"Happy" took a leap of faith today
"Happy" loves to hear from his readers about what they do or did that made them happy. At times, I get tears in my eyes reading about the little things in life that made them happy or I can feel the love they felt at the time. It's real and genuine.
As I have stated before, I also have a blog in the Houston Chronicle that a small group of readers wanted to meet "Happy" in person. I don't know if How Far Will Happy Go is read both here and in the newspaper, but for those that wanted to meet "Happy", well I took the last little bit of cash that I had and had some t-shirts with the How Far Will Happy Go logo on them to give to them. I feel that if people read their shirts when they wear them, they will ask about it. Then "Happy" will be read and spread even more around. It's a leap of faith.It took everything that I had to get them because I live on disability.
But it made "Happy" very happy to think that it will make these particular readers happy too, to get the first of what I hope is the many, many t-shirts that will eventually end up out there in the world.
The actual cost on the shirts is about $10 provided that I can keep finding them on sale and if you would like to get one, please email me and I will send you one if you can cover the cost and pay for the shipping and handling. The t-shirts will be white with the logo at the top of this post on them.
Here's my 'Happy' story:
I was pulling out of one of those parking lots that had the automatic gate arm contraption at the exit. You had to feed your token into the slot in order to get the arm to lift and enable you to move your vehicle through. The tokens were given to you by the business as proof that you had indeed parked in that lot to use their facility and not for some other covert and suspicious purposes.
I was three cars behind a lady in a small Saturn. I had seen her exit the building and had noticed that while quite elegant, she was of a rather substantial size. She was now futilely trying to get the mechanism to accept her token. When it didn’t respond, she would hit the return token button, the token was spit out and sent flying onto the pavement below. She tried this with several of the little gold coins. (Where’d she get all those tokens? They only gave me one?)
Knowing that someone of her girth would have trouble retrieving the coins and seeing the cars between us growing impatient, I put my car in park (I was safely by the curb, and got out to see if I could assist. It was raining and I was barefoot, but I knew the situation could turn ugly if something wasn’t done.
As I sprinted up to retrieve the coins, the Saturn had managed to back out and pull back into the parking lot. By the time I reached the machine the next car was about to make the attempt.
Attempt failed.
I picked-up their token, put it in the machine, pressed “return” several times in succession and heard a satisfying ‘click’ as the token flew out of the slot and the arm lifted simultaneously. The next car tried it…it worked.
I was happy with the results and was confident that the jam had been fixed, but wanted to make sure that the original lady in the Saturn was able to find her way back to the end of the line and make her escape. The line was growing and I stood there barefoot, in the rain, taking tokens and feeding them into the little box.
I heard a honking noise and noticed a maintenance truck tattooed with the name of the facility honking at my car which was parked (yes, illegally, but not blocking the way), I looked at him and shrugged noting that the Saturn was rounding the bend at the far end of the lot in order to make the turn into the exiting line.
The truck pulled up and an evil looking, nasty man rolled down the window.
“You’re going to have to move your vehicle.”
“I will,” I said. “In just a moment.”
“Now, Lady. You’re blocking traffic. What are you doing anyway? Get back in your car and move it.”
“This thing was broken….”
“It doesn’t look broken to me. I’ve been sitting there watching, you feed it coins. It has worked every time. Now move your car.”
“I was broken,” I insisted. “Who can I report this to?”
“It’s obviously NOT broken,” he insisted. “Now move your car!”
The Saturn had now joined the line two cars behind him. I was not going to quit on my mission to save this lady, just because if someone decided to move a double-wide mobile home through the parking lot, they could have a little trouble maneuvering around my car.
It was now him that was obstructing traffic, so he gave me an angry look rolled his eyes and moved on…probably getting on the radio to call security.
The Saturn finally pulled up and the lady was so sweet and grateful that it allowed me to shrug off Dr. Evil.
Wet and still barefoot I got back in my car and joined the end of the line.
At times like that, I sure hope God was watching. I need to feel like someone appreciated it.
Thanks Mobea for letting me post my story. Love your site.
I love your story. Just think, if more people did that, what a wonderful world it would be. Especially since "good" got the best of the 'evil man" LOL
I'm so happy that you posted this. Tell your friends about this site and have them post one too. Pretty soon, everyone is going to posting here. "Happy" gets hungry for happy stories everyday!(There's a great big smile on his face right now because of your story!)
I am diabetic and have been for 16 years. Today I went to the eye doctor for my yearly exam. I PASSED. No problems in my eyes from having diabetes so long. I had cataract surgery 4 four years ago and still no problems from that. For Once, I went to a doctor and didn't get a lecture about my weight, my skin, my lack of exercise, my blood pressure or anything. And on top of that, I think I may have sold our big screen TV that I've been trying to sell for th last month. Today is a Happy Day!
Esoterica, as one of the "spacious" women, I thank you for that good deed. I would have moved my car up a few feet, unbuckled the seatbelt, gotten wet (like you did) and paid. The people that were behind you just don't know how to be kind and caring. You do!!! _Kathy
So I think that your wonderful husband should do something special for you for having such a great check-up. That's so wonderful!! It's just such a happy feeling!!! Actually you've both had good news this month. His legs are getting better. Now doesn't the sky seem a little bit brighter today? Enjoy :)