Pay it beforward?

   To say that it would take a miracle to sell our jeep when we are ready for something else, would not be an understatement... This morning after dropping Kim and some coworkers off at the front entrance to the school and driving a mere 500 meters, my heart sank as the lights went off, and the jeep went silent. My mind raced, as I slowly drifted to the side of the road, four ways flashing and smoke emanating from beneath the Miami Azul colored hood...but we'll get to that later.
    Just last night, if you were to zoom your satellite imaging device onto the country of Chile, and then onto the town of Puerto Montt, and then onto Sector Mirasol, you may have spotted a man in a waterproof olive green jacket, walking up the hill, in the gently falling rain. I was headed to the oil and grease painted shop, were old Sami (our jeep) was patiently waiting for me. I had gone with the hopes of picking up our newly restored jeep from the mechanic, ready to go, with all of the requested repairs completed and a dirty mechanics outstretched hand waiting to receive the payment due, for a job well done. Sadly, the jeep was not finished. Had I a better understanding of the language spoken, in the country that we are currently living in, I would have already known this. It turns out you pay up front, for the labor and replacement parts, and then, the job is taken care of. Makes sense, I guess. So now I know for next time. Right?
    So by now you might be asking yourself, why was Sami in the shop in the first place? Was it because of a manufacturer's defect, that lay hidden from view for many years, until we recently uncovered? Was it because of old age? Was it because I beat the tar out of it for a month while climbing snow capped mountains, fording muddy streams and driving on practically every dirt road (packed with passengers i might add), between here and the coast? Could it be operator negligence? No.... surely not operator negligence...
    I think it would be pretty safe to assume, that a hard month of wear and tear, combined with not regularly checking the vital signs, lead to old Sami's untimely visit to the doctor. 
    Well, I can tell you now, that the money is safely stowed in a greasy pocket somewhere, or it's already been passed across a parts counter in exchange for the appropriate goods. That night, I drove the jeep home, humming a different tune and with a slight limp We decided that on Monday morning, we'll take a stab at curing this ailment once more.
    This bring us to the joys of this am. As the jeep was quietly drifting to a stop, a million thoughts were passing through my head, with the most glaringly loud one was, "oh crap, I just killed our jeep" A quick pop of the hood and investigative scan, lead to the discovery of some glowing orange flames in the corner of the engine compartment near the battery box, that were fortunately for me, on their way out. I had determined this, as for simplicity of frantically blowing on them seemed to quench their raging appetite in mere seconds.
     Oh great, here I sat along a busy pot hole filled dirt road in the rain, wondering how the heck I am going to find a number for a tow truck and drag the charred remains of our faithful jeep to the nearest auto salvage yard. Ok, ok.... so it was only a small fire, and Sami looked relatively unharmed. I just needed to stay focused and see if I could determine the root of the problem and fix it, with out any tools or even any mechanic skills to speak of.
      I was then realizing, that bumpy dirt roads do take a toll, on the functioning components of your beloved auto.  I had discovered that the battery clamp had wiggled it's way loose and was casually leaning against the positive battery clamp. Thus creating a highly charged electrical clamp of death! The angry clamp then grounded it's self with the winch control housing and welded it's self fast to part of the frame. The flames that greeted me upon opening my hood, were produce by the melting plastic of the winch control housing. Lost yet?
      After spitting a few sparks at me, and a rearrangement of a few items, I was able to break the weld that was formed by the electrical charge and tighten the battery clamp nuts by hand. The main wiring harness had just narrowly escaped total meltdown. (although I would like to get a mechanics opinion on that yet.) Hey "maybe this things gonna be alright" I thought to myself. I peeked inside the car crossed my fingers and turned the key...... Kablam! a blinding flash of light, as the engine burst into flames! Spewing hot metal shrapnel in all directions. Just kidding, but the thought had definitely crossed my mind. In reality Ole Sami fired right up, and appeared to have recovered from this unfortunate event, relatively unscathed.
      I drove home with trepidation, stopping once to make sure the battery clamp was still tight. I had escaped from this breakdown in good shape, with my some of pride still intact and with only one "pobre gringo" comment flung out of an opened car window. I had made it home with out incidence.
      As I am sitting here at my laptop, writing this now, I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind, that I should go out and look to make sure there is not a smoldering pile of scrap metal sitting were the jeep was parked just hours ago. Well, maybe I should go check.....