what heaven and auto zone have in common

i took a little trip to turkey last spring, if you'll recall, and returned to salt lake exactly six days before i was due to leave salt lake forever.

the timing, admittedly, could have been a little better.

throw in jet lag, a nasty cold and a most unfortunately (though temporarily) frozen credit card, and i think you can see why i was something of a spacehead the day i got back.

which is why, on said day, i drove away from the gas station without replacing my gas cap.

which i realized when i got out of my car in the parking lot at the bank, where i had driven straight from the airport (after stopping at the gas station, obvs) to take care of the credit card situation.

so back i went to the gas station to retrieve the forgotten cap from the top of the gas pump.

except that it wasn't there.

at which point i concluded that i had probably placed it not on top of the gas pump, but on the roof of my car.

at which point i concluded that the likelihood of the cap still being on the roof of my car was, shall we say, slim.

so, in my mind, it was nothing short of a miracle sent straight from heaven above that my gas cap was there! just perched on the roof of the car without a care in the world.

praises be to heaven above!

(my mom's response to this story: "oh, of course it was. i leave all sorts of weird stuff on the roof of my car and it's always still there when i remember it." why i did not ask for more details about this i'll never know.)

now, if you think i learned my lesson after that experience, you must not know me very well. because about a week ago, i realized that my gas cap was missing. for how long, i could not say. and where it could have been misplaced was an even greater mystery.

in short, the gas cap was gone.

and it would have been a true miracle indeed to bring it back.

but, did you know they perform miracles at auto zone? because i finally went there today to remedy my gas cap situation (after it was suggested that my car, sans cap, was at an elevated risk of bursting into flames), and they had just what i needed! a shiny, new gas cap that fit my little tank perfectly.

a prolonged life for me and my car, for a mere $8.76!

praises be to auto zone!

the end.