Wednesday, December 13, 2023
I remember Dan's steadfast determination. It showed greatly in the following story.
We were to get our late car payment paid at the loan office one day. We had been given the ultimatum- make the payment that day, or have the car repossessed. However, the weather that day turned bad. Sleet was falling and coating the roads with ice. Still, we started out on the mission. We left South Austin and proceeded to downtown through heavy traffic. Traffic plugged along, cars slipping every so often on the ice. Somewhere in the middle of downtown, Dan felt a tire go flat. He got out and changed the flat in the freezing air, with me assisting (what little I could). Afterwards, we continued on our way to the loan office near Mopac and Far West Blvd. Dan attempted a few times to drive up the steep hill to the loan office, and failed. It was too steep of a hill. Not giving in, Dan tried another means. By that time, traffic had lightened in the area. Others had already left jobs due to the weather, and it seemed we were all on our own. There was a 4-way stop at the bottom of the hill. Dan drove the car up as far as he could on the opposite side of the stop, furthest away from our destination. He then turned it around. He drove back down, as fast as the ice allowed, and ran straight through the 4-way stop, then up the other side towards the loan office. It worked! We parked right by the building. We were the only vehicle in the parking lot. We started in with our payment, only to discover no one was there to collect it! We searched for a dropbox, still in fear of a repossession. Nothing. So we left, exiting the building, to what looked like an empty parking lot. The car was gone! We looked to the right and left, and discovered it had slid down the parking lot, on its own, many yards away. Whew! We drove back home, slowly, back through downtown, once again, and arrived safely back home. The payment? The loan office, understandingly, granted us additional time to make the payment. We kept the car.
This was just one example of Dan's persistence in solving a harrowing problem.
