far I could get on an empty tank as I was in a hurry.
Always the optimist, I figured I could make my way on E from New Prague to Prior Lake before the wedding on Friday. I was slightly below the red mark, and I was sure there was more in there than what the gauge indicated. Hopeful as I was, I was wrong. I found myself in a near-panic and alone in freezing farm country.
Thankful for my self-phone, my life-line...I called my parents (residents of Prior Lake) to see if they would make a trek to save me before my car and I were a permanent fixture on the side of County Road 13. They were in a neighboring town and would take some time to get to me, but were starting on their way as we spoke. I was going to be very late at this rate.
In a daze of reality and passing time, I wandered down the road and onto the property of a farmer. A white-haired woman greeted me and offered to give me some gas. About 45 minutes later and after more trouble with getting my car started, (I found out you have to physically kick your gas tank after filling it, if you have let it get to the point of total depletion.) I was back on the road, a bit colder and more frantic than I previously had been, but reminded that no matter how stupid my choices may be…God provides and sometimes through the hand of a stranger. I realize however that this doesn’t give me license to continue in my usual courses of action, but to learn a lesson. Lesson learned? I think so.