Nervous excitement. 😊
Originally, I had wanted to have swapped my mom’s Juke out of the garage and secretly put the Z3 in it’s place, so that when she opened the door from the house to the garage to go to church, she would see 🚙.
😁
That would have been awesome. 🙂
But… With the weather not having cooperated, with soggy everything all over, so soggy that it was ruining our roads with all our surface level rock sinking down into the mud below, and the mud turning into ruts, it wasn’t going to be safe to drive the little Z3 up the driveway without risking causing damage to the cute little thing.
And as I think I mentioned in my last post, because of that same sogginess everywhere, I needed to move the little Z3 from my neighbor’s shop to his garage.
So about 10:00, I drove over to My neighbor’s house, where Dan let me into his dad’s shop, moved the truck out of the way, and let me pull the Z3 out.
I noticed that the Z3 had gotten a pretty substantial layer of dust on it from having been in the shop all week, So substantial, that I felt like it would take away from the beauty of the experience. So after pulling it out of the shop, and through the gate, I drove up to the upper pasture back on our property, hoping to grab a hose to spray all the dust off.
Unfortunately, the hose wasn’t hooked up to anything. I drove over to Jim’s house to see if I could use their hose, but they didn’t answer their door, and the hose wasn’t attached to their faucet.
It’s been crazy super cold, so I’m not surprised.
So I drove back over to where the chickens are, and the hydrant was working, just without a hose attached. So I just grabbed a bucket, filled it up with the hydrant, and then splashed it all over the Z3. I ended up doing that probably 5 times, maybe, to get all the surface dust off the car, and then I drove from our upper pasture by the chickens all the way back to our neighbor Don’s garage at about 3 mph, so as not to get muddy spray all over the newly rinsed off Z3. 🙃
Once getting back to Don’s place, I backed the car into the garage and closed the door. Dan left the man door unlocked, so I could walk around the side, go in the man door, and then press the button to open the garage door when the time was right.
After getting everything set up for the surprise and thanking Dan for all his help, I headed back home to get dressed for church and to get ready for the surprise.
Grateful, one of the people that my mom often gives a ride to church didn’t need a ride, which meant everything was setting up perfectly. 😁
And there was that nervous excitement. Excited enough to have my little heart buzzing a little bit. Excited enough that I had to focus to be able to speak in ways that sounded… Normal.
The only thing different than ordinary was that I had asked my mom if I could ride to church with her, as we usually go separately, and I had asked to leave like 15 or 20 minutes earlier than usual.
She didn’t suspect anything. 😎
Ready for church, we hopped into her little red Nissan juke, backed out of the garage, and headed down the driveway and up the hill. Fortunately, Don’s garage is on the way to church, so we were already heading the right direction.
As we were driving up the dirt road, I was apologizing for not yet having gotten for my mom the present that I told her I was going to get her.
That was a very strategic conversation to have, especially given what was about to happen. 😁
As we were about to pass Don’s garage, in a tone of voice that I attempted to have sound almost like an afterthought, I said something like “oh hey, can we pull over really quickly? I’m supposed to get something out of Don’s garage.”
So my mom pulled over, but I didn’t want her to just sit in the car, so I asked her if she could walk to the front of the garage and lift it up once I went in on the side.
Of course, she didn’t need to lift up the garage at all, as it’s a powered door, but she didn’t know that. 🙃 So she got out of the car, and bent over to lift the garage door up as I went inside through the man door on the side of the garage.
I pulled my cell phone out, turn the video recorder on, pointed it toward the door, and pressed the button to open it.
(the suspense… 🙃)
As the door began to rise, and with my phone in my hands recording what was about to happen, my mom thought I was playing a joke on her since the door started opening on its own without her help.
So she sat there bent over with a smile on her face, and as the door opened she just stared at me, locking eyes with me and smiling.
And she kept staring at me.
She probably stared at me smiling for like 20 or 30 seconds before finally I said something like, are you just going to keep looking at me?
Just as I was saying that, Don’s wife, knowing of the surprise that my mom was supposed to have just experienced, came walking up beside her, and my mom turned to talk to her without even looking at the little Z3 that was in the garage yet.
😆
So she sat and chatted with Don’s wife for probably a minute before she turned back around and finally looked at the garage.
And then she saw it.
🥳😁😊🥰
The look on her face was priceless.
It was sheer shock.
Eyes wide.
Eventually a few tears, I think.
It was lovely. 😊
We sat there talking with Don and his wife, Don having come out as well to enjoy the surprise.
My mom enjoying looking around the car and chatting.
Good stuff. 😊
Don and his wife let us leave my mom’s car there in front of their house, so that we wouldn’t have to drive it back right away to bring it back home.
Lovely people, they are. 😊
Having not ever driven it before, and with it being a stick shift, though her favorite, she wasn’t comfortable driving it to church right away, so I played chauffeur and drove her to church, having a little fun with it as we drove.
Not only did the surprise go beautifully, I think it went even better than it would have if she had opened the garage and seen it first thing as she was getting ready to leave the house this morning.
I think it was actually just plain perfect the way that it was. 😊
And that was it. The big reveal. 🥰
Church was good. I stayed after a little bit chatting with one of the other gentlemen after priested meeting.
Good stuff.
The drive home with the little car was fun as well. Good day. 🙂
I don’t really remember anything else that happened, but it was a beautiful little day. 😊
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 