How I did it: One of the young ladies at work was bemoaning a problem with her car during lunch last week.  Everyone was agreeing she was going to have to take it to a pro and spend some money having it fixed.  Someone said they had no doubt she'd need a new motor.

I asked what the problem was, and she told me her window and fallen down and the automatic motor wouldn't raise it anymore.  I asked what kind of vehicle she had and she told me she had a Jeep Liberty.

I leveled my finger at her and said:  "I'll tell you exactly what the problem is, and it isn't your motor."  I then told her about the issues I had with my own Jeep windows, and how the cost of getting it repaired at a shop was going to run into the hundreds of dollars.  Then I told her how I fixed it myself.  She got very excited and asked me more, and I told her to come to the kitchen after lunch, and I would show her how to order the part online, and that when it came in I would install it for her.

"How long will it take to repair?" she asked.  I told her about 20-30 minutes and she practically danced.  She'd been trying to figure out how to do without her car for a day or two while it was in the shop.  She came to the kitchen and we ordered the part from Amazon.  She didn't have an account, so I just bought it for her and let her pay me back.

When the part arrived I packed it and my tools up and she brought her vehicle around after the workday to the alley so I could change out the part.  She sat and watched (helping when necessary) as I unbolted, unscrewed, unsnapped, removed, and reassembled the part of the window mount that had broken.  I put everything back together amidst her numerous thanks.  She had been driving around for almost a month with the window down in the door frame, parking it on the street and in her apartment complex.  I commented that it must be windy and noisy driving around with the window down all the time, and she said it was and it was also cold.  With winter coming it was only going to get colder, so she was very happy it could be dealt with so quickly and cheaply.

She says she owes me a big one now, but I keep very little record of things like that.  I have a daily goal to spend 15 minutes doing something for someone else, and this was about a 30 minute job that was worthwile to help someone out.  Nothing as grand as saving a life or pulling them out of a river.  But I don't get the chance to do all of that too often.  I do get a chance to help someone out and come to the rescue on smaller things, which is okay, too. Read how I did it… 6 months ago

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