Good people in the world

Ah, yes, my faith in humanity was restored on Friday.

I went to pick up my daughter from camp friday afternoon, and soon after getting on the freeway to go home, I saw a big metal ladder in the very middle of the lane. I had two choices- hitting it or a car next to me.

I decided to try to go over the ladder, centering it in the middle of my car- and guess what?

It got stuck on the bottom of my car.

I had to pull over (the shoulder on the fast lane side, too- ugh), and tried to get the ladder out.

Mind you, this is friday afternoon rush hour in SAN DIEGO, and I had my daughter in the car.

As soon as I noticed the ladder wasn't budging, I started to panic.

I opted to try flagging down a passing motorist, because waiting for the police would mean sitting on the edge there for way too long. I was begging and pleading for just a few minutes when a white BMW pulled over.

A nice gentleman got out as I blubbered my story to him. I think every other phrase was "Please help" to which he must have translated as "Please help this crazy lady".

He came to study the situation and he also couldn't get the ladder off.

Me in all my crazy genius decided if I stepped on the gas pedal while he pulled on the ladder, maybe it would come free.

And it did!!!

I've never been so happy. I was so grateful. Again, all he could say was "Goodbye, Crazy lady", but actually he was very, very nice.

So thank you nice gentleman who took the time to help the crazy lady in the extremely dirty minvan.

And to the police officer that was 3 cars ahead of me in the lane, and did NOT stop to do anything about the ladder? Thanks for creating a scary afternoon for me. Appreciate that.

I took the car in to get checked out ($50 for that), but apparently no permanent damage resulted.

Through the whole thing my daughter never batted an eyelash. She told my husband later, "Mommy was crying." Heck, yeah, I was- it was scary being that close to cars going 80 miles per hour. No thanks.

Be careful out there, folks! You never know what's out there. But at least, sometimes, there are still some good people in the world.